College Football Recruiting 2012: Worst Recruiting Class in Each BCS Conference

You want to win your conference and get to a BCS bowl game? Well, you need to recruit—a lot. The big six BCS conferences, or AQ's, as they are properly known, are the most competitive leagues in college football.

For this read, we're going to take a look at the worst class in each BCS conference. These teams are not on track to building teams that will challenge for BCS conference titles and bowls in three to four years.

Sigh, let's begin.

Big East

I'm going with South Florida for the Big East. The Bulls only have just 10 commitments, which is decent, but they have just one 4-star recruit lined up in TE Sean Price.

I think this class will need sometime to develop, and as they do, other classes may be more productive on the field faster.

Getting a WR like D'Vario Montgomery would give this class a huge boost. But for now, they are the dwellers in the Big East.

Big 12

We all know the Big 12 has bigger problems as a whole than just Kansas State having the worst class in the conference right now, but we'll focus on the Wildcats for this piece.

Bill Snyder has just seven commitments, and no 4-star recruits. I'm sure Snyder and his staff will look to the JC ranks yet again this cycle, but this class doesn't look pretty right now.

The highest rated recruit is Will Davis, an LB prospect from Texas, who Scout.com has ranked just 36th at his position and rated at 3-stars.

Kansas was also considered.

ACC

Jim Grobe is a solid coach, and the Demon Deacons had a magical run a few years ago, but that seems like 40 years ago.

And this 2012 recruiting class won't help much.

Wake Forest has 10 commitments, but only five of the recruits are even rated 3-stars.That's not good. At all.

Sure, the star system doesn't matter much to many, me included, and player development and coaching are the most important factors of recruiting class success, but on paper, Wake Forest's class is one of the worst in the country.

Big Ten

Remember a few years back it seemed like Ron Zook had Illinois on the right track? I mean, they had a couple pretty good recruiting classes, were battling higher profile programs for big name recruits and won some of them.

Now that's not the case.

Zook and the Illini have the worst class in the Big Ten right now. He's got just eight pledges, and none are 4-star recruits. Scout.com has Illinois' class ranked 72nd right now.

Ouch.

Pac-12

Cal fans, I almost went with your beloved Berkeley Bears here, but I actually respect the quality of the mere five commitments your class has. So you get a pass.

That leaves one of of the new kids on the block, Utah. The Utes' recruiting reach will expand as years move on, but right now, they take the cake for the Pac-12.

Utah has 10 commitments, with seven being 3-star recruits. They do have a pledge from 4-star JC DE prospect Sione Tupouata, though.

SEC

And now we get to the best league in college football that is probably even more competitive than the NFC West, the SEC. Recruiting in this conference is insanely intense, but you have to be great at it to have a chance.

Ole Miss is behind the pack.

Houston Nutt has 10 commitments, and nine of them are just 3-star players. I don't know what's the deal, as Ole Miss had a pretty good class last year. The highest rated player is 3-star TE prospect Austin Ray from Missouri.