Big Ten Recruiting Rankings 3-25-12

Submitted by Ace on

It was a relatively quiet week in recruiting—in fact, there were no commitments for any team until the weekend—but Rivals did update their rankings with a large group of three-star prospects, so the numbers are a little less wonky this time around. Changes since last rankings:

3-24-12: Notre Dame picks up Colin McGovern and Hunter Bivin.

3-25-12: Wisconsin picks up Austin Ramesh.

UPDATE: Notre Dame picks up Mike McGlinchey and Malik Zaire.

Chart? Chart:

Big Ten+ Recruiting Class Rankings
Rank School # Commits Rivals Avg Scout Avg 24/7 Avg Avg Avg^
1 Michigan 16 3.75 3.88 3.75 3.79
2 Ohio State 5 4.20 4.20 4.20 4.20
3 Notre Dame 7 3.43 3.71 3.86 3.67
4 Penn State 5 4.00 3.60 3.60 3.73
5 Michigan State 5 3.20 3.20 3.20 3.20
6 Nebraska 2 4.00 2.50 3.00 3.17
7 Wisconsin 2 3.00 2.00 3.50 2.83
8 Illinois 2 2.00 1.00 2.50 1.83
9 Minnesota 1 3.00 1.00 3.00 2.33
10 Indiana 0 - - - -
11 Iowa 0 - - - -
12 Northwestern 0 - - - -
13 Purdue 0 - - - -

^The average of the average rankings of the three recruiting services (aka the previous four columns). The figure is calculated based on the raw numbers and then rounded, so the numbers above may not average out exactly.

NOTE: Unranked recruits are counted as one-star players. This may be a bit unfair this early in the process, considering there are many unevaluated recruits out there at this stage, but that's life.

On to the full data:

#1 Michigan - 16 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Patrick Kugler OL PA 4 5 4
Shane Morris QB MI 4 5 4
Dymonte Thomas S OH 4 5 4
Kyle Bosch OL IL 4 4 4
Jake Butt TE OH 4 4 4
Chris Fox OL CO 4 4 4
Mike McCray LB OH 4 4 4
Wyatt Shallman ATH MI 4 4 4
Logan Tuley-Tillman OL IL 4 4 4
Taco Charlton DE OH 4 3 4
David Dawson OL MI 4 3 4
Jourdan Lewis CB MI 4 3 4
Gareon Conley CB OH 3 4 3
DeVeon Smith RB OH 3 4 3
Jaron Dukes WR OH 3 3 3
Khalid Hill TE MI 3 3 3

The Wolverines don't add any commits, but four players—Gareon Conley, DeVeon Smith, Jaron Dukes, and Khalid Hill—all pick up three stars on Rivals. Every Michigan commit is now rated by all three services that have released full rankings.

#2 Ohio State - 5 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Cameron Burrows CB OH 5 4 4
Jalin Marshall ATH OH 4 5 5
Evan Lisle OL OH 4 4 4
Billy Price DT OH 4 4 4
Eli Woodard CB NJ 4 4 4

No change for the Buckeyes.

#3 Notre Dame - 7 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Hunter Bivin OL KY 4 4 4
Steven Elmer OL MI 4 4 4
Malik Zaire QB OH 4 4 4
Mike McGlinchey OL PA 3 4 4
Colin McGovern OL IL 3 4 4
Jacob Matuska DE OH 3 3 4
James Onwualu WR MN 3 3 3

The Irish add a pair of offensive linemen, Hunter Bivin and Colin McGovern, on Saturday and pass Michigan State in the rankings. Jacob Matuska and James Onwualu both go from unranked to three-star recruits on Rivals.

UPDATE: Big weekend for Notre Dame, as they also grab Mike McGlinchey and Malik Zaire within minutes of this first being posted. I've jumped the Irish over Penn State for now, but I think I'm leaving OSU in the #2 spot—the high-end quality of the Buckeye class gives them a slight edge over ND's larger group.

#4 Penn State - 5 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Adam Breneman TE PA 4 5 4
Christian Hackenberg QB VA 4 4 4
Garrett Sickels DE NJ 4 3 4
Ross Douglas CB OH 4 3 3
Brendan Mahon OL NJ 4 3 3

No change for the Nittany Lions.

