College football recruiting is a 24/7, 365-day endeavor, but during the offseason, the discussion gets turned up another notch entirely.
Some of you more casual college football fans may be thinking May is too early to be grabbing the scalpel and dissecting a recruiting class full of verbal pledges who won’t even sign their papers until December at the earliest, but you could not be more wrong.
Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans helmets are displayed before a college football game at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 21, 2023. (Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
More often than not, how you are recruiting post-spring practice is usually a pretty solid indicator of how your class will finish in the winter.
Be forewarned, though. It takes more than just glancing at the number next to your team’s logo and giving a thumbs up or thumbs down.
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Sure, it’s nice to be ranked in the top 10 on recruiting sites in the month of May, but there are other factors involved when breaking down a class. Speaking of which, if you go to your favorite recruiting service and peruse the top 10, you’ll see some familiar names littered throughout the page.
Recruiting mainstays like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Miami, among others, are humming right along with their 2027 classes, but one logo may have stuck out to you.
That’s right, the UCLA Bruins, fresh off a disastrous 3-9 season where they eventually fired head coach DeShaun Foster, are sitting all the way at No. 6 on the 247Sports composite rankings (they’re 11th on Rivals, but let’s not split hairs).
UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava runs past Penn State linebacker Amare Campbell during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Pasadena, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2025. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
It looks like the boosters finally got serious about dumping some of that money they save for basketball into the football program’s NIL budget, along with the fact that a young, successful coach like Bob Chesney may have injected some optimism into the fanbase.
A top-10 class would represent a nearly historic finish for the Bruins, as I could only find one instance of UCLA finishing in the top 10 (2013) since recruiting rankings became more homogenized.
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But can they finish strong and bring home a recruiting class that can compete with the big boys of college football?
Let’s start with the positives.
The Bruins have 18 commits in their 2027 class, and 10 of those are four stars. This puts their “blue chip ratio” above 50%, which is considered the baseline for a competitive recruiting class.
UCLA also has three top-100 prospects in their class, a pretty solid mark for any program in May.
A general view of Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., before the UCLA Bruins season opener against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors on Aug. 28, 2021. (Will Navarro/Icon Sportswire)
While a decent blue-chip ratio and three top-100 recruits is a great start, there is a problem, and it comes in the form of something I mentioned above.
UCLA’s 18 commits is a fairly high number, even in the NIL era of getting deals done early. This means their class doesn’t have as much room to grow as some other classes with 11 or 12 commits currently in their class.
At 18 commits and a class average below 90 (89.85), the Bruins would have to fill the rest of their class out with top-100 or borderline five-star players to have a chance at finishing where they sit right now.
Take a look at their crosstown rivals for a good comparison.
The USC Trojans have 13 commits in their class currently, but sit two spots above the Bruins.
How is that possible?
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Well, the Trojans boast a class average of 93.39, more than 3.5 points higher than UCLA’s class average. For context, a full class of 25 commits from last cycle with a similar average finished 13th (Washington), while everyone in the top five from the ’26 cycle finished with a 91.90 or higher.
USC already boasts double the top-100 pledges in its class and even has a five-star already in the fold.
If I had to bet money on who finishes in the top 10 between the two Los Angeles schools, I’m taking the Trojans every day of the week with the data presented to me.
Is there a path to a top-ten class for UCLA?
Of course.
They could catch fire on the trail this summer and make some inroads with some elite prospects.
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When you couple that with the possibility of having a stellar first season under Chesney, there’s a chance the Bruins sneak into the upper echelon of recruiting rankings.
It’s just not likely given how far along they are already.
Things change, and this new era of NIL-driven recruiting definitely shifts the timeline. But historical data would indicate the Bruins are more likely to finish in the top 15.
That’s still an incredible class, especially considering the doldrums that have plagued the UCLA football program for the past decade plus.
Regardless, I will have both eyes trained on this Bruins recruiting class for the rest of the year.
It will be fascinating to see if they can buck the historical trends stacked against them, and knowing my reputation, I may have just reverse jinxed them into an elite 2027 class.
You’re welcome, Bruins fans.
