Big Ten Program Prestige Rating Levels: State of the programs!

Big Ten Conference

Program Prestige Level

2-year PPV Average with program momentum

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272 PPV  Nebraska Program Mo: Green Arrow UP

Listen it’s Nebraska and recruiting isn’t slowing down with Dani. Now I do believe she may take different kinds of “super stars” in the future and could look to mold HER Husker teams with more of mixture team/talent players that sometimes may drop a bit in the overall PPV #s, but may be much better overall fits in total culture of the program. Regardless Nebraska will always be deep in starting talent. Look for the ’28 class to be deep in GREAT CULTURE and TALENT.

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259 PPV  Penn State  Program Mo: Red Arrow UP

I addressed this earlier this off-season with the Nittany Lions. Two very solid recruiting classes and a few of my favorite overall athletes in the past two classes, but somehow there is a mehh feeling around Happy Valley that is kinda melancholy not happy for a program that has had back to back Top 5 recruiting classes and won the Natty 2 years ago. The knee injury to Danielle Whitmire last Spring might be part of it and just some young players that people know are talented, but everyone waiting for them to be on the court and make an impact I think is part of it and let’ face it you can try and not talk about it, but last year was simply a very long year and that Natty seems like a decade ago. All that said this staff has busted their humps to put together two very good classes and they will need to contribute this Fall and this is Penn State!!

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258 PPV   Wisconsin  Program Mo: Black Arrow UP

My god man how many arrow colors can you have???? Black arrow is just the normal life is good and normal arrow color. Wisconsin recruits well when they need to, but they also hammer the portal better than anyone else when they need to. They had the top player in the ’27 class and the ’26 class could argue for top overall class, but our system is our system and at least we are transparent with it and everyone knows EXACTLY how we score it. Wisconsin will be at the top every year and Kelly and his staff do an amazing job bringing exactly what they need to Madison every year.

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216 PPV   USC   Program Mo: Green Arrow Down

First off look at the huge discrepancy between the HAVE’s in the Big Ten and the rest of the conference. That should tell you all you need to know about “CULTURE$” or I mean who the best recruiters are. I loved the KC class of ’25, I have my reservations on the huge class of ’26 quite a few names that will need to prove it now away from rankings and the ‘27s just was ok. It’s USC to me that should be the Nebraska of the West. Every Cali kid should want to go there. The fanbase has to start showing up for this team though my goodness.

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214 PPV   Michigan State  Program Mo: Green Arrow Up

It’s not any secret what I think about the direction of MSU under KK. Plus did she not back it up last June? Top two recruits out of Minnesota and a superstar from Arizona! Moving up W wise in the B1G is not easy and that needs to be Sparty’s next step, but I have no concerns recruiting wise. #s don’t lie she is using her USA VB connections, athletes LOVE her and they are the next Pitt/Louisville.

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212 PPV   Indiana   Program Mo: Black Arrow Up

UGGGGGGGGG so close to a franchise class!!!! Maybe still happens. They are building the right way, IU is young and the Hoosiers best recruiting job the next couple of years is probably keeping their talented young nucleus out of the portal and home on the roster. They have slowly climbed the standings of this conference and my respect level for this staff is a BIG GREEN ARROW UPPPP. Man I want this to be the program that makes an Elite 8 type run in December because they deserve it.

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206 PPV   Oregon   Program Mo: Green Arrow Up

This was the stat shocker of the night for me. To Trent and the staff you deserve a day off of aerobics or whatever y’all do at 6 AM around there in Eugene because the ’27 Class Avg. was exactly the same as the ’26 Class Avg. That is dang amazing since most of NCAA left this crew for dead when the last staff left. To say the new Ducks are flying in formation is an understatement! They are way ahead of schedule and to be 7th in this conference after a year #LetsGo #QuackQuack I met Trent in Vegas a few weeks ago and he’s a Eugene type guy he is all in. I love it and great for the Ducks because you know the jerseys are always going to be legit!

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189 PPV   Minnesota   Program Mo; Black Arrow Down

Now losing your main target and Diamond prospect to de commit isn’t fair to your PPV, but overall the Gophers haven’t been in on multiple Silver or higher prospects in a class yet. They have always inked the state’s best until this year, but never competed for a national prospect like the Big 3 in the conference. Last year was a tough year injury wise and with loss of 3 assistant coaches so hopefully a healthy year full of Keegan’s recruits and a deep run will give the staff a real year of recruiting in ’29.

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179 PPV   Purdue   Program Mo: Black Arrow Down

Purdue is a program that we simply don’t hear about much from prospects the last couple of seasons. The staff made a great run last year with a new staff and Shondell made one of his finest coaching jobs. Recruiting wise they have not been a first choice of NTDP type prospects lately, but if you do a nice job in the portal you don’t have to be.

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174 PPV   Northwestern   Program Mo: Green Arrow Up

After a first year where a brand new staff lost nearly their entire signed class, they rebounded with a great class of 2027! A class that actually ranked in the upper 1/3 of the conference. That is a great sign for momentum and the future in the Chicagoland where there will always be talent. We have also seen many more NW logos on prospect profiles when it comes to camp attendance and schools of interest which is a great sign for the Wildcats.

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172 PPV   Ohio State   Program Mo: Red Arrow Down

Ohio State continues to have problems in their program. What started out as a promising and athletic ’27 class has fallen down to one local commit. No one else in volleyball feels the need to address the issues with OSU volleyball so neither will we. Everything is fine in Buckeye land.

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168 PPV   Illinois    Program Mo: Holding Pattern

Illinois is holding steady where they have been. I don’t know what the previous history of recruiting had been like before Coach T so I can’t compare, but I would think you make Chicago your home base for talent. Then again are you battling Wisconsin and Northwestern, then Nebraska and any other B1G school when they want someone? They just seem like a program needing an identity recruiting wise right now. Again it is so so hard to climb the ladder in this conference and I don’t know what expectations are at Illinois. I also know when your two-year recruiting avg. is 168 and Wisconsin is 258 it’s hard to compete vs. that.

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165 PPV   Michigan   Program Mo: Black Arrow Up

The Wolverines are coming off what I would think is their best class of this staff’s tenure. They landed a great legacy kid who was wanted by 15-20 P4 schools and could step in as a Frosh and contribute. They also landed a Legacy kid who is all about winning and that culture will help the Michigan culture. Plus Wolverine VB is coming off of a tournament appearance and a successful one at that. You hope they have the admin buy in to make it a vb school and give them the funding to make a step to compete with other top schools in this conference because recruiting is looking up!!

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T-156 PPV   Iowa and Washington   Program Mo: Red Arrow Up

Both programs had some positive steps in the ’27 season and made talent gains. They brought in higher caliber athletes for their programs so that was positive for sure. Now it is about closing the gap on the conference which is ahead of them and it is a tough situation for both Iowa and Washington.

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Rutgers and Maryland:

Both Rutgers and Maryland continue to work hard to build in this conference vs very difficult situations. When you look at financials and program economics they are not playing with an even field. When you look at a Rutgers and a two-year average of 141 PPV and a coaching change asking to compete with Nebraska and a 272 PPV. It is very difficult for those staff to go up against.

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**Notes: The ’27 classes are not final and each school could lose or gain athletes that could change their overall score at anytime. This is simply a look at where they are now. Our class PPV scores change anytime the individual PPV of an athlete in that class moves up or down. You can access the class PPV scores for free at anytime on our site.