How Does 2025-26 Freshman Class Rank Among Greatest in NCAA History?

Perhaps the greatest single crop of freshman recruits in history took center stage in 1979-80. An alphabetical list of the standout yearlings for the College Class of '83 included John Bagley (Boston College), Thurl Bailey (North Carolina State), Sam Bowie (Kentucky), Antoine Carr (Wichita State), Howard Carter (LSU), Terry Cummings (DePaul), Quintin Dailey (San Francisco), Dale Ellis (Tennessee), Sidney Green (UNLV), Clark Kellogg (Ohio State), Cliff Levingston (Wichita State), Jeff Malone (Mississippi State), Rodney McCray (Louisville), John Paxson (Notre Dame), Ralph Sampson (Virginia), Byron Scott (Arizona State), Steve Stipanovich (Missouri), Isiah Thomas (Indiana), LaSalle Thompson (Texas), Dominique Wilkins (Georgia), Rob Williams (Houston) and James Worthy (North Carolina). Incredibly, 18 individuals from this group went on to become top 10 NBA draft choices.

But this past season, boasting four freshmen among nation's top nine scorers, may have marked the most influential class since frosh eligibility was introduced in 1972-73. Although POY Cameron Boozer (22.5 ppg) fell just short of setting Duke's frosh scoring average record (22.6 by RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson in 2018-19), a total of 10 power-conference members featured new freshman scoring average marks this season (only other campaign with as many as five existing records was in 1977-78). Among the standards shattered this year were those held by luminaries Danny Ainge (BYU), Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina), Todd Lichti (Stanford) and Andrew Wiggins (Kansas). The BYU, KU and Stanford records plus Arkansas and Louisville were broken this year by at least 3 ppg.

Louisiana State's Chris Jackson is the only freshman in NCAA DI history to average more than 30 ppg (30.2 ppg in 1988-89), erupting for 48 and 53 points in a five-day span at the end of his first month as a collegian. The lowest scoring average for a freshman holding existing record for yearling at a power-conference school is significantly less than half of Jackson's output (Penn State's Kayden Mingo with under 13.7 this past season).

Oregon's Ron Lee, Rutgers' Phil Sellers and SMU's Ira Terrell still hold their school frosh records set in inaugural frosh campaign in 1972-73. Looking ahead, Missouri signees Jason Crowe Jr. and Toni Bryant exhibited sufficient ability in the McDonald's All-American Game that they might be the favorites next season to set the next power-conference member freshman scoring average record. Following are freshman scoring marks for power-league schools since freshman eligibility was introduced: