Penn State's recent recruiting slide has dropped it down the Big Ten 2027 class rankings.
Penn State has had a tough couple of weeks on the recruiting trail as they have lost several of their top recruits with some significant flips. As a result, the class that was once nationally renowned has taken a significant step back.
The Nittany Lions' 2027 class had reached as high as No. 5 in the country, but is nowhere near that now. As it stands today, Penn State has the No. 24 class in the nation; more importantly, they have fallen to the No. 7 class in the Big Ten.
This is significant because if we rewound to one month ago, the Nittany Lions were rolling and Matt Campbell could do no wrong. The excitement has tamed a little bit, and the Campbell regime is facing its first bit of adversity as the head coach.
We will learn over the next couple of weeks how he handles it, but there is nothing to say that he won't handle it well.
Now, there is a bigger story when looking at the Big Ten recruiting rankings. While the landscape of college football is continually changing, the emphasis on high school recruiting is truly losing its steam. The best teams are built through the transfer portal, but the need to have a good young core is still very important.
The 2027 rankings indicate, in my opinion, what trend line each team is on.
The two at the top are familiar faces as Oregon and Ohio State take the top spots. Then in third place is a pretty shocking slotting of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as they stole Khalil Taylor from the Nittany Lions earlier in the week.
After Nebraska, Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans are back where they should be at the top of recruiting. It can't be too challenging to recruit to Southern California, and Riley is back on his game.
Two spots ahead of the Nittany Lions is likely the second biggest surprise of the rankings, the UCLA Bruins, checking in as the fifth-best recruiting class in the Big Ten. It is very impressive what Bob Chesney has done after taking the program over, and he is on the trajectory that everyone thought Campbell was on.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the entire list is all the way down at No. 14, where the Indiana Hoosiers see their name. Whether this is an outward admission that Curt Cignetti just doesn't care about high school recruits or he is having an actual tough time on the trail, we will find out.
All in all, the Big Ten has some very good recruiting classes, and Penn State has fallen a bit down the list. There is time to continue jockeying for position as a guy as most definitely not stuck in one place.
There is work to be done if the Nittany Lions want to get back to the top of the Big Ten.
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