Make no mistake about it, the SEC is still king when it comes to recruiting football talent. No other conference comes close. Since 2013, and including the 2017 class, the SEC has pulled in 75 5-star athletes and another 560 4-star recruits. No other conference has even half that amount over that period of time.

That’s why football in the SEC is better than anywhere else. It’s a fact, and the numbers back it up.

However, the SEC took a big hit in 2016, suffering through a losing record (6-7) in the postseason, including Alabama’s 34-31 loss to Clemson in the championship game. And now, at least one team from the Big Ten is posing a huge threat to the SEC on Signing Day.

Ohio State is nipping at the heels of Alabama for the top-ranked recruiting class of 2017, according to 247sports.com’s composite rankings. Georgia is a surprise at No. 3, and then Michigan, another Big Ten school, is ranked fourth.

That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given that Ohio State is a major player on the college football landscape. Add the fact that its head coach, Urban Meyer, won two national championships with SEC school Florida, and you have all the ingredients for a potential dynasty up north.

SDS recruiting analyst Corey Long had no hesitation in singling out the top Big Ten schools who pose the biggest threat to the SEC in this year’s recruiting wars.

“Michigan and Ohio State; they are the only two Big Ten programs that have the resources and name brand and coaching connections to attract top-tier talent from the southeast,” Long said. “Urban Meyer has a championship pedigree at the college level. Jim Harbaugh has led an NFL team to a Super Bowl and won 20 games in his first two seasons at Michigan, which was a little bit of a rebuild.”

Meyer’s connections in Florida certainly give him an edge when it comes to battling SEC teams for top talent down south. This year’s recruiting class alone can attest to that. Three from Florida and three more from Texas have already enrolled at the school and the Buckeyes have hard commits from one more athlete from each state.

Meyer has already plucked two 5-star recruits from Texas and another 5-star from Florida in this year’s class. All three are already enrolled. The Buckeyes’ head coach reached down to Texas to come up with the nation’s top cornerback (Jeffrey Okudah) and top outside linebacker (Baron Browning), in addition to pulling Shaun Wade, the nation’s No. 2 corner, from his old stomping grounds — the Sunshine State.

No doubt satellite camps have opened the doors for northern schools in the Big Ten — and other conferences — to get a first-hand look at some of the abundance of talent in the hotbeds of football down south, in particular the states of Florida and Georgia, but Texas gets its share of attention as well.

Harbaugh is taking advantage, too, as he builds Michigan back to powerhouse status. He already has the nation’s top-ranked center enrolled. Cesar Ruiz is a 6-3, 315-pounder from Florida. A 3-star safety from Alabama is also already enrolled.

In addition, Harbaugh has hard commits from two 4-star athletes from Florida (OLB Jordan Anthony and OT Kai-Leon Hebert) and one (OT Chuck Filiaga) from Texas. He also has a hard-commit from a 3-star running back (Kurt Taylor) from Georgia.

And if that weren’t enough competition for the SEC, there’s another Big Ten school on the rise with SEC ties that the conference must keep a careful watch for.

“Penn State could get there because James Franklin is a very charismatic coach with connections in the southeast from his time at Vanderbilt,” Long said. “But right now it’s Michigan and Ohio State.”

The Nittany Lions are currently ranked No. 12 in recruiting but have already enrolled 4-star WR KJ Hamler from Florida and have a hard commit from 3-star CB D.J. Brown from Georgia.

The gap is definitely closing between the SEC and the Big Ten as far as recruiting goes. As of the end of this week, the Big Ten had equaled the SEC with nine 5-star recruits. Ohio State has seven of those while Alabama represents four of the nine 5-stars committed to the SEC.

Where the gap is maintained is in the 4-stars, where the SEC has 92 commitments to the Big Ten’s 58.

Still, those are numbers that cannot be ignored. They signal an all out frontal attack on the SEC’s stranglehold as the country’s top conference, talent-wise. Equally concerning was the 6-7 postseason record the SEC posted this past season, its first losing record since going 3-4 in 2002.