The Scout.com 2008-09 Hot 100 high school football players are quickly being gobbled up by the BCS powers. As of June 2, 47 of the top 100 players have committed to play college football at 22 schools, 21 of them BCS teams. Craig Bills, the 85th ranked player on Scout’s list, committed to BYU of the Mountain West Conference, the only non-BCS school among the 22 having received commitments.
Georgia, Ohio State and Texas have each received commitments from five players among the top 100, with USC and LSU each receiving four. The SEC has six schools receiving commitments from the top 100 players, followed by the Big 10 with five, the ACC with 4, the Big 12 with three and the Big East and Pac 10 with one each.
BCS member Notre Dame has received one commitment and is a college football Independent. The Irish haven’t faired nearly as well in the early going for this recruiting period as opposed to this time last year.
Six of the top 10 players have already committed, with Scout’s No.1 ranked player, QB Matt Barkley having agreed to play for USC. Other players in the top 10 having already committed include No. 2 ranked Bryce Brown who will attend Miami (FL), No. 3 Russell Shepard who has committed to LSU and No. 5 Dorian Bell will play for Ohio State.
The highest-rated player that has yet to commit is No. 4 Manti Te’o, a 6’2″, 225-pound SLB who is being courted by BYU, California, Colorado, Notre Dame, Stanford, UCLA and USC.
Among the 53 players that have yet to commit, virtually all of them are being courted by BCS member schools with a few exceptions. The most notable are the No. 26 and No. 49 players, Cliff Harris and Rolando Jefferson, teammates on the Edison High School football team in Fresno,CA. Harris and Jefferson list Fresno State as one of the schools of interest and is the only non-BCS school courting the two. In fact, Fresno State is the only non-BCS school to appear on the list of schools courting the top 50 players in the nation.
