By: Bill Kurelic (ESPN.com) –
The recruiting race is on in the Big Ten. Will Jim Tressel and Ohio State again land the top class in the conference? Will Joe Paterno and Pen State re-establish recruiting dominance in Pennsylvania and also land great prospects from outside the Keystone State? Or will Rich Rodriguez and Michigan take over now that Rodriguez has a full year under his belt?

At this time a year ago Tressel had 14 verbal commitments and by the end of last June he had 23 en route to signing the Big Ten’s No. 1 recruiting class. But while Tressel may again land the top class in the conference things are not unfolding like they did a year ago.

Tressel has five commitments at this point and will likely finish the summer with no more than 10. The Ohio State staff has landed commitments from four of the top 15 prospects in Ohio and the Buckeyes’ boss has commitments from three ESPNU 150 Watch List prospects: OL Andrew Norwell (Cincinnati, Ohio/Anderson); LB Jamel Turner (Youngstown, Ohio/Ursuline) and DE/LB David Durham (Austin, Texas/Westlake).

There are a number of great prospects still seriously considering the Buckeyes at this point but predicting which way most of them will go is almost impossible right now. Another great Ohio State class is definitely possible, but not a certainty.

Paterno has struggled in recent years to keep top Pennsylvania prospects from leaving the state. The best example is current Ohio State starting QB Terrelle Pryor (Jeannette, Pa./Jeannette), and LB Dorian Bell (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway) also signed with Ohio State.

However, Paterno is off to a much better start this recruiting season. He has landed two of the state’s top prospects in LB Mike Hull (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) and QB P.J. Jones (McKees Rocks, Pa./Sto-Rox).

Paterno has also landed two talented out-of-state prospects in RB Silas Redd (Stamford, Conn./King) and WR Adrian Coxson (Baltimore, Md./City College), both of whom are ESPNU 150 Watch List prospects. Like Tressel, however, Paterno currently has only five commitments. The five are similar in terms of rankings to Tressel’s group. That brings us to Rodriguez, who leads the conference at this point with 10 commitments. Among his pledges are three ESPNU 150 Watch List prospects: QB Devin Gardner (Inkster, Mich./Inkster); WR Ricardo Miller (Orlando, Fla./Dr. Phillips); and DB Marvin Robinson (Eagle Lake, Fla./Lake Region).

On the other end of the spectrum, though, several of the Wolverines’ other commitments did not have scholarship offers from any other BCS schools when they committed Buy Viagra Online to Michigan. It will be interesting to see down the road if Rodriguez and his staff were right on their evaluations.

Any of the three schools above could end up with a super class on national signing day but none is the clear-cut conference leader at this point.

And it is not out of the question for another school to sneak into the picture as the recruiting season progresses. Ron Zook of Illinois is known as an outstanding recruiter and ESPNU 150 Watch List DB Corey Cooper (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East) has committed to the Fighting Illini.

Mark Dantonio has the Michigan State program on the rise and the Spartans’ boss has a commitment from ESPNU 150 Watch List LB Max Bullough (Traverse City, Mich./St. Francis).

In the end, though, the most likely scenario has Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State grabbing the top spot in the conference recruiting rankings but for the time being none of the three has established clear superiority.

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