I responded to a Maine Strength comment as he and some Ohio State fans were arguing about Fickell and MSU and yadda yadda yadda.  I provided some data to refute the common claim by Michigan fans that they have "recruited just as well as Clemson."  My basis for comparing recruiting isn't just class rank.  A team's ranking can be over-inflated or under-inflated depending solely on the number of recruits.  Other factors such as 5 star recruits, top 100 recruits, per player ratings I think are more relevant for answering the question whether a given class is a great or good or underwhelming class or, more importantly, whether a 3 to 4 year picture of recruiting is relevant to projecting how good a given team may be in its upcoming season.  

I decided to take that information (comparing Ohio State, Clemson, and Michigan recruiting 2017-2020) and add four other teams:  PSU, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame.  I ranked each team team by assigning 1 point to the best in a given category and 7 points to the worst in a given category.  Overall, the team with the lowest number of points I proclaim the best of the seven teams.  I didn't include any SEC teams because we all know how great they recruit with all that backyard talent (that has to say something about the coaching in the SEC don't you think?)  Here we go from lowest to highest:

#7-  Notre Dame:  13.25 avg class rank; 87 commits; 1 5 star (1%); 14 top 100s (16%); 90.19 avg per player rating.

#6- Oregon:  12.75 avg class rank; 97 commits; 4 5 stars (4%); 10 top 100s (10%); 89.3 avg. per player rating.

#5- Michigan:  12.25 avg class rank; 98 commits; 4 5 stars (4%); 9 top 100s (9%); 90.27 avg per player rating.

#4- PSU:  12 avg class rank; 95 commits; 4 5 stars (4%); 14 top 100s (15%); 90.145 avg per player rating.

#3- Oklahoma:  8.5 avg class rank; 98 commits; 4 5 stars (4%); 12 top 100s (12%); 90.62 avg per player rating.

#2- Clemson:  9 avg class rank; 83 commits; 13 5 stars (15%); 20 top 100s (24%); 92.19 avg per player rating.

#1- Ohio State:  5.75 avg class rank; 89 commits; 15 5 stars (17%); 36 top 100s (40%); 93.13 avg per player rating.

Some further observations:  top 100s are as important, I'd say more important, than 5 stars.  High number of commits may also mean something might be wrong with evaluation, development, culture.  If Cristobal stays at Oregon, the Ducks will be #3 or #4 on this list in another year or two.  PSU, Michigan, and ND are second tier, and it's laughable to contend that Michigan is recruiting at the same level as Clemson.  Likewise, by looking at their top 100s, Penn State is (or was) on the cusp, but they appear to have a culture problem.  Will they join Oregon in the first tier?  Michigan and ND are solidly in the second tier.  No better, no worse.  I love our staff, but it's high time they deliver the results of the talent that they've recruited.  For these classes (2017-2020), Clemson's staff has won a national championship and played for another.