#5 Michigan State - 5 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Jon Reschke LB MI 4 4 4
Caleb Benenoch OL TX 3 3 3
Gerald Holmes RB MI 3 3 3
Jalyn Powell S OH 3 3 3
R.J. Shelton RB WI 3 3 3

Four Spartan commits—Benenoch, Holmes, Powell, and Shelton—get three stars on Rivals.

#6 Nebraska - 2 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Marcus McWilson S OH 4 4 3
Tre'vell Dixon ATH LA 4 NR 3

No change for the Huskers.

#7 Wisconsin - 2 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Garret Dooley LB IL 3 3 3
Austin Ramesh ATH WI 3 NR 4

The Badgers land in-state RB/LB Austin Ramesh, passing the Illini in the rankings. Garret Dooley gets three stars from Rivals.

#8 Illinois - 2 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Dillan Cazley CB IL 3 NR 2
Jesse Chadwell OL MI NR NR 3

Dillan Cazley earns a three-star rating from Rivals.

#9 Minnesota - 1 Commit
Name Position State Rivals Scout 24/7
Keelon Brookins CB MN 3 NR 3

Keelon Brookins gets a three-star rating on Rivals.

Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, and Purdue still do not have a commit for the 2013 class.

Comments

AFWolverine

March 26th, 2012 at 12:45 AM ^

about semantics, but shouldn't "^The average of the average rankings of the three recruiting services (aka the previous four columns)" read at the end "(aka the previous three columns)" until ESPN is added?

Thanks for the hard work you put into this stuff. As I do statistics and data charting on a daily basis for my job, I know sometimes the smallest things can get overlooked.

turd ferguson

March 25th, 2012 at 3:03 PM ^

It's interesting that our recruits received the exact same star ratings from Rivals and 247, but Scout gave a different rating to half of them (8 of 16).  I don't know what to make of that... just seems interesting.

Farnn

March 25th, 2012 at 5:29 PM ^

Remember, that OSU offer for Zaire is conditional.  They don't really want him so it's no big loss for Meyer.  And they will get Pocic and Tunsil anyway so who cares about McGovern and Bivin.

/Buckeye logic

 

But really, nice haul for ND today.  Between ND, Texas, and Michigan the pickings on the OL are going to be slim for the rest of the BCS conference teams.

BlueZoo

March 25th, 2012 at 5:43 PM ^

This looks like it could be the best haul for Michigan/OSU/ND/PSU in a while, assuming PSU can keep it up.

Still confused at why recruits like ND despite:

- Crazy coach

- many assistant coaches leaving

- ND killing a kid

- not winning anything of importance in almost 2 decades

 

... but whatever

VermontMichiganFan

March 26th, 2012 at 2:44 PM ^

True some Catholics may choose ND because of religion but its silly to question why someone would want to play for ND (meant as general reply not just for you).

ND positives:

One of the biggest fan bases- means many recruits grew up fans (also national fanbase as opposed to regional like many schools).

Popular in media- no matter how good they are they get top-5 exposure year in year out

Popular in culture- movies (Rudy), hats, merchandise- so it has appeal in that sense

Success- Yeah they are not the ND of old- but they are consistently a BCS threat- and with BCS rules if they qualify they get into a BCS bowl- thats appealing

Tradition- Hard to compete with ND tradtion (in no way can it be a negative- maybe not heads up against UM but even that will be debated by many)

ND negatives:

Lack of recent success- many top programs have not won recently- and most either don't have NC's or not for long time- so its unfair to use that as a major point

Coaching- Don't buy it- but many are saying it- he has results in his stops- and coach's atitdue and personality can be a plus to some and a negative to others- seems to work as far as getting good players for him though

Anything else?- All the rest I've read or hear people talking about is nonsense...

Yeah its fun to hate on ND- but it gets silly when there is so much talk about ND being an odd choice for a rectuit- makes UM fans seem obnoxious IMO- lots more positives for ND than negatives

blue note

March 25th, 2012 at 10:38 PM ^

I'll give it a swing:

- Crazy coach

Lots of crazy coaches get it done... Saban, Pelini, Harbaugh, etc.

- many assistant coaches leaving

Assistants leave...not really a big deal

- ND killing a kid

Doubt any recruits think ND intentionally killed anyone

- not winning anything of importance in almost 2 decades

They had a glorious Sun Bowl win in there somewhere