Big Ten Recruiting Review

Below is the final Pryorless rankings of all Big Ten teams. I also included Pitt to make our class look worse. The way Pitt out recruits us is troubling to say the least, but then again the way Whanstash manages to suck so bad with good recruits is a bit troubling as well. One thing worth pointing out here is that these services rank based on 'points', so a bigger class is going to outscore a smaller class of the same level of talent. Penn State brought in the smallest class of any Big Ten team by far, just 14 players compared to an average of 21. This includes Minnesota with 30 recruits and Illinois with 28. This is a result of Penn State not losing very man scholarships and therefore not having many to give...it's obviously cyclical. So while our class isn't knocking anyone's socks off, keep in mind we are getting punished in these rankings for bringing in so few kids. Per Rivals, number of recruits in quotes:

Rivals
#9	OSU	(19)
#10	Michigan	(24)
#17	Minnesota	(30)
#23	Illinois	(28)
#29	Pitt	(19)
#41	Wisconsin	(24)
#42	Penn State	(14)
#47	MSU	(21)
#53	Iowa	(24)
#63	Purdue	(25)
#73	Northwestern	(20)
#78	Indiana	(19)

Not to get too bitchy, but really looking at this list makes me wonder why I think college ball is so superior to pro. Indiana's prize recruits are a couple of three star kids, while Ohio State doesn't even bother going after kids that low on the list. Why this is considered "pure" is beyond me, but it doesn't change the fact that I do in fact like NCAA football better than the NFL.

As for Penn State, you never like to see Minnesota that far ahead of you, especially after their one for the ages shitty season.

Let's take a look at how Scouts listed the Big Ten:

Scouts

#7	OSU
#8	Michigan
#18	Illinois
#25	Pitt
#26	Wisconsin
#28	Minnesota
#41	Penn State
#42	Iowa
#49	Purdue
#56	MSU
#63	Indiana
#69	Northwestern

This site seemed to be a bit more optimistic about the Big Ten, but not really about Penn State. They also didn't buy into the Minnesota class quite like Rivals did. All in all there aren't really any surprises here. Zook really is bringing Illinois up to a respectable level. Northwestern and Indiana still suck. Penn State continues to be mediocre in more ways than we realize, and Ohio State and Michigan continue to dominate recruiting by a large margin.

This year's recruits take 2 or 3 years to really have a full impact, so there's no immediate threat to a team's success. Pryor might be an exception, he will start day one at Michigan and you bet your ass Paterno would play him somewhere if he chooses Penn State.

I guess we'll see.