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By the numbers: In-state representation
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Every coach wants to be able to fence off his team’s state. It’s hard to be successful at a Power Five program if you can’t recruit your own state.
Northwestern and Purdue, two teams at the bottom of the conference the last two years, are also last in the Big Ten in home-state representation. Urban Meyer and Ohio State, on the other hand, are the only Big Ten team to have over half of their roster made up of in-state players.
But that isn’t necessarily the only way to achieve success. Michigan State, which has to battle the Wolverines for in-state recruits, only has 34 percent of its roster comprised of local talent. Yet Sparty is bidding for a third straight top-five finish.
These trends don’t necessarily guarantee success or failure, but they are worth noting. Also worth noting, for as much success as the Buckeyes have had recruiting in-state talent, Michigan actually has 22 kids from Ohio while OSU only has three kids from Michigan.
Jim Harbaugh has the most diversity on his team with 22 states represented. Even compared to a Northwestern program made up of 74 percent out-of-state players, Michigan still has more states represented than the Wildcats.
Ok, enough random stats. Here are the Big Ten teams ranked by their representation of in-state athletes.
14. Northwestern
In state: 26%
13. Purdue
In state: 28%
12. Minnesota
In state: 33%
11. Michigan State
In state: 34%
10. Illinois
In state: 36.5%
9. Iowa
In state: 36.8%
8. Maryland
In state: 38.1%
7. Penn State
In state: 38.4%
6. Indiana
In state: 40%
5. Nebraska
In state: 40.4%
4. Michigan
In state: 41%
3. Wisconsin
In state: 44%
2. Rutgers
In state: 47%
1. Ohio State
In state: 52%
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.