FCS RECRUITING: Patriot, NEC and Pioneer Rankings

We're nearly one week removed from the national signing period opening up, the recruiting classes of the Patriot League, Pioneer League and Northeast Conference have begun to materialize.

These three leagues have some similarities. In some instances, they offer nearly as many scholarships as the rest of the FCS (Patriot), fewer scholarships (NEC) or none at all (Pioneer). All three are known for strong academics, also. So in a way, its like comparing apples and oranges when it comes to recruiting in the FCS — so that's why they're grouped together.

[divider]MORE: Compare Any Two FCS Players or Any Two FCS Teams[divider]

2018 FCS RECRUITING: HERO Sports ranked the Top 25 recruits

2017 FCS RECRUITING: HERO Sports ranked the Top 250 recruits

2017 FCS RECRUITING: HERO Sports ranked the Top 50 teams

Here are a couple of things to know:

• HERO Sports will publish an FCS national Top 50 classes piece and a FCS Top 250 incoming freshmen piece on Feb. 21. Leading up to that, we'll be breaking down each conference — all 13 — from an individual standpoint.
• How did we come up with our ranking list below? Simple — it's subjective, but all recruiting rankings are that way. We combined 247Sports, Rivals, their offer lists and our own thoughts to come up with our version of the FCS recruiting rankings. We provide some of their other top offers in the charts. This is our third year doing this. 
• We don't include junior college or 4-year school transfers in this. This is strictly incoming high school graduates.
• We don't have a full ranking list for the Pioneer League because frankly, this conference as a collective is nowhere near done putting its entire class together. While some programs like Drake have issued press releases about its class, others may not release that info until after the signing period finishes in a couple of months. We do feel like it is worth pointing out that one player who may go down as the league's best — San Diego QB recruit Derek Kline out of Phoenix, Ariz. — had FBS offers, Ivy League offers and a preferred walk on opportunity at Arizona State. This 6-foot-5 signal caller is a big pickup for the Toreros. 

So below are the rankings for the Patriot League and the NEC.

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QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE PATRIOT LEAGUE: I was really impressed with Fordham's and Lehigh's classes, and really the Patriot League as a whole. It is obvious that as the PL continues to rotate back to a full roster of scholarship players (began two years ago) the product on the field is just going to get better and better and you can see from the list below that is happening. The Patriot League has at least 15 signees who have FBS scholarship offers, a testament to where this league is heading, collectively. If I were to pick a league winner here? It would be Fordham's 2018 class.

Swipe left to right on mobile devices to see "other offers":

THE PATRIOT LEAGUE TOP 25

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QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE NEC: Duquesne's group is really deep and talented, along with Saint Francis'. Pretty much every NEC class has a gem in it, but those two jumped off the page and I'd have to give the nod to the Dukes on who won the 2018 NEC recruiting battle, and this isn't even taking into account the talent they also received via the transfer route. Individually, Sacred Heart's pickup of 247Sports' 3-star prospect Lucas Nunez really jumps out, as he has been on board since August.

Swipe left to right on mobile devices to see "other offers":

THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE TOP 10