Big Ten football has had ups and downs over the last couple of decades, but there has been no inconsistency at Ohio State. The Buckeyes are the only squad to win a national title twice in that time frame. No other team has really come close.
And it all starts with getting the players. Sure, there has to be a high level of development as well, but when you have more to work with at the beginning, it makes winning games and molding a championship team much easier.
To illustrate how dominant Ohio State has been over the last couple of decades in recruiting within the conference, we went back over the last 20 years to see which programs have brought in the top recruiting classes. We must keep in mind things are a lot different in 2021 versus measuring the classes back in 2001, but there’s still a very, very distinct divide between OSU and every other program in the conference.
Here is a look at the top 10 recruiting classes in the Big Ten over the last 20 years according to the 247Sports team composite rankings.