​It’s another week in the Recruiting Roundup. This time around, we return to our monthly Mountain West rankings and introduce the first round of tier rankings. Tier rankings offer a different lens on the overall picture, highlighting how close or far apart teams are within the same tier and occasionally inviting debates about reordering teams that sit in the same group. Beyond that, the recruiting activity remains fairly light. July tends to be a quieter month overall, with true freshmen arriving on campus and the focus shifting to preparing the current roster for the upcoming season. It’s also a period when coaches often take a bit of downtime before fall camp begins in August. With that in mind, offers are scarce (only two to date), and commitments are few.
Colorado State continues its recruiting hot streak, adding another prospect to this cycle, and the Rams are featured on the cover photo this week. The Class of 2027 cover photo totals are as follows: UNLV leads with 3, followed by Fresno State, North Dakota State, Oregon State, San Diego State each with 2, and Air Force, Colorado State, Hawaii, NIU, New Mexico, San Jose State, UTEP, Washington State, and Wyoming each with 1.
Starting tomorrow and continuing through the summer, we enter a dead period where in-person contact of any kind is prohibited. That doesn’t mean recruiting stops entirely; it simply slows down as coaches shift their focus to preparing for the season. Texts, calls, and DMs remain permissible, and digital communication remains open.
The NCAA Dead Period is the most restrictive recruiting window. During this phase, coaches cannot engage in in-person contact with recruits or their parents—no meetings on college campuses, at the athlete’s school, at athletic camps, or even in everyday settings like a grocery store. However, the term “dead period” can be misleading: athletes and coaches can still communicate through phone calls, emails, social media, and other digital channels. Division I programs cannot conduct in-person recruiting, but they can maintain contact with student-athletes via digital formats during the dead period.
As the first Monday of the month arrives, we update the Mountain West team rankings and present the May rankings for those who want to compare. Here is the current ordering:
1) UNLV
2) New Mexico
3) San Jose State
4) Wyoming
5) North Dakota State
6) Northern Illinois
7) Nevada
8) Hawaii
9) UTEP
10) Air Force
Tier Rankings:
Tier 1: UNLV
Tier 2: New Mexico, San Jose State
Tier 3: Wyoming, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois
Tier 4: Nevada, Hawaii
Tier 5: UTEP
Tier 6: Air Force
WR Kentorion King: Colorado State
“I committed to Colorado State because it’s a great program. My first time in Fort Collins, it felt like home.”