How USC has fared in the transfer portal rankings
We are now past Christmas and approaching the new year, which means in just over one week, players in the transfer portal will begin visiting once again. Before that happens, let’s take a look at where USC stands in the transfer portal rankings.
It is important to note, On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings reflect both incoming and outgoing transfers. So, a class’ score will be greatly affected if more players have departed that program.
USC’s Class Score
As of Wednesday, December 27, USC is currently holds the No. 31 class in country via the transfer portal.
This number is a bit misleading because as I mentioned before, the class grade takes into effect the players who have departed, which USC has had 17 of. As you can in the photo below, 15 of the 17 departures have updated ranks as three-star prospects, while one is a four-star and one is unranked.
The average prospect rating of players to depart USC is 73.29.
On the flip side, USC has added eight players with an average prospect rating of 82.88. Two have been four-stars, five of them being three-stars. The lone unranked portal addition has been a long snapper.
While the Trojans are at a deficit of nine players, the quality of the additions has heavily outweighed the departures, by an average of 9.59 rating points.
How it compares to the rest
To find out where USC truly stands among the rest in the rankings, I scanned the rest of the class rankings to compare and contrast numbers and data.
After looking through the full transfer portal rankings, USC is just one of three programs to have at least eight commitments and an 80+ average prospect rating. Louisville and Ole Miss are the only other programs with such numbers. They hold the No. 1 and No. 3 portal classes, respectively.
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Beyond those three programs, there are only six other programs to even hold five portal commitments and an 80+ average prospect rating.
Five of the six programs are ranked ahead of USC’s No. 31 ranking, including three of which (Washington, Kentucky, Missouri) are in the top-10.
What it means
Not that this is news to anyone, but USC’s portal class ranking would be much higher if the Trojans had not suffered so many departures.
Of the programs referenced above with average prospect ratings of 80+, USC has the most departures of any of them.
USC has one of the top classes in the country in terms of their additions to the program. With time, as the Trojans continue to add names to their commitment list, they will climb up the rankings. This is especially true if the commits are around the same average rating, which remains a possibility.
USC has undoubtedly taken advantage of the portal so far this offseason, most importantly coming at key positions.
