Rich Exner, cleveland.com
These maps show the home states for the 238 players listed on the Ohio State and Wisconsin football rosters.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio State Buckeyes’ quarterback is from Georgia; the Wisconsin Badgers’ is from New York. The top running backs for each team are from Texas and New Jersey.
Though the two large state universities from middle America will meet in the heart of the Midwest on Saturday for the Big Ten Championship, it is recruiting from coast to coast that has helped Ohio State and Wisconsin to at or near the top of the national rankings.
For Wisconsin, 64 of the 114 players listed on its roster are from out of state. In Ohio State’s case, it is split - 62 from Ohio and 62 from elsewhere.
Twenty-nine states are represented on the two rosters.
Tops among them is Texas with 13 players in all - seven for Wisconsin and six for Texas. Next is Michigan with 12 (10 Badgers and 2 Buckeyes), then Florida with 11 (7 Buckeyes and 4 Badgers).
For Ohio State, the leading states are Florida (7), Texas (6), Indiana (5), New York (5) and New Jersey (5). There are no players from Wisconsin listed on the Ohio State roster.
For Wisconsin, it’s Michigan (10), Texas (7), California (7), Illinois (7) and Ohio (6).
As for the big names, OSU’s three Heisman candidates are from other states - quarterback Justin Fields of Kennesaw, Georgia; defensive end Chase Young of Hyattsville, Maryland; and running back J.K. Dobbins of La Grange, Texas.
Likewise, Wisconsin’s Heisman candidate is from elsewhere - Salem, New Jersey, for running back Jonathan Taylor. The Badgers’ quarterback, Jack Coan, is from Sayville, New York.
Here are the state-by-state numbers for each roster.
| State | Ohio State | Wisconsin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 62 | 6 | 68 |
| Wisconsin | 50 | 50 | |
| Texas | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| Michigan | 2 | 10 | 12 |
| Florida | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| California | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| Illinois | 1 | 7 | 8 |
| Indiana | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Georgia | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| New York | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| New Jersey | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Maryland | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Missouri | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Pennsylvania | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Tennessee | 4 | 4 | |
| Kansas | 3 | 3 | |
| Alabama | 2 | 2 | |
| Arizona | 2 | 2 | |
| North Carolina | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Virginia | 2 | 2 | |
| Colorado | 1 | 1 | |
| Nebraska | 1 | 1 | |
| Arkansas | 1 | 1 | |
| Hawaii | 1 | 1 | |
| Idaho | 1 | 1 | |
| Minnesota | 1 | 1 | |
| Nevada | 1 | 1 | |
| Oklahoma | 1 | 1 | |
| Utah | 1 | 1 |
Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See more data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral. Previous Buckeye Numbers features can be found at this link.
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