In the next two weeks, two subjects are going to dominate the football airwaves — National Signing Day and the Super Bowl.

Recruiting rankings and Super Bowl x-factors will be discussed at length. Tons of three-star recruits will sign their letters of intent without any national buzz. That rating is supposed to mean that they don’t project as NFL-level players.

Just don’t tell that to the former B1G players in this year’s Super Bowl.

None of the 12 active B1G players in Super Bowl LI were four-star recruits. Really. In other words, every B1G player in Super Bowl LI has already surpassed expectations just by making it this far.

Here’s a look at how each active former B1G player in Super Bowl LI ranked as a recruit (247sports):

PATRIOTS

  • QB Tom Brady, (Michigan) — N/A*
  • DE Alan Branch (Michigan) — 3-star defensive end, No. 249 overall in 2004 class
  • DB Nate Ebner (Ohio State) — N/A**
  • OL Ted Karras (Illinois) — 3-star offensive guard, No. 1222 overall in 2011 class
  • Rob Ninkovich (Purdue) — 3-star defensive end, No. 89 JUCO recruit in 2004 class
  • DT Vincent Valentine (Nebraska) —3-star defensive tackle, No. 513 overall in 2012 class
  • RB James White (Wisconsin) — 3-star running back, No. 551 overall in 2010 class

FALCONS

  • DB Ricardo Allen (Purdue) — 3-star cornerback, No. 594 overall in 2010 class
  • DT Jonathan Babineaux (Iowa) — N/A*
  • LB De’Vondre Campbell (Minnesota) — 3-star linebacker, No. 76 JUCO in 2013 class
  • RB Tevin Coleman (Indiana) — 3-star running back, No. 733 overall in 2012 class
  • DT Ra’Shede Hegeman (Minnesota) — 3-star tight end, No. 299 overall in 2009 class

*recruiting rankings system not active at time of commitment

**unrated

For what it’s worth, former Iowa star Adrian Clayborn was a four-star recruit out of high school, but he’s inactive for the Super Bowl because of an injury.

Still, that’s saying something. Perhaps it’s a combination of the Patriots’ ability to find the diamond-in-the-rough college player with the B1G’s limited amount of four- and five-star recruits in years past. Shoot, there are more Rutgers players in Super Bowl LI than Alabama players.

And it’s not that the B1G players lacked skills at the collegiate level. Coleman was a unanimous All-American at Indiana after rushing for 2,036 yards. White ran for more than 4,000 yards and racked up 45 rushing scores at Wisconsin.

Brady is obviously the extreme case of an unheralded recruit/prospect becoming an all-time great. On a lesser scale, there are plenty more cases like Brady’s across the B1G.

It could be a former B1G player who becomes the Super Bowl LI hero. If that happens, it won’t be someone who was ticketed for stardom as a high school senior.