A class is not the talent you signed. It is the team you became.
The services rank a class by adding up star ratings, ignoring the roster you already have, your scheme, and the one hole you actually need to fill. A scorer stacked behind your star counts the same to them as a scorer who fills your gap. The engine ranks recruits by what they do to your team: it re-runs Team KR with the class added, so fit beats stars, and it grades the class two ways, the win-now board and the projection board, and shows the gap between them.
The board re-orders itself around the hole in your roster.
A star ranking is a Gaussian-weighted sum of talent that never once looks at your team. The engine ranks every target by need-weighted best delta: it re-runs your Team KR with the recruit added, so the player who fills your gap outranks the higher-rated one stacked behind a returning starter. Composite board for a team that needs a lead guard.
The two 5-stars sit at the bottom: one duplicates the guard you already have, the other does not fit how you play. The 4-star lead guard is the best recruit on this board for this team, because he closes the gap. The services would flip this list upside down. The engine ranks the team you become, not the talent you collect.
Illustrative engine read on the real need-weighted best-delta board (Team KR re-run with each recruit). Composite recruits, demonstration figures.
The same recruit is a different rank at every program.
A star rating is one number the whole country shares. Fit is not. The engine reads the same prospect against each program's roster, so his rank rises where he is needed and falls where he is redundant. This is why the KaNeXT board disagrees with the services, and it is a feature.
Identical recruit, identical star rating, and he is worth six times more to Program B than to Program A, because one needs exactly what he is and the other already has it. The national ranking cannot see this; it prices the player, not the fit. The engine ranks him for you, not for everyone.
Illustrative engine read on the real program-specific fit structure (same recruit, different Team KR delta by roster). Composite recruit and programs, demonstration figures.
One class, graded for winning now and for who it sends up.
A class means two different things at once, and no public service separates them. The engine grades every class twice: how much it helps you this season, and how much ceiling it carries for later. The gap between the two boards, and the portal mix, tells you what kind of class you actually signed.
A single class ranking hides this entirely. A win-now transfer haul and a develop-and-send-up freshman class can carry the same star average and be opposite bets. The engine splits them, publishes the gap the services never do, and reads it against the roster you are returning. Know which class you signed before the season tells you.
Illustrative engine read on the real two-board structure (win-now Year-1 impact vs projection ceiling, the two-board gap, portal mix). Composite class, demonstration figures.
Star rankings answer a question no coach actually has: how much raw talent did you collect. The real question is what your team becomes after the class arrives, and that depends on the roster you were already running, the scheme you play, and the one need that was killing you. The engine re-runs your team with the class added, ranks each recruit by the hole he fills rather than the stars he carries, and grades the class both for this season and for the players it will send up. Do not recruit the best players. Recruit the best team you can become.
Sign the team, not the star average.
Recruiting ranks each target by what he does to your team and grades the class two ways.