Charting Rutgers Recruiting: Where we stand today - our second look

Last month we looked at where RU was vis-à-vis the Big Ten and nationally.  Have there been any changes since May 24?  Our Scott Logan had previously noted that Rutgers had already moved up in national rankings, well ahead of what it was doing the last two recruiting cycles.  And that was last month.  Wait til you see where things are now.

So how does No. 23 nationally sound?

Chris Ash and his staff have been busy guys over the last month.  The addition of three key commits (DB Edwin Lopez, OG Owen Bowles, OLB C.J. Onyechi) over the last month boosted the Knights' standing in two of the three services on a national level and in all three in the Big Ten rankings.  The three new players, added to the ten previous commits,  created a huge jump in the Rivals and Scout rankings.

Gerry DiNardo

BTN's DiNardo does his regular tweets about where each Big Ten squad sits in the recruiting wars.  His most recent reports came out this morning.

B1G 2017 Recruiting Update #Rutgers Ranked 25 Nationally by Scout, 25 by 247,
23 by Rivals with ave. star rating of 2.77 and 13 Commits

— Gerry DiNardo (@gerrydinardo) June 20, 2016

Despite the gaudy rankings, Rutgers actually hurts the East's position with its star rating.  More on that below.

B1G 2017 Recruiting Update East average ranking 24 with an average star rating of 3.17 West average ranking 43 with a star rating of 2.94

— Gerry DiNardo (@gerrydinardo) June 20, 2016

The Beast is still the East

And while the East is still the dominant division within the Big Ten, Rutgers made some strides in the last few weeks.  From sixth in the division last month, RU now sits at number four, jumping over both Penn State and Michigan State.

Rutgers didn't just show progress within the division.  The Knights are looking much better against the entire conference - middle of the pack ain't too bad - and nationally.

One additional commitment back in June didn't move the needle much for Rutgers within the Big Ten. The three added in the last few weeks did, both in conference and on the national stage.  The different showings are caused by the different methodologies used by each of the services. If you're really interested in looking at the process, they're here:

• Rivals Methodology
• 247Sports Methodology
• Scout Methology

One of the advantages Rutgers has right now is quantity.  With 13 commits, it has as many as No. 1 Ohio State, but several more than either Penn State or Iowa, for example, that are ranked behind the Knights. Rutgers has a lower "average star rating" than any other schools except Indiana and Purdue.

We'll continue to chart Rutgers' progress monthly through December, then weekly up through National Letter of Intent signing on February 1, 2017.

P5 Programs Behind Rutgers

As we did last month,  these are the next five schools in each service's rankings immediately behind the Knights.

We'll be back in mid-August to see where we stand then.