Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

2/3/2012 at 9:12am

Going from Florida to Ohio State, Urban Meyer has launched himself like a cannonball into the Big 10's recruiting pool.

“I can tell you this,” says Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema to The Sporting News. “We at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC—in any way, shape or form.”

What did Meyer do to offend the gentry of the Big 10? Recruit with white shoes on before Memorial Day? Play Journey out of his golf bag too loudly?

Meyer did something that SEC coaches have been doing for years, but Big 10 coaches have refrained from due to a "gentleman's agreement": He called recruits who had already publicly committed elsewhere.

Nonsense, Meyer said to describe the charges. He held fast to his belief that recruiting begins and ends with calling and asking.

So he got a recruit who had previously been committed to Wisconsin. He poached a few from Penn State, guys probably worried about the "gentleman's agreement" situation up there in State College. Ohio State has been rudderless for awhile, but instead of letting all the other schools hold on to all their keepers, Meyer gave the student-athletes the opportunity to change their minds.

It's a practice at the SEC to come at recruiting hard, and it's possibly why the SEC has won every national title since 2006. Bobby Petrino did it just the other day with Mobile, Ala., DT Darius Philon who put on an Alabama hat at his signing day ceremony and then faxed his commitment to Arkansas that afternoon.

Maybe the Big 10 could learn a thing or two from Urban Meyer, especially since the last team of their conference to win a title was, well, Ohio State.

Tagged: Urban Meyer, The Ohio State Buckeyes, Big 10, Southeastern Conference