Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings 4-24-11

Submitted by Tim on

More Michigan commits, and we're back on the front page. Action since last rankings:

4-22-11 Michigan gains commitments from AJ Williams and Devin Funchess.

4-23-11 Wisconsin gains commitment from Vince Biegel. Minnesota loses commitment from Nick Rallis.

Big Ten+ Recruiting Class Rankings
Rank School # Commits Rivals Watchlist Scout Avg ESPN Watchlist 24/7 Avg
1 Ohio State 5 4 4.20 3 4.00
2 Notre Dame 5 2 3.40 2 2.20
3 Penn State 6 1 3.17 1 3.17
4 Michigan 6 1 3.50 2 2.00
5 Wisconsin 3 2 3.50 2 4.00
6 Northwestern 2 1 3.00 0 1.00
7 Minnesota 3 - 3.00 1 1.00
8 Nebraska 1 - 3.00 1 1.00
t-9 Iowa 1 - 1.00 - 1.00
t-9 Illinois 1 - 1.00 - 1.00
t-9 Purdue 1 - 1.00 - 1.00
t-12 Michigan State 0 - - - -
t-12 Indiana 0 - - - -

As I said, it looks pretty incomplete. I'm considering switching all rankings to 5-star scale, instead of using the RR ratings for rivals, and the numeric ratings for ESPN (which I did last year). I also might add 24/7 Sports' rankings to the chart.

#1 Ohio State - 5 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Bri'onte Dunn RB OH 250* 5 150* 4
Kyle Kalis OL OH 250* 5 150* 4
Joshua Perry LB OH 250* 4 150* 4
Warren Ball RB OH 250* 4 NR 4
Jacoby Boren OL OH NR 3 NR 4

The greatest number of commits, and the only team with multiple 5-stars.

#2 Notre Dame - 5 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Ronald Darby CB MD 250* 5 150* 4
Tee Shepard CB CA 250* 4 150* 4
Nick Baratti S TX NR 4 NR NR
Taylor Decker OL OH NR 4 NR NR
Scott Daly LS IL NR NR NR NR

Irish had a pretty big weekend with a couple commits.

#3 Penn State - 6 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Jarron Jones DT NY 250* 5 150* 5
Camren Williams LB MA NR 4 150* 4
Anthony Stanko OL OH NR 3 NR 4
Brent Wilkerson DE MD NR 3 NR 4
Jamil Pollard DT NJ NR 3 NR NR
Jesse James TE PA NR NR NR NR

Nittany Lions start strong after having a poor beginning to the 2011 recruiting class. Jarron Jones is listed as a soft commit.

#4 Michigan - 6 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Royce Jenkins-Stone LB MI 250* 4 150* 4
Devin Funchess TE MI NR 4 150* 4
Kaleb Ringer LB OH NR 4 NR NR
Caleb Stacey OL OH NR 3 NR NR
Ben Braden OL MI NR 3 NR NR
AJ Williams TE OH NR 3 NR NR

A pair of linemen and a pair of linebackers for Brady Hoke's first full class.

#5 Wisconsin - 3 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Dan Voltz OL IL 250* 4 150* 4
Vince Biegel LB WI 250* 4 150* 4
Vonte Jackson RB WI NR 3 NR 4

Badgers have an excellent offensive lineman and a nondescript runner to start the class of 2012.

#6 Northwestern - 2 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Malin Jones RB IL 250 3 NR NR
Kenton Playko OL OH NR 3 NR NR

A couple commits for Northwestern.

#7 Minnesota - 4 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Andre McDonald WR MN 250* 3 150* NR
Philip Nelson QB MN NR 3 NR NR
Maxx Williams TE MN NR 3 NR NR

I'll be the first to admit I may be underrating the Gophers' class to date. We'll see what happens when some of the other sites have rated their prospects.

#8 Nebraska - 1 Commit
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Michael Rose LB MO NR 3 150* NR

Ho-hum to start the class for the Huskers.

#9 Iowa - 1 Commit
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Mitch Keppy OL IL NR NR NR NR

An offensive lineman kicks off Iowa's class.

#9 Illinois - 1 Commit
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Elliot Faerber WR KS NR 3 NR NR

Unrated WR starts Illinois's class.

#9 Purdue - 1 Commit
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN 24/7
Jordan Shine S IN NR NR NR NR

In-state commit for the Boilers.

Indiana and Michigan State are tied for last with 0 commits.

Comments

jbibiza

April 24th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^

What could be the logic of ranking PSU higher than us?  Same number of commits with a much lower average stars and equal numbers of watchlist guys.  Can it be the inscrutable 24/7 newbie?  Enlighten me.

Tim

April 24th, 2011 at 5:05 PM ^

Penn State has 2 unranked guys in Scout's eyes. Assuming those guys get at least three stars (which is all-but guaranteed), they'll have a higher scout average than Michigan. Also the Nittany Lions have a 5-star. That counts for something.

It's also waaaaaay to early in the recruiting season to be getting worked up about the rankings.

Crazy Canuck

April 24th, 2011 at 9:16 PM ^

I couldn't agree with you more as to it being way too early. A lot of things can happen between now and National signing day. Many players could move up or down depending on how they play their senior season. Can players sign their LOI anytime or do they have to wait until national signing day?

Footballfan54

April 24th, 2011 at 6:43 PM ^

Yes. Ross was recently in Happy Valley, is very intrigued by the fact that they are known as linebacker U, and tweeted about his experience quite a bit. If I had to guess I'd say PSU and USC are his top 2 and there's a very very strong chance he ends up at one if those two

Bangkok Soiree

April 24th, 2011 at 6:08 PM ^

Maybe a better method for ranking schools in terms of recruiting would be to use the number of offers from the top 25 programs in terms of wins-losses over the past 10 years.  All this other stuff is so arbirtrary it's meaningless.  

the_white_tiger

April 24th, 2011 at 8:24 PM ^

I'm not saying he's wrong, I actually agree with what he says. It's pretty inane just to throw out recruiting rankings altogether and say that a 2 star is as likely to succeed as a 5 star. It's just weird that the guy that has to be the one to prove this works for a recruiting site.

Bodogblog

April 25th, 2011 at 9:21 AM ^

Don't understand why you're reading it, then. Sounds like a good assignment you've given yourself there. I would assume that analysis would mean something, but it also would be flawed. Scout has Josh Perry as the #2 LB in Ohio, Kaleb Ringer #1, and Joe Bolden #3. OSU offered Perry months ago and he committed, so of course no other school offered him. I imagine this happens to a greater or lesser degree with many recruits, making offer lists merely another data point. You'll note that Tim always mentions them in the Hello: posts, during the in-season updates, and TomVH references them as well.

As to the general point of these sites being meaningless, I totally disagree. Read Allen Trieu's (Scout) analyses and it's easy to see he understands the game and player abilities. Rivals, ESPN, and now 247 presumably hire good people to provide these ratings. Of course they're not always correct, but they do a good job overall. Certainly give a better sense of the player's potential than a layman like you or I could. And since they're for public consumption, that's really their intent.

WestSider

April 24th, 2011 at 6:41 PM ^

How much green sparty gear have you all seen recently? There is no bigger bandwagon, fair weather, fanbase than the sparty. Funny you never seen vintage MSU gear on those people. The run on MSU junk is insane. UM still earns more every year in those sales, but I'm just sick of seeing so many brand new hats, windbreakers, etc., from that operation on the banks of the stanky Red Cedar. Oh, and to hell with Jailtonio...thanks, I'm good now...

BrownJuggernaut

April 24th, 2011 at 9:21 PM ^

While I'd like us to be atop the Big Ten (+ND) rankings), I don't think it matters so much if we're filling our positions of need with quality players. i think we've done that thus far, and I think we're going to continue to do that. So far, I'm happy with the results.

RLS-Jr

April 25th, 2011 at 11:13 PM ^

I'm probably violating some MGoBlog protocol with the length of this post (if so - my apologies).  Nothing groundbreaking here but a few recruiting thoughts/comments:

1. Why is ND on this list?  They are not in the Big Ten.  I pay attention to ND since we compete with them on the field and for recruits but they shouldn't be on the Big Ten list (at most they deserve a footnote maybe)!

2. The 2012 Rivals250 to watch list was released on 2/10/11 (see the link attached  http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/rankings/rank-2851  ).  A couple things to note:

* Rivals hasn't ranked kids with stars (the Top250 would all be 4* or 5*) or grades yet (4* are graded 5.8-6.0; 5* are 6.1).  They have started to release their 5* players (11 so far; there are usually ~25 in any given year).  Only two of the 5* have verbally committed at this point (Mario Edwards to FSU and Johnathan Gray to Texas).

* OSU has 5 verbal commitments (all ranked amongst the Top 40 recruits in the state of OH) and four of the Rivals250.  I wonder how many they will keep if Tressel is fired or they can't play for the Big Ten Championship or a Bowl Game the next two years?  Some speculation their 2011 recruits will be given a chance to go elsewhere as well...

* Michigan and PSU each have 6 verbal commitments but only one each on the Rivals250 list at this point (RJS for Michigan and Jarron Jones for PSU). 

* Wisconsin has 3 verbals but now has two on the Rivals250 list (Vince Biegel and Dan Voltz - both kids with Michigan offers I think). 

* As shown above, no other Big Ten team has meaningful/noteworthy numbers; NW and Minnesota each have one Rivals250.

* Rivals shows zero commitments so far for MSU, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska (the post above shows one each for Iowa and Nebraska so who knows)...

* Notre Dame has 5 verbals and two on the Rivals250.

* Teams with the most commitments amongst the Rivals250 at this point include Texas (9); Texas A&M (7); FSU (6); LSU (5) and 4 each for Alabama, Florida, OSU, OK State and USC.  Who says cheaters never prosper!?

3.  I like our class so far and the potential for us to land several of our Sweet 16 (see attached http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1214761  - hopefully TomVH doesn't mind this reference and agrees wtih this list)...   James Ross and Terry Richardson both intend to take their visits and enjoy the process (sew your wild oats before you commit) but I think they both end up at Michigan.  Some think that James Ross may be the mysterious silent commitment.  It sounds like TR may be waiting until January to see how the season and other factors play out. 

4.  We obviously have significant needs on the DL and OL.  We could certainly use a highly rated Pro Style QB (maybe Pike reconsiders once Auburn goes on probation).  There has been very little discussion of the need for WR but we could really use a Pro Style WR or two since we lose most after this year (and next) and we didn't recruit one this year...

Go Blue!