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Well, I'm not going to dilly-dally on the intro, because you don't want to read that. This is a recruiting post, not a writing post. So let's look at what the big 3 (sorry, ESPN, even thought you painted CU in the most favorable light) had to think about CU:
3. USC
16. Oregon
18. UCLA
22. Arizona State
23. Washington
31. Washington State
37. Stanford
38. Arizona
49. Cal
50. Utah
70. Colorado
77. Oregon State
2. USC
15. Oregon
19. UCLA
24. Arizona State
25. Washington
29. Washington State
32. Stanford
35. Cal
37. Arizona
39. Utah
61. Colorado
84. Oregon State
5. USC
12. UCLA
19. Washington
23. Oregon
24. Washington State
25. Arizona State
32. Arizona
41. Stanford
50. Cal
56. Utah
69. Colorado
81. Oregon State
As you can see, CU is still not doing great, but thanks to Oregon State's coaching change and not so hot starting spot, the Buffs are not last in the Pac-12 this year, so one hip hip hooray for second worst! Of course, this is also a sign of Coach Mac's improved recruiting effort, especially in California, and the Buffs stand to improve if the Aaron Baltazar transfer goes through and Jay-Jay Wilson makes the right decision (also, Jeremy Kelly). A pretty big data trend from all three sites is the drop off after the 10th best Pac team recruiting-wise. A 20, 22, and 13 team gap (respectively) separates CU from the Utah's and Cal's of the world, though after you get past the top 30, it's all hogwash if you ask me. Not much is going to separate the low three stars from the high ones, in my opinion, other than coaching, and hopefully CU has a good one in MacIntyre. As far as other P5 teams are concerned (according to Rivals), the Buffs are ahead of Iowa State, Michigan, Florida (!), and Oregon State, so one other team without a coaching change. However, 7 (Purdue, Kansas, Iowa, Syracuse, Maryland, K-State, and Vanderbilt) are within striking distance, and almost no one in that group has the potential positive swing that CU in their targets, as far as rankings are concerned. I would caution against using the rankings as a be all, end all for success in recruiting. So many kids get missed, underrated, overrated, or otherwise miscalculated that it's impossible for them to have a great success rate, though usually the teams with the most 5 stars are the best. Stepping off my soapbox, this year's recruiting class is a step above last years, and looks to get better on paper before signing day.