This was an abnormal year in where 5-star high school football players (per 247 composite) decided to go to college. From 2019 to 2022, the composite has generally designated 34-35 kids as 5-stars. 2020 was a little low, at 32, and this year (2023) was really high at 39.

In those past 4 years, about 25-30% of the 5-stars each year would go to schools you could roughly call “north” (draw a horizontal line across the country on the north edge of NC-Tenn-Ark-Okla-NMex-Ariz).

Look at how players going “north” changed this year, even with a larger pool of 5-star players.

2019 — 8 of 34 — 3 OSU (ZHarrison, GWilson, HMiller), 2 Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin, Penn St

2020 — 9 of 32 — 3 OSU (Fleming, Paris, JSN), 3 Oregon, Maryland, Washington, Notre Dame

2021 — 11 of 35 — 7 OSU (counting Ewers), Washington, Wisconsin, Maryland, Michigan

2022 — 9 of 34 — 3 Penn St, 2 OSU (Hicks, Styles), Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame

2023 — 3 of 39 — McClain to Colorado, Dickey to Oregon, and Inniss to OSU

Caveat — I don’t believe you need to be a 5-star to be amazing (see: Travis Kelce and JJ Watt as 2-stars … Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Donald as 3-stars … and on the flip side, Tyreke Johnson as a 5-star).

Just thought this data was interesting, and will be watching to see if it’s a one-year blip or a trend.