​After having a top-15 recruiting class for 2026, there are some Husky fans that have wondered why UW’s 2027 class is ranked lower-not even a top-20 class (as of now). There have been many theories proposed including having both the long snapper and punter in the 2027 class, more 4-stars ranked overall, and many more. The real reason is much simpler and I hope to make it easy to see.Before diving into the details, 247Sports has changed the way it calculates team rankings. Prior to the 2027 class, the team rankings were based on the 247Sports Composite. Now, with the 2027 class (and beyond) it is based on the rankings by 247Sports. This turns out to be a factor in why UW’s 2027 class is ranked lower-but that is not the main reason.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThere have been several articles written about how 247Sports generates the points for each team in its recruiting rankings. Here is one from the BYU 247Sports site from a few years ago: https://247sports.com/college/byu/article/how-are-247-recruiting-rankings-calculated-139730851/The math behind the calculations are intimidating, especially for those who haven’t studied much math since high school. But you don’t need to understand much of the math; 247Sports makes a ‘Class Calculator’ available which can help to understand it better.One of the main reasons for using the ‘Class Calculator’ is that you can also use it to do some ‘what if’ analyses-like what would happen if a recruit gets added or one is removed. But it can also help understand how the points for each team work because in it you can find the number of points each commit is contributing to the total score.The current ‘Class Calculator’ for UW’s 2027 class can be found here: https://247sports.com/college/washington/season/2027-football/classcalculator/AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTo help understand the rankings, it helps to compare the values for the ‘Class Calculator’ from different teams. UW is currently ranked #23 (or #22 depending on whether they were using the Composite ratings or the 247Sports ratings). So let’s compare how UW’s current class compares with a couple of other programs-in this case the #20 team (Penn State) and the #15 team (Virginia Tech). Virginia Tech has 234.81 points. Penn State has 228.98. And UW has 224.09.WashingtonVirginia TechPenn StateLast NameRatingPointsLast NameRatingPointsLast NameRatingPointsGaylord9222.00Bourque9424.00Montgomery9424.00Ioane9019.88Karhoff9322.86Tarawalie9423.85Moore9019.51Latell9120.49Telfair9221.46Tyson9018.92Saunders9018.92Blum9018.92Nonu9018.12Buchanan, J.9018.12Terwiliger9018.12Roskopf9017.14Buchanan, K.9017.14Guertin9017.14Pope8915.21Irvin8915.21Alexander8915.21Doyal8914.04Johnson8914.04Blattner8914.04Gray8912.80Perkins8912.80Currie8912.80Leilua8810.92Barnett8911.52Reily8810.92Wily-Ava889.71Faniel8910.25Betton889.71Walk-Green888.53Brown899.00Wood888.53Albright887.40Jones-Priest897.81Odoh887.40Williams886.34Butler896.69Rob