Notre Dame moves up in Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Ranking after major update

On Monday morning, a major recruiting ranking update took place. On3’s rankings were rebranded to the Rivals ranking, rendering the old Rivals ranking and its 6.0 scale defunct.

The On3 Industry Ranking — which has frequently been used as the source in Blue & Gold recruiting articles — has been rebranded as the Rivals Industry Ranking and now equally weighs three outlets: 247Sports, ESPN, and Rivals, to create the most advanced and accurate team ranking in the industry.

So, with not only a new Rivals ranking release but also a change to the Industry Ranking formula, the team ranking shifted.

Going into July 14, the top five of the Industry Ranking was as follows: USC, Georgia, Texas A&M, Notre Dame and Alabama.

From the standpoint of the entire class, the player ranking update and shift to the Industry Ranking was a net positive. Notre Dame’s class previously ranked No. 4 with a “score” of 92.496. The new class score is 92.527.

This is a minuscule bump — but unlike Texas A&M, it wasn’t a drop. The Aggies had a class score of 92.603, but Mike Elko’s group dropped to No. 4 with a score of 92.381, allowing Notre Dame to pass them.

Don’t take the smallest bump for granted.

Only Georgia and USC rank ahead of Notre Dame — in that order. USC was No. 1 before the latest update, but Georgia now has a lead of .002 (93.209 vs. 93.207).

If the Irish finish at No. 3, it would mark their best result in the history of the Rivals Industry Ranking, which retroactively dates back to 2004.

Notre Dame has one five-star recruit, 18 four-star players and seven three-star commits in the 2026 class per the Rivals Industry Ranking. The blue-chip ratio for the class sits at a strong 73 percent.

This cycle marks Marcus Freeman’s fourth full recruiting class as Notre Dame’s 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 the 2025 class, the slight downward trend continued, as Notre Dame signed the No. 12 group.

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.

Below is a look at the top 10 schools according to the 2026 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings, as of Tuesday morning.

Understanding Rivals’ team rankings system

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

It 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 2026 class used in the rankings score is 17. This means that of Notre Dame’s 26 commitments, only the 17 highest-ranked players are used for the rankings score.

To further explain: Notre Dame’s 26 commits have an average recruit rating of 90.96, but that is not the score used in the team ranking. Only Notre Dame’s top 17 commits are used in the Industry Team Ranking. With that group, the Irish’s score is 92.527 — 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.