MONDAY INSIDER

1. Elections don’t end on election day anymore, and the same phenomena has bled into recruiting this year.

Yet while a couple of anticipated verdicts have yet to reach closure, we already had a reasonable idea for where Clemson would cross the quarter pole.

The finish line comes with the Feb. 3 National Signing Day. But the Tigers are holding at No. 7 in the Rivals.com team recruiting class standings, poised for their fourth straight top-10 class and six of their last seven.

That might be the expectation at this stage. But note that Clemson is the only school in the top 12 with less than 20 signees – the 20 highest-ranked count toward the total – and the Tigers have at least two less than the field.

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We point to per-prospect average star rating in assessing quality without the quantity component, and Clemson (3.89) comes in at No. 5 behind Ohio State (3.95), Alabama (3.92), LSU (3.91) and UGA (3.90).

That aligns more with the recruiting food chain.