Class of 2022 Rankings Update: The Preview

Nate Wahl January 17, 2022 @ 05:30 PM

Of course with these scales there will be some overlap, but on average from the last two seasons we have been doing this we have seen approximately 25 players from the Dakotas go to the Division I level from Power Five to FCS. The Dakotas is a massive mecca for Division II NAIA, and Division III talent, so you will see that number go up significantly on that scale above. The point of drafting up this scale is to just show off how much talent there is across the Dakotas and no matter where a prospect ends up, we as a staff get just as excited no matter where they end up Division wise, because playing college football anywhere is pretty special. Another process we never follow is the offer-counting, as there is always prospects (especially in 2022) that are under the scale they would be in a normal recruiting year.

The Final Grade

You might see more fluctuation in the rankings due to this being the final countdown of the Class of 2022. Some prospects we graded ended up at higher levels than we projected which we love to see, as we don’t aspire to be 100% perfect as it is impossible in the world of recruiting. We also saw the opposite, some prospects are playing under where we projected and some that we thought would have more opportunities are still in pursuit of their first college football opportunity. To keep this in perspective, we are grading every prospect not on how many yards they had in a season, but where we see them standing a college football prospect which is a much different element than the standard team or player rankings that looks at stats and ranks players off of that scale.

By the Numbers

For those that love to look at the analytics, the Class of 2021 had 51% of the rankings go on to play college football or another college sport. Unfortunately, due to the lack of scholarship opportunities all college football programs are having this year, the Class of 2022 will see a significantly less number than that percentage. That does not diminish how excellent this Class of 2022 is in the Dakotas. Here are some strong numbers to look at:

-This class matched the Class of 2021 in Power Five opportunities with two, as #1 overall prospect Jacob Knuth Jacob Knuth 6'4" | 205 lbs | QB Harrisburg | 2022 State and Top 20 linebacker Cade Larson Cade Larson LB Harrisburg | 2022 State of Harrisburg both committed to the University of Minnesota.