Big Ten Recruiting Rankings: 9-9-12

Do you put Northwestern ahead of Nebraska solely based on the current class size?  NU (IL) has 17 commits, only of whom are ranked 4 stars by at least one service and 8 of whom are ranked 2 stars by at least on service.  NU (NE) has 14 commits, 8 of whom are ranked 4 stars by at least one service and only 1 of whom is ranked 2 stars by at least one service. 

Despite the gross number of recruits, NU (NE) has a quantitatively and qualitatively better class, no?  What's the rationale? 

And this speaks to the general logic or calculation for placing one team above another, of course. 

There's usually going to be a gap between U-M/OSU/ND and the rest of the Big Ten, and that's been exascerbated by the implosion of Penn State's class—they were hanging right with the top group before the Freeh Report. There is the ratings bump factor as well, especially this long before the end of the recruiting cycle; the recruiting services are going to make sure they get out and evaluate commits to the big-time schools, and it takes a while to get to everyone, especially since the senior season for the 2013 class just got under way a couple weeks ago.

I think that gap will start to close as we near signing day and schools like Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Michigan State fill out their classes while the top group mostly stands pat. I'd be very surprised if Illinois and Iowa finish with the #4 and #5 classes, too.

I'm not Ace, but here are my two cents...

If U-M, ND, and OSU were getting previously unrated or lowly rated kids who then jumped to the top of the rankings, this would feel fishy.  From my memory at least with Michigan's class, that hasn't been the case (with a couple of exceptions, like Gareon Conley).  In general, these three schools are getting recruits who were highly rated and highly sought after before they ever committed.

Another observation: from what we've heard, it doesn't seem like Michigan aggressively pursued very many of the kids who later committed to schools other than U-M, ND, and OSU.  There certainly are some (Christian Lacouture and Adam Breneman for sure; Darius Latham and Shane Jones, at least to some extent; a few others, I'm sure).  All in all, though, it seems that the other Big Ten schools were much more interested in Michigan's current commitments than Michigan ever was in theirs.  I'd imagine that holds true for Notre Dame and Ohio State as well.

Ace ranks by number of recruits and stars, so teams with large classes always rank high.

I have no problem with number of recruits being a big factor, all the recruiting services weigh that pretty heavily. But the fact remains a "big" class really just means the schools current roster dictates that it won't have a large number of spots to fill. It's not like they're falling behind or noncompetitive due to recruiting class size.

Case in point, in Nebraska's case, we're 3rd in the B1G for star average AND still have about 10 spots left. Does that mean we're going to have an awesome recruiting class? Who knows. Personally I think average stars matter more than raw numbers of recruits. you can only recruit to the size of your open spots. 

I also don't take the recruiting services too seriously. They're in the business of selling and hyping, how else can they make money?

Yes, as a fan I'd rather have a 4-5 star laden class than a 2-3 star class, but I've always figured the coaches don't gives a rats ass what Rivals thinks. Lots of times there's politics and marketing involved in the player ratings. Notre Dame offers someone a scholie and they immediatey go up from unrated or low star to high star, or whatever.

Bottom line, you have a coaching staff you believe in and they are recruiting the guys they believe will live up to Michigan standards and play the game the Michigan way. That's all you can ask for as a fan, Rivals and Scouts be damned, they don't know shit about what makes right for  Michigan or Nebraska, who recruit unique to their standard, scheme, and academics.

Sorry for the long rant on your board, as a "guest" rival fan I try to mind my manners, and Michigan certainly looks to have an awesome class lined up, no matter what you think about recruiting services, no disrespect intended to your current class.

Have a good time in Lincoln this year and may the best team win the game and the division, and no injuries to these young men.

Go Big Red!

Why aren't we doing this? It's just the wrong thing to do. The practice of oversigning offers kids scholarships, only to yank it out from them before school starts in the fall. This is coupled with medical redshirts, grey shirts, and the like. Leaving the player SOL and the school loaded with ill-gotten talent. 

I would take the way we recruit anyday over how Saban et al do it. We offer kids, make sure we have room for them, and do not yank their scholarships to make room for a better player. Quite simply, we're better than that. 

Hit up oversigning.com for more info. There's a lot of good information about the subject.