With Nebraska's move to the Big Ten came much talk about who was going to be Nebraska's new rival. Many simply looked at a map and believed it would be Iowa for the simple geographical reasons. But as many people have said many times before, these things develop over time for a myriad of reasons, no matter how much people want to force feed you how it should be.
In the Big 12, Nebraska was largely without a true rival. Oklahoma was that team until the geniuses running the conference put Nebraska and OU in different divisions. Colorado and Kansas State both took their turns at times with Missouri filling that role through Nebraska's last years in the Big 12.
Maybe Nebraska's rival will indeed turn out to be Iowa. Who knows. But if Nebraska plans on winning many Big Ten titles, the Huskers need to look no further than Michigan. Maybe the Wolverines will never be the on-the-field rival they could be - they already have Ohio State and Michigan State filling that role nicely - but on the recruiting trail, the Wolverines are going to be a force to be reckoned with as this last weekend proved.
To say the Wolverines had a nice couple days recruiting is, well, a bit of an understatement. They had a weekend not often seen in Big Ten country and usually reserved for the Texas and Alabama's of the world.
Michigan received verbal commitments from eight players over the weekend, all of whom are four-star recruits at the moment. All eight players were ranked in the Rivals top 250 giving Michigan 10 such recruits in the 2013 class.
There were three offensive lineman, a tight end, a defensive end, a defensive back and one player listed as an athlete. That adds to a class that already had four star quarterback and defensive back.
Of course, signing day is still 11 months away and high school kids have been known to change their mind from time-to-time (Michigan had three junior day commitments from last year that eventually went other places) but you have to start somewhere and for Michigan, what a start it was for next year's class.
So what does it mean for Nebraska? Well, directly it means nothing as Nebraska, along with every other school, is still in the early stages of putting together their 2013 classes. But it's probably safe to say the bar has been raised.
Nebraska is hoping to make inroads in Big Ten recruiting country but with Michigan's apparent resurgence, not to mention what Urban Meyer has going at Ohio State, competing for the top talent isn't going to be easy in those areas, not that anybody said it would be.
Nebraska pulled two recruits (Jordan Westerkamp and Vincent Valentine) out of Illinois and two more out of Ohio (Greg McMullen and LeRoy Alexander) from Ohio in their 2012 class which is a good start in addition to the Ohioans already on the roster.
Among the Wolverines most recent haul, two came from Illinois including one that had a Nebraska offer (OL, Kyle Bosch). They also pulled an offensive lineman out of Colorado, an area Nebraska has generally be strong in. That's in addition to the wide receiver and defensive tackle that were part of their 2012 class from Des Moines and Kansas City, respectively.
It's far too early to be rushing to judgment about anybody's 2013 class, but Nebraska may have found their recruiting rival, if there even is such a thing. Of course, this is par for the course Nebraska in recruiting and certainly nothing new in that regard. It's always been an uphill battle recruiting against teams closer to more fertile recruiting grounds.
With Nebraska set to have a bigger class of recruits in 2013 than they have had recently, it stands to reason this may be Bo Pelini's most important class to date, a point certainly being driven home by what is happening in Ann Arbor.
