College Football

2024 Big 12 football recruiting rankings: Best classes from Texas Tech to Colorado

Updated Dec. 14, 2023 12:38 p.m. ET

College Football and College Basketball Writer

For the second time in as many years, the Big 12 is preparing to welcome four new members between now and the start of next season. It was just last summer when Central Florida, Cincinnati, Brigham Young and Houston entered the fray as the conference ballooned to 14 schools, and soon enough a coalition from the crumbling Pac-12 will join them.

An injection of fresh blood from Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah should keep the league afloat amid a shifting college football landscape that has reduced the Power 5 conferences to the Power 4, a quartet consisting of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12.

Had the latter not secured its newest entrants during the latest round of realignment — with all four schools officially joining the league next summer — there's a chance the conference wouldn't have survived the defections of Texas and Oklahoma, who are departing for the SEC.

Before the new-look Big 12 debuts on the field next September, its football programs will battle on the recruiting trail for the rest of the '24 cycle. The first checkpoint arrives next week, on Dec. 20, when the early signing period opens and prospects across the country can finalize their commitments.

To preview the action, FOX Sports is analyzing the top recruiting classes from the remaining power conferences using data from the 247Sports Composite. First up, the Big 12:

(Note: Ranking information is current as of 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 13.)

1. Texas Tech

National class ranking: 21
Total commitments: 22
Five-star prospects: 1
Four-star prospects: 5
Three-star prospects: 15
Average rating: 89.05

Highest-ranked player: WR Micah Hudson; Lake Belton High School; Temple Texas (No. 7 overall, No. 3 WR)

There is plenty of work still to be done, but Texas Tech has a chance to secure its best class since finishing 19th nationally in 2011 under former coach Tommy Tuberville — before he switched careers and became a politician. The Red Raiders are enjoying a steady climb under well-regarded head coach Joey McGuire, whose first two classes ranked 43rd and 28th, respectively, over the last two cycles. Cracking the top 25 would be a major accomplishment for a program that has failed to win more than eight games in a season the last 14 years. The unquestioned jewel of this year's class is Hudson, a consensus five-star prospect across the four recruiting services and a top-10 player in the country regardless of position. Hudson chose Texas Tech from a collection of 35 scholarship offers that included the likes of Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Oregon and Texas. If he signs with the Red Raiders, Hudson will instantly become the highest-rated signee in school history since 247Sports began recording data in 2000, edging former four-star defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko from the 2015 class.

2. Texas Christian

National class ranking: 30
Total commitments: 22
Five-star prospects: 0
Four-star prospects: 4
Three-star prospects: 17
Average rating: 87.36

Highest-ranked player: WR Gekyle Baker; Brownsboro High School; Brownsboro, Texas (No. 136 overall, No. 21 WR)

With two recruiting classes in the books and a third that will be completed in the next few months, head coach Sonny Dykes has left no secret about his strategy for keeping the Horned Frogs nationally relevant after an unexpected run to the national title game last season: flood his roster with native Texans. In 2022, Dykes' first recruiting class relied on in-state prospects for more than 71% of its eventual signees. The following year, in 2023, that number jumped to 78% for a terrific group that finished 21st nationally. And the trend is continuing ahead of this year's early signing period, with 18 of the school's 22 commits (82%) hailing from Texas. The most intriguing verbal commit is four-star quarterback Hauss Hejny from nearby Aledo, Texas, a western suburb of Fort Worth. Though undersized at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, Hejny flashed impressive arm strength and velocity at last summer's Elite 11 Finals in California. He's a true dual-threat player who passed for more than 2,500 yards and ran for more than 900 yards last season.

3. Central Florida

National class ranking: 31
Total commitments: 17
Five-star prospects: 0
Four-star prospects: 9
Three-star prospects: 8
Average rating: 88.41

Highest-ranked player: CB Jaylen Heyward; Rockledge High School; Rockledge, Florida (No. 198, No. 19 overall)

With a 6-6 overall record and a 3-6 mark in conference play, Central Florida put forth the best debut season among this year's newcomers in the Big 12, and offense was the Golden Knights' calling card. Under the direction of head coach Gus Malzahn, who previously guided Auburn to a national championship in 2010, Central Florida jumped from 66th nationally in total offense in 2021 to 16th in 2022, to seventh in 2023. LSU, Oregon, North Carolina and Oklahoma were the only teams with more potent offenses than the Golden Knights this season. Thus far, Central Florida's 2024 recruiting class suggests Malzahn is well aware of which phase butters his team's bread. Six of the Golden Knights' seven highest-rated commits are offensive players, including a trio of four-star receivers and a pair of four-star running backs. With nine commitments from blue-chip prospects ahead of next week's early signing period, Central Florida has already dwarfed its total of four such players from the last two recruiting classes combined.

4. Cincinnati

National class ranking: 44
Total commitments: 22
Five-star prospects: 0
Four-star prospects: 1
Three-star prospects: 21
Average rating: 86.22

Highest-ranked player: QB Semaj Jones; St. Joseph's Prep; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (No. 422 overall, No. 27 QB)

The first season for new head coach Scott Satterfield was something of a disaster as the Bearcats limped to a 3-9 overall record and a 1-8 mark in conference play, which placed them last in the Big 12. It was Satterfield's lowest win total in 11 seasons of head-coaching experience at Appalachian State, Louisville and Cincinnati, and it was the Bearcats' worst finish this century. Though Satterfield's 2024 recruiting class ranks fourth in the Big 12, his lack of progress in the talent-rich state of Ohio is somewhat worrisome. In the five recruiting classes prior to Satterfield's arrival in 2023, the Bearcats signed an average of 10.8 in-state prospects per cycle under former coach Luke Fickell, including a high of 15 Ohioans in 2018. This year, however, only five of the Bearcats' 22 verbal commitments are from in-state prospects, and only one of those recruits — three-star tight end Gavin Grover — is rated among the top 35 players in Ohio. That's an area where Satterfield and his staff must improve.

2024 No. 1 OT Jordan Seaton commits to Colorado

Bonus: Colorado

National class ranking: 53
Total commitments: 10
Five-star prospects: 1
Four-star prospects: 4
Three-star prospects: 5
Average rating: 91.09

Highest-ranked player: OT Jordan Seaton; IMG Academy; Bradenton, Florida (No. 16 overall, No. 1 OT)

Colorado's 2024 recruiting class might rank ninth in the reconfigured Big 12 and outside the top 50 nationally, but few programs — if any — will attract as much attention as the Buffaloes over the next few months. There's a reason head coach Deion Sanders tells anyone who will listen that he's "not hard to find." What looks like an uncharacteristically weak class at first blush is best analyzed using the average prospect score created by 247Sports. Unlike the overall class rankings, which are heavily influenced by the number of commitments a program has, the average prospect score directly reflects the caliber of each recruit. And it's with this metric that Colorado still lands among the sport's elite: first in the Big 12 and 14th nationally. The big boost came from Seaton, who committed to the Buffaloes somewhat unexpectedly last week, spurning the likes of Alabama, Florida, Ohio State and Tennessee — all schools to which he took official visits — for the chance to be mentored by Sanders. So while the Buffaloes still need more bodies to flesh out their '24 recruiting class, the quality of players they're landing can't be ignored.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.