Ohio State’s 2026 recruiting class is on campus now. 247Sports’ commits page lists 29 enrollees, and its Composite team rankings put the class fourth in the country. Eleven of the 29 played their high school football in Ohio.

The class this site covers, 2027, has 19 pledges on the board, and five of them are from Ohio.

That second number is not final. Nobody in the 2027 class has signed anything yet, and the 2026 class shows how much can move at the end: Eleven Warriors counted 27 signees in its December 3, 2025 signing-day report, and one of them, Ohio safety Kaden Gebhardt, had flipped his commitment from Clemson to Ohio State during the early signing period itself. Legend Bey, a Texas athlete who had flipped to Tennessee, was released by the Volunteers and signed with Ohio State later that month, per The Columbus Dispatch. 247Sports’ list also carries a kicker, Cooper Peterson of Corvian Community in Charlotte, N.C., who was not among the 27. That is how 27 became 29.

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The 2026 eleven, by where they played

The 2026 in-state group comes from three parts of Ohio, and one of them supplied more than half.

Cleveland, Akron and their suburbs: six. Linebacker Cincere Johnson and defensive lineman Jamir Perez both played at Glenville in Cleveland. Offensive tackle Sam Greer played at Archbishop Hoban in Akron. Interior lineman Max Riley played at Avon Lake, interior lineman Mason Wilhelm at St. Edward in Lakewood, and offensive tackle Landry Brede at Mentor.

The Columbus area: four. Safety Kaden Gebhardt and linebacker CJ Sanna were teammates at Olentangy in Lewis Center. Running back Favour Akih played at Rutherford B. Hayes in Delaware, and receiver Jaeden Ricketts at Watkins Memorial in Pataskala.

Southwest Ohio: one. Tight end Nick Lautar played at Lebanon.

Four of the eleven are offensive linemen. The rest cover six more positions: two linebackers, a safety, a running back, a tight end, a receiver and a defensive lineman.

Eleven Warriors, writing about Ricketts on signing day, put the approach in one sentence: “Ohio State has put a continued focus on recruiting developmental players from Ohio who may not be the highest-rated at their positions, but bring a built-in love for the Buckeyes and physical attributes worth molding.” The same piece called receiver Chris Henry Jr., from Mater Dei in California, “the lone composite five-star prospect in Ohio State’s 2026 class.”

The 2027 five

The five Ohioans committed to the 2027 class are spread across the state, with none in the corner that produced six a year earlier:

Three of the five are offensive linemen, the same lean the 2026 group had. The difference is the count, not the shape. The 2026 class brought in eleven Ohioans across seven position groups, and the 2027 class has five across three.

The top of the 2027 list did stay home. Brown and Wymer are the two best players in the state by both published Ohio rankings, and both are committed here. What 2027 is missing is the middle of the in-state list, and the in-state ledger names who went elsewhere: three cornerbacks ranked behind Brown and Wymer to Notre Dame, Penn State and Michigan, and a four-star tight end from Cleveland, D’Angelo White of Villa Angela-St. Joseph, to Louisville. He is the closest thing the 2027 cycle had to the Cleveland pipeline that carried the 2026 class, and he committed elsewhere in January.

What would change the count

Every Ohio name on this site’s boards is on the Ohio page, and every position still open is on the needs page. Five is the count on September 25, and nobody in the 2027 class has signed yet.

The 2026 class is the reminder that the last weeks matter. Gebhardt, a Columbus-area safety, went from Clemson pledge to Ohio State signee inside the signing period. If 2027 adds Ohioans late, that is where it will show up first, and this board will carry each one the day an outlet reports it.