Cal Signing Day: How the Bears' Class Ranks Among ACC and Pac-12 Teams

Cal's recruiting class standing in its new league is actually lower than it would be among Pac-12 programs.

The Pac-12 Conference was considered perhaps the best in the country this college football season. The Atlantic Coast Conference ranked a bit farther down the list, also behind the SEC and Big Ten.

But Cal will be joining the ACC next fall and the ranking of the Bears’ early 2024 recruiting class sits lower among the 17 schools that will form the ACC than it would have in the traditional Pac-12.

According to the Rivals recruiting website, Cal’s class ranks 59th nationally, which is eighth among current Pac-12 members. Oregon has the highest-rated class, at No. 7, among Pac-12 programs.

Among the 17 schools that will make up the ACC next fall, Cal’s class resides in the 15th position, ahead of only Virginia (No. 83) and Boston College (No. 93).

Miami has the highest-rated recruiting class in the ACC at No. 5. Florida State, which has made rumblings of wanting out of the ACC after being bypassed for the four-time College Football Playoff, is at No. 10 and Clemson at No. 11.

There are mitigating factors involved in the Pac-12 team rankings, mostly involving the league’s impending breakup. Some recruits may have wondered about the status of schools they were considering, especially athletes looking at Washington State and Oregon State, whose futures remain unsettled.

Taking the biggest hits were WSU, which checks in at No. 61 on the Rivals national list, and OSU, which is 98th.

It’s curious that Colorado, which will move to the Big 12 under second-year coach Deion Sanders, currently ranks at No. 67, according to Rivals.

Coach Prime had warned teams that they’d better beat the Buffaloes this season because his teams would be too powerful going forward. His timetable may need adjusting.

RIVALS NATIONAL RANKINGS

2024 ACC teams

5. Miami

10. Florida State

11. Clemson

22. North Carolina

26. North Carolina State

27. Stanford

28. South Carolina

35. Georgia Tech

39. Pitt

44. Virginia Tech

47. Wake Forest

50. Syracuse

54. Duke

58. Louisville

59. Cal

83. Virginia

95. Boston College

.

Current Pac-12 teams

7. Oregon

20. USC

27. Stanford

43. Arizona State

45. Washington

46. Arizona

57. Utah

59. Cal

61. Washington State

64. UCLA

67. Colorado

98. Oregon State

Cover photo by Rich Barnes, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo