Commits, flips, updated rankings and more, added throughout December’s precursor to February’s National Signing Day.

College football’s Early Signing Period runs from Dec. 19 through 21, with almost all of the action likely on Wednesday. Expect most Division I recruits to sign by Friday night, leaving only choice drama for National Signing Day in February.

This post will be updated frequently as the biggest stories play out.

If you want updates on just your team, we got you. Since I don’t know who your team is (it’s a great one, though), head here for free coverage. If you’re on Twitter, I’d also recommend this list.

1. The national story lines to know

• The biggest news so far: No. 1 safety Daxton Hill, who’d flipped to Bama days prior, has flipped back to Michigan.
• The Tide appeared to respond, more or less, by swiping No. 6 safety Jordan Battle from Ohio State. The Buckeyes then lost another blue chip flip to the SEC: four-star QB Dwan Mathis to Georgia.
• Overall, Alabama could still be reclaiming the No. 1 spot after Georgia ended The Streak last cycle. It appeared the Tide could even end up No. 1 on this list of the highest rated classes in the history of recruiting rankings, but that’s looking less possible.
• That means the likely biggest rankings battle is for No. 2, where Georgia and a whole bunch of other teams are in the running.
• Best Announcement goes to this very nice moment by a Syracuse commit.
• Most importantly: UNC signed a player named Storm Duck. His name is Storm Duck.

2. The status of the top 100 recruits

I’ll update each when they actually sign.

Remember: Not all of these players are signing in December, and not all of these committed players will sign with the schools listed.

Is anything changing about the Early Signing Period, now that coaches and players had one year of observations to build on? The first time around, around 70 percent of Division I signees and 68 of the top 100 were inked in December.

This year, four top-10 players aren’t even scheduled to commit until after the ESP. So we should have a bit more lingering drama than last time, even if the national trend doesn’t change much.

Per the 247Sports Composite ratings, with predictions by Bud Elliott for the top players who are expected to sign in December and/or popular consensus in bold:

