The early signing period has arrived meaning the class of 2012 can begin signing over their lives letters of intent to play for quick to jet committed coaches and programs. The Pac-12, for the first time in awhile, will be hauling in some big time players. Much has been made of the talent dearth in the West and subsequently the conference, but that appears to be righting itself.

With twelve of Scout’s top-100 recruits heading to the Pac-12 – already the most since 2009 with the late signing period yet to occur – the talent level should once again be at an elite level, earning the monicker “Conference of Champions.”Scout has also ranked the Pac-12 as having the second best recruiting group amongst all conferences. Look who’s back.

Here’s a team-by-team look with player names, position, position rank, and some linkage. Enjoy:

You’ll notice a lot of single digits in Arizona’s row. Those tiny numbers have garnered them the top 2012 recruiting class in the nation (not to mention the conference) and should be a group that hits the floor running. After that, there’s a bunch of wee numerals spread throughout the conference. Oregon and Stanford are piecing together nice classes that should compliment their current, young and developing teams. UCLA has two very good commits in their row and it could get a lot more interesting as the top player in the 2012 class, Shabazz Muhammad, has long been a presumed Bruin. However, Muhammad isn’t commiting in the early period and the longer he waits, the more time Kentucky’s recruiting machine has to get in his ear.

A glaring omission from the above chart is Washington. Not one early commitment. This, frankly, should be alarming. The Huskies free up at least two scholarships next year and could lose more (Terrence Ross and annual transfers). But I think I’ll expand on this in its own post.

Big shout out to @YAYAREASFINEST and Scout.com in this post. Much of the player linkage is courtesy of Yayarea’s crafty video work and all the player rankings are based on Scout’s work (@JoshGershon, @EvanDanielscout, @BSnowscout, @JasonScheer).