The college football world has been obsessed with five-star ratings, 40-yard dash times and letters-of-intent over the past few weeks — focused on the promise of the future.

But now that National Signing Day has come and passed, college football fans can use this weekend’s Super Bowl XLVI as an opportunity to gauge SEC programs by another measure — how successful they have been in producing championship-level NFL talent.

By the numbers, Florida and LSU are tied for the lead this year. Both have four former players in the Super Bowl.

Arkansas, Ole Miss and Tennessee are tied for second with three players a piece.

Next on the list is Alabama with two players represented.

Beyond that, four other SEC schools have one player represented — Georgia, Mississippi State, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

Auburn and South Carolina are the only SEC schools with no players represented in this year’s Super Bowl.

Boston College leads all colleges, boasting five former players in the game.

Overall, the SEC has 23 players represented in the game, the most of any college football conference.

The Big Ten comes in second with 22 players, and the ACC is next with 19 former players in the game.

Of course, fans looking for trash-talking statistics cannot simply use numbers to back up their causes.

Some SEC schools have more key players represented in the game than others.

For example, New York’s D.J. Ware (Georgia) has played a limited role for the Giants this postseason, and barring a major a surprise, will likely see little to no playing time on Sunday.

On the other hand, Ole Miss’s Eli Manning is indispensable to the Giants, and stands a good chance of emerging as Super Bowl MVP if he and his team prevail and perform as efficiently as they have throughout most of the postseason.

Manning isn’t the only key SEC player in the big game this year. The Patriots’ Aaron Hernandez (Florida) is a favorite target of quarterback Tom Brady, and running backs BenJarvus Green-Ellis (Ole Miss) and Kevin Faulk (LSU) form an integral part of the Patriots run game.

No matter how the Super Bowl turns out, it should be interesting to see how former SEC players perform on the largest stage in sports.

SEC Players:

New England Patriots (13)

• Mark Anderson, DE, Alabama
• Brandon Deaderick, DE, Alabama
• Shaun Ellis, DE, Tennessee
• Kevin Faulk, RB, LSU
• BenJarvus Green-Ellis, RB, Ole Miss
• Aaron Hernandez, TE, Florida
• Kyle Love, DT, Mississippi State
• Ryan Mallett, QB, Arkansas
• Jerod Mayo, LB, Tennessee
• Myron Pryor, DT, Kentucky
• Stevan Ridley, RB, LSU
• Brandon Spikes, LB, Florida
• Gerard Warren, DT, Florida

New York Giants (10)

• Stacy Andrews, OT, Ole Miss
• Michael Clayton, WR, LSU
• Jonathon Goff, LB, Vanderbilt
• Deon Grant, S, Tennessee
• Eli Manning, QB, Ole Miss
• Mitch Petrus, OG, Arkansas
• Justin Trattou, DE, Florida
• Tony Ugoh, OT, Arkansas
• Danny (D.J.) Ware, RB, Georgia
• Corey Webster, CB, LSU