Ohio State may have dropped to second in the rankings for the 2021 cycle following Tim Keenan’s commitment to Alabama last week, but the program now can claim the top spot for next year’s class.

Following today’s commitment from Bennett Christian, the Buckeyes have leapfrogged LSU to check in at No. 1 in the 2022 Rivals Team Rankings. They now have 989 total points, which is 58 more than the Tigers have.

That last part is even more impressive considering the fact that LSU has one more commit than Ohio State does at this time. Also, the average star rating for the Buckeyes’ pledges is 4.0, compared to 3.86 for the Tigers.

Ryan Day and company have to like the group of junior prospects that are already in the fold. Their linebacker core of C.J. Hicks, Dasan McCullough and Gabe Powers could become the greatest ever as each of them are labeled as top-25 players nationally.

Also, Tegra Tshabola is one of the top offensive tackles in the country, and cornerback Jyaire Brown is a member of the Rivals250 as well. Christian is a top-15 tight end, and will be heavily recruiting Benjamin Gosnell to join him at the next level.

If Ohio State hypothetically gets a 2021 commit tomorrow, then that means they’ll have two No. 1 classes on our recruiting service at the same time. There’s no way to check the amount of times this has occurred in the past, but I would imagine it’s not something you see too often.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove.