LSU, Ohio State pace football recruiting

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BATON ROUGE, La., Feb. 4 (UPI) -- LSU and Ohio State collected highly ranked recruiting classes Wednesday on the climactic day of college football recruiting.

Although hundreds of high school football players across the country had previously given oral commitments to various colleges, Wednesday was the first day they could sign binding scholarship agreements with a school.

In the always inexact science of grading how those schools fared, one ranking service declared Ohio State to be the winner of this year's recruiting derby. Another one put LSU at No. 1.

The Buckeyes, who have lost three straight BCS post-season games, signed 25 players, highlighted by linebacker Dorian Bell of Monroeville, Pa.

"This class consists of young men who have been successful on the field and in school," Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel said. "Nearly all of them were on a playoff team this fall, and overall, they bring close to a 3.0 GPA to Ohio State."

LSU's top signees were quarterback Russell Shepard of Houston and Louisiana receiver Rueben Randle.

Alabama, USC, North Carolina, Texas UCLA, Georgia, Oklahoma and Penn State all received high recruiting grades.

Defending NCAA champion Florida had only 16 scholarships to offer this year.