3-star DL Roderick Pierce decommits from Wisconsin

Chicago (Ill.) Brother Rice three-star defensive lineman Roderick Pierce decommitted from Wisconsin on Sunday night. He was previously pledged to the Badgers since May 19.

Pierce is the No. 973 overall prospect and No. 107 defensive lineman in the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 18 player in Illinois.

Respect my decision🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/UnNCrviPhZ

— Trey Pierce (@treypierceiii) November 28, 2022

“I would like to thank the Wisconsin coaches and staff for recruiting me throughout this process,” Pierce wrote in a statement published to social media. “I thank Coach Ross, Coach Leonhard, and Coach Chryst for the opportunity to further my academic and athletic career. I will always have love for the Wisconsin family, but I owe it to myself to explore other opportunities. After prayer and careful deliberation with my family, I have decided to announce my decommitment from the University of Wisconsin. My recruitment is 100% open.”

Pierce is the Badgers’ second decommitment today. Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard West three-star interior offensive lineman Chris Terek flipped to Notre Dame a few hours earlier. Wisconsin’s 2023 recruiting class now contains 11 prospects.

More on Pierce’s recruitment

This news comes after Wisconsin announced the hiring of Luke Fickell as the program’s new head coach. According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, Michigan now has an 85.4% chance to land Pierce’s pledge.

RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. 

It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.

A 6-foot-3, 290-pound prospect, Pierce has an On3 NIL Valuation of $9.6K. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.