MORE: Updated 2017 Rivals150 | 2017 team rankings | Initial 2018 team rankings
For years, once we completed a final ranking of a class we were done with it and left it unchanged. However, with player reclassification after the completion of a final class ranking becoming increasingly common, we've had to take a look at revising our policy beginning with the class of 2017.
Once 2018's No. 1 player, Marvin Bagley III, announced this week that he would enroll a year early at Duke, we decided that it was time to make a change. From here on out, we will place players who reclassify from one class into another whose rankings had been finalized – such as Bagley and seven other ranked players from 2018 have done since the completion of the final 2017 rankings – into the ranking of the class they are joining.
So now that Bagley III has moved into the class of 2017, where does he fit, and does he take Missouri-bound Michael Porter Jr.'s spot at the top of the class?
The answer to the second question is no. Porter remains in the top spot while Bagley will be listed as the No. 2 player in the class.
It's natural that many will wonder why we have Porter over Bagley – or anybody else for that matter. Pushing 6-foot-10, Porter is nearly as big as Bagley, and he isn't that far behind him as a run-and-jump athlete. However, where Porter sets himself apart from Bagley or any other player in 2017 is his overall skill level, feel for the game and versatility to play as a small forward with tremendous size or a floor-spacing four man in today's evolving game.
Just because a player was ranked in 2018 doesn't mean that he will crack the 2017 rankings. The class of 2017 is a little bit stronger top to bottom, and much of a player's 2018 ranking took into account that he would get another year to develop before arriving at college.
The overall changes to the 2017 ranking are mostly due to the insertion of the 2018 reclassifications. The two most notable adds other than Bagley are Arizona forward Emmanuel Akot and Porter's younger brother, Missouri's Jontay Porter, who both move into the 2017 class as five-star prospects.
