Hey, hey, where you been? But God talk is about to begin. Hey, hey, hey, come on in.

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I'm Nathan Baird. Again, from Cleveland.com, along with Stephen Means,

still no Doug Lamarice, but back later this week, I think. So Stephen and I are going to delve into some more recruiting talk.

We had a recruiting pod that came out on Tuesday that really delved into sort of Stephen's re-up on predicting the class and some other topics.

And today we're going to delve out beyond Ohio State a little bit into the rest of the big 10.

Because I think it's good to check in with that every once in a while to sort of reconfirm some of the things that we already think about Ohio State recruiting and also to put into perspective.

What else is happening in the rest of the big 10 as it tries to chase Ohio State because ultimately that is what a lot of these teams are doing.

Stephen, as you're covering recruiting for us, sort of on a year round basis, how much obviously the main focus at all times is, you know, who is the Ohio State looking for?

Who are they going to get? Who are they really in a battle for which teams are they battling for? I guess maybe that's the best way to sort of frame this question.

How often do Ohio State battles involve other big 10 teams?

And as you're following these commitments and these decisions that are happening.

Like what percentage of the time is there a big threat from another big 10 program?

Yeah, not that much. I would say less than 25% just because of the caliber of player Ohio States going after versus what Michigan Penn State can usually go after.

It happens every so until a while, but then there's like context as of why it happened.

Like prime example of that is Ju Aller. It's Ohio State tried to get back into that race after he was a Penn State committee and they couldn't get back into it.

But that's because they went chasing Quinn you or should begin with. So it's like.

It's it's almost like when Ohio State needs to go to its backup plan more often than not, which is what's made this 2023 cycle so interesting.

Because there are some guys that are maybe like stationed in the Midwest live in the Midwest where Ohio State could have turned it into a battle with a Michigan or a Penn State or Michigan State or other big 10 programs.

But Ohio State's not necessarily looking in that direction anymore.

And those other big 10 programs aren't even like in the race anymore, at least you trailing behind some other teams from around the country.

So it's Ohio State focuses Alabama Georgia Clemson and now Texas and USC as they start to get the ball rolling here while the rest of the big 10 is just kind of focusing on each other.

Or against the, you know, the program that is in whatever region that player is from. So sometimes it could be a North Carolina NC State if it's someone from over there.

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