The early signing period has now concluded for the 2018 class, a class in which we have seen most of these players since the start of their freshman year. The 2018 class currently has an astounding 96 Division I commits. The 2017 class had 82 Division I commits at this time last year. As of right now there are 34 Division II commits.

For sake of consistencies from year to year our numbers will only breakdown Division I and II commits.

The high-end talent in this class is clear by the level of commitments, 11 of Illinois’ top prospects have committed to top 25 programs in the country (according to D1Baseball.com's 2017 final rankings).

No. 4 Texas Christian (1) - OF Alek Thomas (Mount Carmel)

No. 5 Louisville (2) - LHP Danny Zimmerman (Lincoln-Way East), RHP Jake Rosing (Richmond-Burton)

No. 15 Missouri State (5) - OF Dakota Kotowski (Providence Catholic), RHP Hayden Juenger (O’Fallon), LHP Ben Cruikshank (Belleville East), 1B Anthony Herron (Mount Carmel), INF Mason Hull (Effingham)

No. 16 Southern Miss (1) - RHP Tyler Stuart (Herscher)

No. 20 Arkansas (2) - LHP Steven Sanchez (Mundelein), LHP Caden Monke (Mount Olive)

Also, four of the five NCAA power conferences have nabbed Illinois high school prospects this year. Here is a look at the conference breakdown of early commits.

Power 5 conferences: (26 Total)

Big 10 - 17

SEC - 2

Big 12 - 1

ACC - 6

Pac 12 - 0

Other Division I conferences: (70 Total)

MAC - 16

Missouri Valley - 15

Ohio Valley - 10

Atlantic 10 - 6

Summit - 6

Big East - 4

American - 3

Horizon - 2

Patriot - 2

Atlantic Sun - 1

Conference USA - 1

Mountain West - 1

Southland - 1

Sun Belt - 1

SWAC - 1

D1 IN STATE: 28

D1 OUT OF STATE: 68

With Illinois being in the heart of Big 10 and Missouri Valley country it's no surprise to see the both conferences towards the top in total number of commitments. One trend that catches the eye, however, is the MAC conference having 16 commits from the state of Illinois. At this point last year, only six 2017s were committed to MAC schools. Another trend that has continued to increase over the last few year’s is the number of players leaving the state. Last year 62 % of the Division I players were committed to schools away from Illinois. This year over 70% are heading outside the Land of Lincoln.

When breaking down the commitments by state, Illinois schools lead the way by a large margin with 28 but 19 other states went into Illinois for players. Here's a look at the geographic breakdown of early Division I commits.

Illinois - 28

Indiana - 14

Michigan - 9

Missouri - 9

Ohio - 7

Tennessee - 5

Kentucky - 4

Minnesota - 3

Arkansas - 3

Kansas - 2

Nebraska - 2

Texas - 2

Maryland - 1

Pennsylvania - 1

South Carolina - 1

New Jersey - 1

Colorado - 1

North Carolina - 1

Mississippi - 1

D.C. - 1

 

Not to be left out, but Division II programs from outside states have come into Illinois for players as well, just not quite to the level of the Division I schools. 14 of the 37 commits will be heading out of the state of Illinois.

Another stat that stood out is 32 of the 37 players are committed to schools in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Here's a look at the geographic breakdown of early Division II commits.

D2 IN STATE: 23

D2 OUT OF STATE: 14

Illinois – 23

Missouri – 7

Wisconsin - 3

North Carolina - 1

Tennessee - 1

Florida - 1

Michigan - 1

DIVISION II

 

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