Where do the best college football programs get the majority of their players?

Come on. We know the answer to that question. It’s the South. However, it’s always good to have numbers to back up that theory.

ESPN national recruiting analyst Gerry Hamilton sent out a telling tweet on Tuesday that shows just how much Southern states churn out the recruits that wind up playing in the upper-echelon of college football.

According to Hamilton’s tweet, almost half (49.3 percent) of the players that signed on with Power 5 conferences either come from states in SEC territory or a southern state (the United States Census Bureau classifies North Carolina as a southern state).

North Carolina is more of ACC territory and Texas is still dominated by the Big 12. However, the SEC is increasingly expanding its influence into the Lone Star State with the addition of Texas A&M.

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina were also included in his tweet.

Class of 2016: 1,263 HS seniors signed w/Power 5 schools. 622 of those (49.3%) from Tx, La, Miss, Ala, Ga, Fla, SoCar & North Carolina — Gerry Hamilton (@HamiltonESPN) February 9, 2016

Not surprisingly, the SEC enjoyed five of the top 10 recruiting classes for 2016 (No. 1 Alabama, No. 3 LSU, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Georgia and No. 9 Auburn. Meanwhile, seven of the top 10 classes came from one of those aforementioned states as Florida State ranked No. 2 and Clemson ranked No. 10.