Where Notre Dame stands in the 2025 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings after National Signing Day

In the couple days heading into National Signing Day Wednesday, Notre Dame had been bouncing between the No. 12 and 13 spots nationally according to the 2025 Industry Ranking football Team Recruiting Rankings. There was plenty of movement around the country with commitments and flips, which included Notre Dame adding a new prospect as well.

And it was a huge addition. San Juan Capistrano (Calif.) JSerra Catholic four-star Madden Faraimo, the nation’s No. 77 overall player and No. 4 linebacker according to the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking, was considered a USC lean heading into the day, but he surprised the country by committing to and signing with Notre Dame. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman announced the news himself during his press conference.

Faraimo’s pledge gave the Irish a boost to their class score. On Tuesday morning, the class ranked No. 13 nationally with a 90.806 score. And as of Thursday afternoon, the Irish sit at No. 12 with a score of 91.112.

Here are the teams directly ahead of Notre Dame in the team rankings, in order from No. 1-11: Texas, Alabama, Oregon, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Tennessee and Florida.

It should be noted that the class rankings are not set in stone. There are still uncommitted players on the board who can sign with schools, and the postseason all-star games will cause for some rankings changes. It’s a safe bet that Notre Dame will finish at either 11, 12 or 13 in the national rankings.

This is Freeman’s third full recruiting class as Notre Dame head coach. In 2023, the Irish signed the No. 10 class and Notre Dame had the No. 11 group in America back in the 2024 cycle. For what it’s worth, Freeman was the defensive coordinator for the 2022 cycle and then head coach for the last few weeks before signing day. The Irish signed the No. 6 class that year.

The headliner of Notre Dame’s 2025 class is Wallingford (Conn.) Choate Rosemary Hall’s Will Black, five-star prospect who ranks as the nation’s No. 26 overall recruit and No. 6 offensive tackle according to the On3 Industry Ranking.

On3’s own rankings have Black as the No. 2 prospect and No. 1 offensive tackle in the land.

Notre Dame has one five-star commit, 13 four-star verbals and 11 three-stars pledged in its 2025 class. The Irish currently have a blue-chip ratio of 56 percent and 12 percent of its commits hail from the Hoosier State.

Below is a look at the top 12 schools according to the 2025 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings, as of Thursday afternoon.

Understanding On3’s team rankings system

The On3 Industry Team Recruiting Ranking utilizes all four major recruiting media companies: On3, 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN.

Instead of a total points system like at Rivals, the On3 Industry Team Ranking uses a score average of the player rankings, which solves the problem of varying class sizes during the recruiting cycle. It compiles the highest-rated commits for each team up to a total based on a rolling average of current total commitments among Power Five schools.

The current average number of commits in the 2025 class used in the rankings score is 18. This means that of Notre Dame’s 25 commitments, only the 18 highest-ranked players are used for the rankings score.

To further explain that point: Notre Dame’s 25 commits have an average recruit rating of 89.86, but that is not the score used in the team ranking. Only Notre Dame’s top 18 commits are being used in the Industry Team Ranking, and the Irish’s score with that group is 91.112 — this is the number used for the class ranking, as seen in the image above.

With this model, there are no bonus points for having more commitments than other teams, and only small deductions occur when a team has fewer commitments than the rolling average. Unlike distribution (bell) curves, this model doesn’t disproportionately weight a team’s top three or four highest-rated commits and is a more accurate representation of an entire class.