Calvin Russell’s commitment to Syracuse, at the time, was the highest recruiting for Syracuse in the last 25 years. It marked a milestone for the Fran Brown era: Syracuse was trending towards becoming a brand, with recruits from top states such as Florida wanting to come play for the Orange. His commitment post received over 50,000 likes on Instagram, one of the highest in the 2026 class. Syracuse dominated national headlines for the next week; This commitment got Syracuse on the radar for many other top recruits deciding this fall.
Last Friday’s Rivals 300 receiver rankings stripped Russell of his five-star rating, sending Orange fans into a fury.
Some Orange fans chose to ignore the rankings drop and are content knowing he has the skill of a five-star prospect, others displayed their frustration with angry tweets. But why? Why, in the middle of the summer, are top recruits such as Russell and others who commit to the non-powerhouse schools seeing their rankings drop?
Rivals, the recruiting side of college sports news powerhouse On3, updated their rankings for the 2026 class over the course of last week. They not only revoked the coveted five-star rating from Russell, Rivals dropped him mid-summer from a consensus top 3-5 wide receiver in 2026 to the 13th spot on their list. Russell dropped 46 spots in the overall player rankings, now sitting at the 106th best player in the country. Interestingly, he is now ranked behind commits from “Blue-chip” programs such as Alabama, Clemson, LSU, USC, and Georgia.
Recruiting rankings aren’t about skill; Recruiting rankings are a way for platforms such as Rivals to prop up big time schools and penalize the growing programs during this new NIL era of college football.
The articles’ author, Hunter Shelton, is a University of Kentucky graduate. He ranks five SEC wide receiver commits ahead of Russell. Additionally, Shelton’s rankings for Rivals are the only platform to have Russell outside of the top 30 national recruits: ESPN has him at 28, 247 Sports puts him at 22, and Rivals ranked him 106th. This is mid-July. There are no high school football games being played. There aren’t any videos of Russell getting exposed at 7-on-7 leagues. There certainly aren’t 80 high school football players that have lapped Russell’s ability in the past three weeks. Are you starting to recognize a pattern?
The action that caused Russell to drop in these rankings was committing to Syracuse and Head Coach Fran Brown over Michigan, Oregon, Florida State, and Miami. Reporters tried to fuel the rumors towards one of the big-time programs that will score primetime television slots for nearly every game this year, but Russell stuck with the team and the program that invested in him first. Recruiting rankings are a way to get back at Russell, an attempt to punish him for going off of the beaten path and wanting to carve his only legacy as “The man” at Syracuse.
This is hardly just a Syracuse problem. During this same week of ratings, Texas Tech commit offensive tackle Felix Ojo lost his fifth star from Rivals because he chose the Red Raiders over a global football brand in the Texas Longhorns. The running joke when a player commits to a non-powerhouse program is: “How long until he drops in recruiting rankings”. This joke ends up becoming true far too many times, with rankings always adding a slight jab to the up and coming programs in college football.
NIL has shaken the dominant programs’ standing; the transfer portal has taken away the luxury of top teams having five stars waiting their turn on the bench until the starters leave for the NFL. Fan bases and alumni groups such as Syracuse have made financial investments to a team on the rise. The new conference realignment made every week a tough battle, even for the strongest programs. College football, in just a year of all these changes taking effect, has seen a true sense of parody where every team has a fair shot. Recruiting rankers can try to diminish these up-and-coming programs’ accomplishments, but the fact remains that the Syracuse Orange are a threat.
