July 17, 2026 · 5 min read
Reclassification and Recruiting
A tool, not the tool — when a reclass or PG year actually moves your recruitment.
Listen
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Reclassifying is a tool but not the only tool in a player's arsenal for recruitment. Can getting another year of high school football help your training, development, and recruitment odds? Sure. College football has drastically changed in the past half decade. Coaches cannot wait for young players to develop anymore, and being a little older, bigger, faster, stronger, or more mature can only help your recruitment coming out of high school.
Under the new NCAA rules, as long as you don't turn 19 before August 1st going into your school year, you're good. So if you want to, you can reclassify or do a postgraduate year that makes you 19 at graduation.
Reclassification is not a golden ticket.
It's possible to reclassify and still not go to the school you want to go to. Timing, chance, and luck will continue to play outsized roles in the outcome of recruiting whether we like it or not.
What it can do
Academically
Another year to get your grades in order. Maybe freshman year was tough, or you had a loss in the family that tanked your GPA — this might be the extra two semesters the Ivies need to see to get you through a pre-read.
What it can do
Athletically
If you're coming from weak competition or a smaller program where you're playing out of position — you're probably a college safety, but there are only four other guys on the team, so you're at left guard — it can be great to get tape at your real position against a higher level of competition.
What it can do
Physically
It's another twelve months in the weight room, training and developing. For a lot of high-academic recruits, that year is the difference between a body coaches project and a body coaches trust.
What it can do
Programmatically
You're typically joining a more aligned, more focused football program that treats college placement as the point — not an aberration. You won't be doing your recruitment on your own. You'll usually have a head coach whose actual job is placement.
The honest read
So should you do it?
It depends on why. If the reclass gives you a real answer to a real gap — grades, position tape, size, or a program built to place you — it can absolutely change your outcome. If you're doing it hoping the extra year magically produces an offer that wasn't coming, you're going to be disappointed.
Use it as a tool. Don't treat it as the plan.
— Brendan