Big Ten Spotlight: Breaking down the conference recruiting race

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

The Big Ten has a current three-year run of placing two classes in the overall top five of the national team recruiting rankings. After a slow start, the conference will have to pick up the pace to keep that trend going in 2019. Here is an early look at which programs should be leading the conference next winter.

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Ohio State has won the last eight Big Ten Conference recruiting titles. That precedes even Urban Meyer’s arrival in Columbus. Penn State got off to a fast start in the 2018 class and built a pretty significant lead, but still could not hold off the Buckeyes, which finished with the nation’s No. 2 overall class this past winter. There is a question about number of scholarships available for this 2019 Ohio State class, but that seems to be a question early in every class for the Buckeyes and they always manage to have the spots. Their nine-man class is tops in the Big Ten currently and headlined by Rivals250 prospects Garrett Wilson, Cade Stover, Doug Nester, Sampson James and Ronnie Hickman.

This is a difficult category to project because of the way this 2019 class has started for several teams. Michigan currently held the Big Ten’s top-ranked class before this weekend, but was overtaken by the Buckeyes' recent string of successes.

Wisconsin has eight commitments and the Big Ten's second highest ranked commitment in offensive tackle Logan Brown. However, just three of the Badgers' pledges are ranked four stars and that’s not a ratio that will ultimately allow them to finish top two in the conference next winter. Scott Frost seems destined to have Nebraska recruiting at the top of the conference soon, but likely not in his first, full class.

So, that brings us back to Penn State. The Nittany Lions have just three commits right now, but they have leveraged the early official visit period well and already brought in five-stars Devyn Ford and Zach Harrison for official visits. James Franklin and Co. are primed to make another run at the Buckeyes and sign another top 10 ranked class nationally.

Now a full two years into his tenure at Illinois, Lovie Smith is finding his recruiting stride. The addition of St. Louis high school coach Cory Patterson as an assistant has certainly jump-started the Illini’s 2019 class, with Rivals100 athlete Isaiah Williams and three-star wide receiver Bryce Childress, former players for Patterson at Trinity Catholic High School, comprising 40 percent of this class. But, Illinois has been able to go into Texas for Rivals100 Dallas athlete Marquez Beason, and also has a couple of commitments from within its own state borders. This may not be a class that can challenge for No. 1 overall in the conference, but it has a very good shot to finish top five, which would be the first time that has happened for Illinois since 2009 when the conference had just 11 teams.