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2016 National Signing Day: USC, UCLA are Pac-12 recruiting champions

Feb 3, 2016
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With 2016 National Signing Day in the books, SoCal rivals USC and UCLA hauled in the top-ranked recruiting classes in the Pac-12. USC had the best class in the Pac-12 according to ESPN (11th in the country), Rivals (No. 8) and 247 Sports (No. 8), while Scout rated UCLA’s class seventh in the country and tops in the Conference of Champions.

As usual for USC, it was a huge National Signing Day. Five-star defensive back Jack Jones chose USC over Alabama and Texas A&M through an interview with Snoop Dogg, while four-star offensive tackle and Lawrenceville, Ga., native E.J. Price decided to head to Troy over Georgia. Head coach Clay Helton also got some big flips from Jamel Cook (originally committed to Florida State) and running back Vavae Malepeai (started the day as an Oregon Duck).

UCLA got its biggest signing day victory in the form of five-star linebacker Mique Juarez, who chose the Bruins over Alabama, Ole Miss and BYU. Juarez is the second consensus top-10 recruit signed by Jim Mora and the second in two years following Josh Rosen. The Bruins also received letters of intent from De La Salle stud defensive tackle Boss Tagaloa and running back Brandon Stephens, who, like new teammate and fellow running back Soso Jamabo, is a product of Plano, Texas.

Stanford pulled in a consensus top-20 class, while Oregon and Arizona State each got a top-25 nod from one of the major recruiting sites.

Here’s a look at where major recruiting services placed each Pac-12 school:

School

Scout Ranking

ESPN*

Rivals

247Sports

Arizona

44

N/A

51

43

Arizona State

36

25

34

28

Cal

38

N/A

27

38

Colorado

67

N/A

64

69

Oregon

24

27

28

27

Oregon State

52

39

41

46

Stanford

15

13

18

16

UCLA

7

14

11

12

USC

11

11

8

8

Utah

40

40

35

36

Washington

29

30

38

29

Washington State

50

N/A

54

55

*- ESPN only ranks the top-40 schools