Ohio State football: The wide recruiting gap in the Big Ten
By Ryan Stano
Ohio State is the premier program in the Big Ten. A lot of that has to do with on the field coaching tactics, but most of it is due to their widening dominance in recruiting.
Ohio State is a place with a tradition of excellence and winning. Because of their many years of winning, they can use that in recruiting battles. Lately, that has only helped them widen the gap of recruiting in the Big Ten. They are on their own planet when it comes to recruiting.
Even though there are some worrying trends recently, the Buckeyes still have the number one recruiting class in the country. According to 247 Sports, the next closest team is Michigan at number 8. After that, it’s Wisconsin and Iowa at 13 and 15 respectively.
Ohio State is very far ahead of every other team in the conference and this isn’t a new thing. In 2020, they had the 5th ranked class in the country. The next closest Big Ten team was Michigan at 13. In fact, there were only three other Big Ten teams with top 25 classes.
Since 2011, the Buckeyes have had the top-ranked recruiting class in the conference 9 out of the last 10 seasons. The only time where they didn’t was in 2019, and they still had the 14th best class in the country. The only reason they had such a low ranking was because it was a coaching transition from Urban Meyer to Ryan Day.
Day’s recruiting prowess is already on display. It’s up to the rest of the conference to catch up to the work the Buckeyes are doing. If they don’t Ohio State will continue to dominate the conference for years to come.
There are some promising signs for other teams on the recruiting front. There are six other teams in the Big Ten that have top-25 classes for 2021. While they are still far behind Ohio State, they are at least showing signs of life.
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Coach Day will surely see the rankings of the teams behind him and make sure they can never catch up. Day should only get better as a coach and his staff is already chock full of great recruiters. It’s a match made in heaven.