Volume 12 closes out the 2018 Big Ten Recruiting Class.

King Of The Mountain

Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes' 2018 recruiting class was tops in the Big Ten and finished second in the nation. Ohio State has won the Big Ten's recruiting race every year Meyer has been the Buckeyes' head coach. That's a run of seven straight classes.

The last time Ohio State did not finish on top of the conference was 2010. The Buckeyes have won the Big Ten's recruiting race ten times in the last eleven years.   

On the national front, this is the second straight year Ohio State finished runner-up in the rankings. Meyer's seven OSU recruiting classes have accumulated six top 5 finishes. His worst national ranking was 7th in 2015. 

The 2018 Composite Team Rankings as of 2/9/2017 According to 247

Scott Frost's hiring at Nebraska was a boon for the Cornhuskers. The team went from 13th on December 1st, to finish 4th in the final Big Ten rankings. That's a pretty impressive improvement in a couple of months on the job.

Illinois (+35.95) and Iowa (+32.16) also finished with a strong final push.

Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern are on the opposite end of the surprise spectrum. The Wildcats started out of the gates strong, but finished with the conference's worst rated 2018 class. Fitzgerald's class fell six spots in the closing months.

Conference Average Line
The conference average line should sit just after the seventh place team. However, the final average landed just behind fifth place Maryland. This indicates a big gap between the top schools and the rest of the conference.

Think of Ohio State as that smart kid in your class that is destroying the bell curve. There is a huge disparity in recruiting when the Buckeyes are just under 105 points better than the average and almost 150 points better than last place Northwestern.

The B1G East has top three spots and five of the top six. Nebraska should be in a prime position to dominate the B1G West over the next couple of years. However, don't sleep on PJ Fleck doing work up in Minnesota. 

B1G Stars Breakdown

Ohio State and Penn State were the only teams in the conference to have 5★ commits. Each program finished with three 5★ players.

Ohio State's 5★ players: OT Nicholas Petit-Frere (.996), DT Taron Vincent (.988) and S Tyreke Johnson (.988).

Penn State's 5★ players: DE Micah Parsons (.998), WR Justin Shorter (.996) and APB Ricky Slade (.985). 

Movers And Shakers
Nebraska (+10), Illinois (+5) and Indiana (+4) made the biggest gains in the rankings. Rutgers (-6), Wisconsin (-6), and Michigan (-3) fell flat as they crossed the finish line.

Star Gazing
A whopping 97.2 percent of the Big Ten's commits are 4★ and 3★ players. To put Ohio State's recruiting in perspective, just over 33 percent of the conference's 4 star commits and half of the 5 star players are Buckeyes.

Charting The Big Ten's Average Player Ratings

Ohio State finished the 2018 Recruiting race with the top player average from start to finish. Penn State closed the gap a little bit, but the Buckeyes 2018 class finished with an impressive .943 per player average. 

To put Ohio State's 2018 class in perspective, the Big Ten's average drops 5 points when you take the Buckeyes out.

*Kickers, punters and long snappers are not included in player averages.

Charting Ohio State's Committed Players

In the end, Ohio State finished with 26 players in the 2018 class. Five quick notes on the rise and fall of this group's individual ratings:

1. Five of Ohio State's committed players had their rating increase during the final two months of the recruiting season.
2. Eight commits had their rating decrease during that same time span.
3. Four players rescinded their commitments before signing day.
4. Of the commits, Max Wray saw his rating drop the farthest from the day he committed to Ohio State. The offensive tackle's rating fell 20 points between April and February's National Signing Day. 
5. Master Teague had the largest increase. When the running back committed in June, his rating was 866. On signing day, Teague's rating was 913. That is an increase of 47 points.

According to 247's composite scoring, the 2018 class is ranked second among Urban Meyer's seven recruiting classes during his time at Ohio State.

This is Meyer's third Ohio State recruiting class to finish above 300 composite points. All of his classes have scored over 275 points. This is Meyer's seventh Ohio State signing class to finish with player averages above .903.

Will the 2019 take home the No. 1 spot in the national rankings? After consecutive second place finishes, the Buckeyes are due to break through.