247: National Signing Day rankings for LSU's 2023 class

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The staff decided to hold the 5-6 open spots it currently has to reach the 85-limit until the second transfer window opens on May 1 and runs through May 15

LSU enters the day with 25 signees in the team recruiting rankings with a class ranked No. 5 on 247Sports and No. 6 on the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. The 11-man transfer class is currently ranked No. 1, giving Brian Kelly and his staff a 36-man haul in 2023 and more to come.

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36 new additions, and we're not done yet.

This is bananas.

We've lost 3 of our 15 recruits from 2022 along with at least 5 transfers.

So 8 members of the 2022 class are no longer tigers.

Maybe not. This was a 70 man roster in 2022, so hopefully this class can get us back to 85 and we DON'T have to flip 50% of the roster every year.

If you look at the top 25 classes (HS + Transfers) on 247, the average number of players for each team is 30.76.

13 of them have 30+ players in their class.

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LSU is probably gonna sign 30+ every year from now on

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The exemption from the 25-man class cap doesn't last forever

8 players over 400 in 24/7 rankings (most of those in 500-600 range). Saban has two out of Top 300. Kirby has 4.

Furthest thing from the truth…

It has to become permanent if they’re going to allow kids to transfer on a whim. If they don’t there’s no way you can refill the rosters and then you have all these kids in the transfer portal that will never find a school. It’s permanent there’s no going back now

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Once that happens, the players will stop trying to transfer on a whim. It’s what they need to do to stop the insanity.

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Expecting 18-22 year olds to do what is in their best self-interest doesn’t always work out well.

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The crazy number of guys entering the portal is precisely why they *wont* make it permanent. Right now the demand for transfers is infinite, because there is no cap on class size; thus, shite tons of guys are jumping into the portal. Once the cap is put back in place, the demand for transfers is going to go WAY down and the flood of guys into the portal will slow considerably.

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This is a bit of a chicken vs. egg argument, no?

What really kicked the portal into overdrive was immediate transfer eligibility. The original signing limit waiver (the replacement of up to 7 transfers/early entrants in the last cycle) was in response to the number of guys entering the portal - at least as I remember it. This, despite the fact that every player on a roster in 2020 got an extra year of eligibility which theoretically should have reduced the number of signees that teams needed.

Then you have the NIL factor as well.

I would agree that the unlimited demand, as you put it, probably exacerbates things. At least it would in a rational market (jury’s still out on that though, IMO). And I think ultimately the NCAA probably doesn’t stick with a completely uncapped system. But I don’t think it’s 100%, and I don’t think they go back to a 25/year “hard” cap either.

Ultimately I don’t think anything short of either A) eliminating the immediate transfer eligibility, or B) going back to the hard 25 cap, will make THAT much difference in the transfer numbers.