As the conference continues to grow and become more competitive, recruits have even more reason to be attracted to the newly renamed American Athletic Conference. With National Signing Day still over four months away, the leading AAC recruiting team (currently Rutgers) has already tied the previous classes amount of four-star recruits with three. Although, it is not just a trend at the top. The rest of the conference is close to or at where they recruited last year, in terms of total talent, despite having plenty of time left.

Rutgers, as stated before, has the most four-star recruits among teams in the AAC and is the only program that has more than one four-star recruit. Apart of their four-star recruits is the best recruit in the conference, wide receiver Saeed Blacknall. Blacknall, who measures in at 6’3”, will be accompanied by another 6’3” four-star receiver, Adonis Jennings. Both could step up into major contributing roles after the departure of Brandon Coleman.

The other two schools that have four-star commits are Louisville and South Florida. Louisville’s commit Poona Ford will bolster the defensive line and be an upgrade at defensive tackle for the Cardinals. With the lack of push up front, Ford has the possibility to become an early contributor. South Florida’s new comer will be seen on the other side of the ball. Wide receiver Ryeshene Bronson adds a much needed weapon to a lacking,  non-explosive offense. If they can snag a competent quarterback to get him the ball, they may have an effective duo on their hands.

Most shocking at this point is Central Florida’s lack of recruits. They tend to be a rather respectable football program, especially recently, but have failed to refill their roster with the same level of talent. With such recent success, it would be assumed that recruiting would be easier and recruits would be more abundant, yet it's completely opposite. As of now, they only have a total of 13 recruits, eight of them being three-stars, but none of them are four or five-stars. Even Temple, a four win team last season, has been able to out recruit Central Florida thus far.

There is still plenty of time for programs currently lacking talent to make up ground, but it's never too early to start. Rutgers, Louisville, and South Florida have taken advantage of everyone else's lackadaisicalness and pounced on the more highly touted recruits. Although no five-star recruits have been signed at this point, there were not any five-star commits to the conference last year and only one the previous year (Rutgers). That being said, the conference, as a whole, appears to be on the rise and could certainly attract five-star recruits to one of the conference's programs.