So you’re not an LSU fan. Nor are you a recruitnik.

If you’re neither, you’re probably wondering why there’s so much hype around Alabama at LSU this week.

To you, LSU, only 5-2 and having already fired its head coach, is just another SEC West pretender to Alabama’s throne.

And you have a point.

After all, since 2011 when LSU last won the SEC West (only to lose to Alabama for the national championship), not only has Alabama beaten the Tigers every year, Auburn (twice), Ole Miss (twice) and Missisippi State have all had seasons where they finished ahead of LSU in the SEC West standings.

Forget matching Alabama. LSU needs to take care of its business enough not to be bested by the rest of the field.

Touche, if that’s your point.

But if you are an LSU fan or if you follow recruiting closely, you know there are reasons why LSU-Alabama is so exciting and deserving of a CBS primetime slot every year.

Nobody else in the SEC West, and maybe nobody else in college football, can come as close to matching the pure talent Alabama recruits into its program as LSU.

When Alabama takes the field, the players in crimson and white represent the top classes in the last four recruiting cycles from 2013-2016, according to the 247Sports Composite Ranking, which figures in all the major recruiting network rankings. Nick Saban’s bunch laps most of the field when it comes to getting noted prospects on campus.

Just to put it in perspective, in those four recruiting years, Alabama has landed more 5-star prospects (20) than the bottom four SEC West teams (in terms of recruiting prowess) have signed combined in the same period (Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Mississippi State have 16 combined 5-star recruits).

So for a follower of recruiting, Alabama SHOULD overwhelm its SEC West opponents. The Tide recruits are significantly better than almost all of them.

Except LSU.

No, the Tigers can’t match Alabama recruit-for-recruit, but it’s reasonably close. In the last four recruiting cycles — the classes where the bulk of the current rosters come from — Alabama has landed 76 recruits rated 4-star or better. LSU picked up 67.

By comparison, Auburn signed 58. Ole Miss, which was supposed to be Alabama’s primary challenger this year, had 39 such players.

Here’s the breakdown of SEC West teams by “blue chip (4-star or better, my definition)” prospects:

SCHOOL BLUE CHIPPERS FIVE-STAR PROSPECTS
1. Alabama 76 20
2. LSU 67 8
3. Auburn 58 7
4. Texas A&M 51 6
5. Ole Miss 39 7
6. Arkansas 21 1
7. Mississippi State 19 2

As you can see, Alabama dominates the field when it comes to landing 5-star players with two-and-a-half times the number of the nearest competitor, LSU. But the Tigers actually landed more 4-stars (59-56), so it closes the gap some.

While Alabama has had the nation’s top class in each of those seasons, LSU has been right behind, finishing second, third and sixth (twice) nationally in those same four seasons.

As the SEC West list goes down, you see a pattern of recruiting haves and have-nots.

Poor Mississippi State hasn’t landed as many blue chippers as Alabama has 5-star players, which makes you respect the job head coach Dan Mullen and quarterback Dak Prescott did in turning that program into a contender that much more.

So does the accumulated talent add up to an even matchup on the field?

That’s a good question. To answer it, we took the projected starting lineups of each team side-by-side and we went back to their high school years to see how each player was rated in the 247Sports Composite. We kept it to just offense and defense (no specialists) and listed 12 starters for each side (a base offensive package, plus the commonly-used third receiver on offense and the base defensive package, plus a nickelback on defense).

Here’s what we found:

OFFENSE

POSITION ALABAMA STARS, YEAR LSU STARS, YEAR
WR ArDarius Stewart 4 stars, 2013 Malachi Dupre 5 stars, 2014
WR Calvin Ridley 5 stars, 2015 Travin Dural 3 stars, 2012
WR Gehrig Dieter 3 stars, 2012 D.J. Chark 3 stars, 2014
TE Hale Hentges 4 stars, 2015 Colin Jeter Unrated, 2015
LT Cam Robinson 5 stars, 2014 K.J. Malone 3 stars, 2013
LG Ross Pierschbacher 4 stars, 2014 Will Clapp 4 stars, 2014
C Bradley Bozeman 3 stars, 2013 Ethan Pocic 4 stars, 2013
RG Alphonse Taylor 4 stars, 2012 Josh Boutte 4 stars, 2013
RT Jonah Williams 5 stars, 2016 *Maea Teuhema 4 stars, 2015
QB Jalen Hurts 4 stars, 2016 Danny Etling 4 stars, 2013
RB Damien Harris 5 stars, 2015 Leonard Fournette 5 stars, 2014
TE/FB# O.J. Howard 5 stars, 2013 John David Moore unrated, 2013

