New look Big Ten map underscores new reality for high school recruits

The iconic map of the Big Ten got a facelift this week, with four new programs formerly from the Pac-12 now included in the conference’s layout.

All of this means that for high school recruits, college football is set for a seismic shift yet again.

A Big Ten extending from coast to coast means that the conference’s programs will likely expand their recruiting footprint rather dramatically. East Coast schools, such as Maryland and Rutgers, might be tapping California now that they are in the same conference.

And it stands to reason that with additional exposure on the East Coast and in the Midwest that the likes of USC and Oregon, for instance, might just begin recruiting the area more heavily.

Some programs, such as Michigan and Ohio State, won’t be affected by the geographic expansion of the Big Ten as they have recruited nationally for a long time. Northwestern, too, falls into that category since it is a high academic program that draws athletes not just for the chance to compete in the Big Ten but also for a very valuable degree.

But very few programs have the bandwidth and name recognition to truly recruit nationally. That might be changing, as one of the Big Ten’s newest members hints that the iconic map is expanding its recruiting turf.

Consider UCLA, which has two current commitments in its 2025 class from the Big Ten’s territory (one recruit from New York and one from Illinois). In its previous three recruiting classes, UCLA had only two commits from the Big Ten map (both from Michigan).

The vast majority of their recruits come from California, but a new conference seems to indicate that the Bruins are open to new prospects.

It will be fascinating to see how the recruiting map might expand for these West Coast teams who were in the Pac-12. There are also some not-so-insignificant ramifications for the second-tier teams in the Big Ten (basically anyone not named Michigan or Ohio State) who might start augmenting their recruiting classes from talent-rich California in particular.