Ohio State football once again killing Big Ten in recruiting

If you want to succeed as a college football program, you have to be able to recruit well. Recruiting is the lifeblood of the sport. Without elite recruits, you get left behind. The Ohio State football program knows that more than any other program in the Big Ten Conference.

Ohio State has had top classes every year for the past decade. They have had the best recruiting class in the conference every single year since 2011 except for one. That year was 2019 when the Buckeyes were transitioning between Urban Meyer and Ryan Day, and they still had a top-15 class.

No other team in the Big Ten has come close to matching the Buckeyes’ dominance on the recruiting trail. That’s why no one has come close to matching their dominance on the field. Last year was the first time since 2016 that the Buckeyes hadn’t won the Big Ten.

The 2023 recruiting class is no different. Ohio State has the fifth-best class in the country right now. That’s only with 20 commits too. They still have plenty of room to add players, which they will certainly do down the stretch of this season before the early signing period.

The next closest Big Ten team is Penn State, which sits at 14th. Michigan sits at 23rd. As you can see, the Buckeyes are clearly the best recruiting team in the conference, which lends itself to them being the best team in the conference in most years.

If the rest of the conference doesn’t start stepping up, they’re going to get left behind. Newcomers in 2024, USC has the 13th-best recruiting class in 2023. They also only have 20 commits right now, so they have room to add to their class as well.

We’ll see if other programs can start to inch closer to Ohio State’s when it comes to recruiting. If they can’t the Buckeyes will continue to run the conference the way they have for the past decade.