I know it's still early, but the B1G is MUCH improved recruiting thus far in the season.
Per Scout, the
B1G is the 2nd best conference in recruiting: per avg rank of school's class, per quality of recruit, in # of 4* committments, in # of top 100 players, and overall. What makes this even more impressive is that the B1G is 4th in average # of players committed per school, so they are doing this despite having fewer numbers of players committed compared to other conferences.
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=9&c=14&view=2&yr=2014As of right now, 6 schools in the top 25, 8 schools in the top 35. The big surprise early on is Minnesota, which currently has the 3rd best star average per recruit (3.40). Also, Northwestern is quietly putting together one of their best recruiting classes ever.
If I had to guess what prompted this change, I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the challenge Urban Meyer has put forth on the conference. It has brought everyone's game up. Still not where we want the conference to be yet from a recruiting stand-point, but this seems to be a
big step in the right direction.