When the ACC expanded to add Syracuse and Louisville, along with Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, it was known that the quality of basketball in the conference would reach a new height. And in the first full recruiting cycle with all four programs enlisted as full members, the ACC is in the process of bringing in its most talented haul of recruits in at least a decade.
Following the big recruiting weekends at Florida State and Louisville, no other conference can claim as many commitments from the nation’s top prospects as the ACC can.
According to the rankings on Scout.com, six of the top-25 recruits in the country are committed to ACC schools. Only 12 of the top-25 prospects have given pledges, meaning the ACC has exactly half of the country’s committed 5-star recruits set to join the conference.
Further, ACC schools have garnered commitments from 14 of the country’s top-100 prospects. There are 61 top-100 recruits who have given pledges, meaning the ACC has commitments from 22.9 percent of the top-100 players who are off the market.
In the past 10 recruiting classes, the ACC has averaged 5.7 top-25 recruits and 18.6 top-100 recruits per year, meaning the conference brings in about 23 percent of the country’s 5-stars and about 19 percent of the nation’s top-100 players on average.
The ACC is on pace to trump those numbers, and that’s without traditional recruiting powers North Carolina and NC State having any 2015 commitments to date.
Only once in the past decade has the ACC signed more than 22.9 percent of the top-100 recruits in the nation — 2009, when it signed 25 percent.
Twice since 2005 the ACC has signed seven 5-star prospects — 2014 and 2009 — and twice it has signed eight — 2008 and 2006. The conference needs to sign just three of the remaining 13 top-25 prospects to boast more 5-stars than it has in the last decade.
Syracuse and Louisville have done the heavy lifting for the class so far. The Orange have four top-100 pledges, and Louisville has three 5-star commits and another top-100 recruit on board. Florida State has given the ACC a boost, too, with three top-100 commits, including one 5-star in Dwayne Bacon.
Considering that six ACC programs still haven’t landed a 2015 commitment, and only Syracuse and Louisville may be finished building their classes, it’s expected that the conference will eclipse the average numbers of top recruits it has signed in the past decade. When it’s all said and done, it’s reasonable to assume that the ACC will sign more 5-stars and more top-100 players than it has in any year since at least 2005.
Four new teams are helping the ACC usher in a new era, and they’re leading the way for the conference to bring in more talent than it has in recent memory in the process.