Alabama Total: 51  (Five 5-stars, five 4-stars, two 3-stars); LSU Total: 39 (two 5-stars, five 4-stars, three 3-stars, two unrated)

DEFENSE

POSITION ALABAMA STARS, YEAR LSU STARS, YEAR
DE Jonathan Allen 5 stars, 2013 Lewis Neal 3 stars, 2013
NT Da’Ron Payne 5 stars, 2015 Greg Gilmore 4 stars, 2013
DE Dalvin Tomlinson 4 stars, 2012 Davon Godchaux 4 stars, 2014
OLB Tim Williams 4 stars, 2013 Arden Key 4 stars, 2015
ILB Ryan Harrison 4 stars, 2012 Duke Riley 3 stars, 2013
MLB Shaun Dion Hamilton 4 stars, 2014 Kendell Beckwith 4 stars, 2013
OLB Reuben Foster 5 stars, 2013 Tashawn Bower 4 stars, 2013
CB Marlon Humphrey 5 stars, 2014 Tre’Davious White 4 stars, 2013
SS Laurence Jones 4 stars, 2014 Jamal Adams 5 stars, 2014
FS Ronnie Harrison 4 stars, 2015 John Battle 4 stars, 2014
NB Minkah Fitzpatrick 5 stars, 2015 Donte Jackson 4 stars, 2015
CB Anthony Averett 4 stars, 2013 Kevin Toliver 5 stars, 2015

Alabama Total: 53 (Five 5-stars, seven 4-stars); LSU Total: 48 (two 5-stars, eight 4-stars, two 3-stars)
Alabama Grand Total: 104 (10 5-stars, 12 4-stars, two 3-stars); LSU Grand Total: 87 (Four 5-stars, 13 4-stars, five 3-stars, 2 unrated)

* – Toby Weathersby may start at right tackle for LSU. He was also a 4-star recruit (in 2015), so it wouldn’t change LSU’s score.
# – Alabama uses an extra TE in its base formation, while LSU uses an FB.

What skews it a little bit is that LSU has a couple of anomalies in its starting lineup who probably aren’t accurately represented by their star ratings, or lack thereof. LSU has two offensive starters who came to LSU unrated.

Fullback J.D. Moore is a former walk-on who has gained a reputation of being a top-flight blocking fullback in college. And tight end Colin Jeter was a little-known junior college transfer in 2014 who has, nevertheless, found a starting role over a couple of former 4-star recruits.

So if one at least gives those guys three stars, the gap goes to 104-93. That’s a solid edge for Alabama. But to use a term from political polling, it’s probably close enough to be within the margin of error.

Which is to say, it’s close enough to go either way. The Tigers should match up well enough where they, at the very least, shouldn’t be intimidated or physically overwhelmed.

In case you were wondering if the recruiting rankings are wrong or biased, know that the quality of recruiting classes by the two schools generally gets reflected on NFL rosters. LSU led all college programs with 42 players on NFL opening-day rosters this year. Alabama was tied at fourth with 35.

So yeah, scouts sometimes get it wrong (like, for example, Prescott, who went from 3-star recruit for Mississippi State in 2011 to starting as a rookie for the Dallas Cowboys in 2016), but for the most part, they get it right.

Alabama recruits extremely well every year, and Saban turns that into annual national title contenders. LSU recruits well every year and puts players in the NFL, but Les Miles couldn’t turn that into teams that could, at least some of the time at the end of his career, beat Alabama for SEC and national titles.

When you see the talent accumulation, and then note the losses on the field the last few years, you’ll understand why Miles doesn’t have a job right now.

And that’s why this year’s version of … the battle between the teams that scouts love the most … is so intriguing. The question is, does Miles’ interim replacement, Ed Orgeron, a master recruiter in his own right, have what it takes to turn that talent into something that can knock off Saban and the mighty Crimson Tide?