1. IMG DE Nolan Smith: Georgia signee
2. CA DE Kayvon Thibodeaux: Oregon commit
3. LA CB Derek Stingley: LSU signee
4. OH DE Zach Harrison: Around 12:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 19 (Michigan, Ohio State)
5. IMG RB Trey Sanders: Around noon ET on Dec. 19 (Alabama, Florida)
6. GA WR Jadon Haselwood: At All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 (Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Oklahoma, Tennessee)
7. CA ATH Bru McCoy: At All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 (Texas, USC)
8. OK S Daxton Hill: Michigan signee FLIPPED BACK from Alabama
9. LA DT Ishmael Sopsher: National Signing Day, Feb. 6 (Alabama, LSU)
10. WV OT Darnell Wright: National Signing Day, Feb. 6 (Alabama, Ohio State, Tennessee)
11. TX OT Kenyon Green: Texas A&M signee
12. LA RB John Emery Jr.: LSU commit
13. GA OT Wanya Morris: Tennessee signee
14. MS LB Nakobe Dean: Around 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 19 (Alabama, Georgia)
15. GA LB Owen Pappoe: Auburn commit
16. TX WR Garrett Wilson: Ohio State signee
17. MI OT Logan Brown: Wisconsin signee
18. SC DE Zacch Pickens: South Carolina signee
19. GA CB Andrew Booth: Clemson signee
20. IMG OT Evan Neal: Around 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 19 (Alabama, Miami)
21. TX WR Theo Wease: Oklahoma signee
22. AL C Clay Webb: Georgia signee
23. AZ QB Spencer Rattler: Oklahoma signee
24. GA DT Travon Walker: Georgia signee
25. VA LB Brandon Smith: Penn State signee
26. MI G Devontae Dobbs: Michigan State signee
27. FL WR Frank Ladson: Clemson signee
28. NJ DE Antonio Alfano: Alabama signee
29. CA WR Kyle Ford: At All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 (Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, USC, Washington)
30. TX DT DeMarvin Leal: Texas A&M signee
31. GA C Harry Miller: Ohio State signee
32. LA G Kardell Thomas: LSU commit
33. FL CB Akeem Dent: Florida State commit
34. GA WR Dominick Blaylock: Georgia signee
35. AL OT Pierce Quick: Alabama signee
36. AL WR George Pickens: Auburn commit
37. TX OT Tyler Johnson: Texas signee
38. FL CB Tyrique Stevenson: Around noon ET on Dec. 19 (Georgia, Miami)
39. NC ATH Quavaris Crouch: At All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 (Clemson, Michigan, Tennessee)
40. CA CB Chris Steele: At All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 (Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, USC)
41. CA LB Henry To’oto’o (Alabama, Cal Tennessee, Oregon, Washington)
42. CA RB Zach Charbonnet: Michigan signee
43. CA CB Mykael Wright: Oregon signee
44. TX LB Marcel Brooks: LSU commit
45. MS RB Jerrion Ealy: Ole Miss commit
46. HI DT Faatui Tuitele: Washington commit
47. AL QB Bo Nix: Auburn signee
48. IN DE George Karlaftis: Purdue commit
49. GA DT Chris Hinton: Michigan signee
50. CA LB Mase Funa: Oregon signee
51. CA WR Joe Ngata: Clemson signee
52. AL OT Amari Kight: Alabama signee
53. TX WR Jordan Whittington: Texas signee
54. CA QB Ryan Hilinski: South Carolina signee
55. TX S Brian Williams: Texas A&M signee
56. CA OT Sean Rhyan: UCLA signee
57. FL DE Khris Bogle: At All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 (Alabama, Miami)
58. TX TE Baylor Cupp: Texas A&M signee
59. TX WR Trejan Bridges: Oklahoma signee
60. AR TE Hudson Henry: Arkansas commit
61. FL CB Kaiir Elam (Florida, Georgia)
62. MI CB Julian Barnett: Michigan State signee
63. TN CB Maurice Hampton: LSU commit
64. CA LB De’Gabriel Floyd: Texas signee
65. MS DT Nathan Pickering: Mississippi State commit
66. TX S Lewis Cine: Georgia signee
67. TX S Demani Richardson: Texas A&M signee
68. OH DT Jowon Briggs: Virginia signee
69. FL WR Jeremiah Payton: Miami signee
70. MD LB Shane Lee: Alabama commit
71. NJ G Caedan Wallace: Penn State signee
72. TX TE Austin Stogner: Oklahoma signee
73. CA DT Jacob Bandes: Washington signee
74. CA OT Jonah Tauanu’u: Oregon commit
75. GA DE Justin Eboigbe: Alabama signee
76. MD S Nick Cross: Florida State commit
77. FL S Jordan Battle: Alabama signee FLIPPED from Ohio State
78. FL G William Putnam (Auburn, Clemson, Florida State)
79. NY DE Adisa Isaac: Penn State signee
80. VA RB Devyn Ford: Penn State signee
81. AZ WR Jake Smith: Texas commit
82. CA QB Jayden Daniels: Arizona State signee
83. FL ATH Mark-Antony Richards (Auburn, Florida, Miami, Penn State, Tennessee)
84. TX ATH Marquez Beason: Illinois signee
85. CA WR Mycah Pittman: Oregon signee
86. TX CB Erick Young: Texas A&M signee
87. NC QB Sam Howell: Florida State commit
88. MS DE Byron Young: Alabama commit
89. TX WR Dylan Wright: Texas A&M signee
90. FL LB Rian Davis: Georgia signee
91. TX CB Jeffery Carter: Alabama commit
92. WV G Doug Nester: Ohio State commit
93. NC DE Savion Jackson: NC State signee
94. MD S DeMarcco Hellams: Alabama signee
95. MS OT Charles Cross: Mississippi State commit
96. MS DE Jaren Handy: Auburn commit
97. TX WR Elijah Higgins: Stanford commit
98. CA RB Austin Jones: Stanford commit
99. MS CB Brandon Turnage: Alabama signee
100. AR WR Treylon Burks: Arkansas commit

3. The updated rankings

If this 247Sports embed isn’t working for you, click over here:

4. A national news ticker

5. Does all this really matter?

Yes. There’s little doubt that recruiting rankings are worthwhile at the big-picture level, despite those (wonderful!) success stories that spring to mind about two-stars overcoming the odds and getting drafted in the first round.

1. They matter at the player level.Blue chips are almost 1,000 percent more likely to be drafted in the first round. You can see the star ratings drop throughout the NFL draft. And five-stars are about 33 times as likely to be All-Americans as two-stars are.
2. They matter at the team level.If you break the country into five tiers of recruiting might, you find the higher-recruiting schools consistently beat their lessers, virtually across the board.
3. They matter at the championship level.Every national champion of the ratings era has passed a specific recruiting benchmark, as Bud Elliott’s Blue-Chip Ratio annually demonstrates. 2018 will be no exception.
4. There are major exceptions, duh, like CMU’s Eric Fisher, who went from being a 240-pound two-star to a 306-pound No. 1 pick. Hard to criticize national rankings for failing to predict a player will gain 66 quality pounds in college. Bill Connelly, who’s way smarter than me, still finds the rankings highly valuable, despite obvious flaws.
5. Perfection shouldn’t be the standard, though. Especially since the four big services get better during the course of a year and more accurate from year to year. Just Rate The Bama Croots Highly has been a winning strategy, for one.
6. At the anecdotal level, let’s take a look at how all of college football would’ve changed if one recruit, five-star Tim Tebow, had chosen differently. See how much one commit mattered?