As 247Sports kicks off its “Next Up” theme week, we wanted to find a way to sort and centralize football’s best young players. But how? We already do a True Freshman All-American Team. Obviously, we do recruiting rankings. In introducing an inaugural 20Under20 list (not too different from the 30Under30 list for coaches), perhaps we’ve found the perfect marriage of so-far production and recruiting pedigree as a way to definitively highlight the best young talent in or entering the college football ranks.
We have just one requirement: The player must not yet have turned 20 years old. Any older, and this would've just become a "best player in college football list." Junior-to-be studs like Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Micah Parsons and JaMarr Chase have already turned 20.
In this article you’ll find names you know, plenty who dotted this year’s True Freshman AA Team. Unless you’re an FCS junkie, there’s one name you almost certainly don’t know. We’ve got a few young-for-their-age rising juniors. A trio of incoming freshmen from the class of 2020 made the cut. We thought about class of 2022 quarterback prodigy Quinn Ewers, but he might be too young as his sophomore final exams still await.
Let's get to the list. Players are sorted by alphabetical order, while listed recruiting ranking is per the 247Sports Composite.
