Penn State Nittany Lions

Big Ten off to strong start in recruiting after huge June

Published Jul. 3, 2015 10:36 a.m. ET

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The arrival of the month of July also means a dead period in college football recruiting, and many Big Ten coaches earned the right to take a break after June was a boon to talent collection across the conference.

ESPN.com noted 108 players committed to Big Ten schools in June, but the story goes much deeper than that.

So far, the quality is there to match the quantity, too.

As of July 2, four Big Ten teams were in the national top 10 of Scout.com's rankings -- No. 2 Michigan State, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 8 Penn State and No. 10 Michigan. That is three more than finished in the top 10 in February when the class of 2015 signed.

The last time the Big Ten had more than two classes finish in Scout's top 10 was 2005, when Michigan had the No. 2 class in the country while Ohio State was seventh and Iowa was No. 8.

Also making strong showings so far are Northwestern (tied for 22nd) and Iowa (25th).

Six top 25 classes for the Big Ten would be twice as many as last year if those rankings hold up, though there is a long way to go until National Signing Day, and numbers may start to get tight in many of those classes, meaning relatively few more commits could be on the way and others will have a chance to make up some ground.

More good news: The Big Ten's two five-star commits are already two more than last year.

As for four-star prospects, the conference has pledges from 44 so far after snagging 68 all of last year.

The Big Ten's 15 pledges from top 100 prospects are more than double any other conference -- except the SEC, which stands at 18.

Overall the SEC also remains ahead of the Big Ten with a collective average star rating of 3.27 to the 3.07 mark for the Big Ten.

See the full Scout team recruiting rankings here.

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