Michigan and Ohio State Putting Chokehold on Big Ten Through Recruiting
By Ty Duffy
Ohio State and Michigan finished No. 4 and No. 7 in Rivals’ 2012 class rankings. Nebraska, No. 25, was the only other Big Ten school to finish in the top 32. That disparity could end up being greater in 2013. Michigan already has verbal commitments from 11 of the Rivals’ Top 200. Only Alabama (7), has more than five six. Ohio State has four Top 200 commits, though three rank in the top 50. No other Big Ten school has one in the top 250.
Meyer and Hoke are expected to butt heads over kids, and they will. Though, the teams moving to different offensive systems will reduce the overlap.
Recruiting rankings aren’t everything. Those players still need to be coached and developed. The scariest thing for the rest of the Big Ten is Michigan and Ohio State have the coaching staffs best equipped to do that.
The SEC rose to predominance with Alabama, LSU and Florida functioning at full capacity while Penn State stayed in a stasis and Michigan swirled around the toilet under Rich Rodriguez. Big Ten programs can’t oversign, making a fair fight with the SEC West implausible. Though, with new restrictions and a few more robust recruiting years, Michigan and Ohio State could make it a competitive one.
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