It was a good showing by the Big Ten this year but don't get used to it unless they pick up recruiting. Let's look at some things in regard to 2010 recruiting. I know these things are fluid and subjective but you do see a correlation between this and results on the field. It's no accident that Alabama and Texas are top five in recruiting.
In the top ten they show 5 SEC schools, 2 Big Ten schools and 1 PAC 10 school (Wash #7). If you look at the top 25 the Big Ten only gains OSU at #19; the PAC 10 gets USC and Stanford. I would argue USC has a top ten class because they have 7 top 100 players coming in. They're ranked low because their total number of recruits are low but what they're getting are top notch. Only Texas (#2) had more top 100 recruits with 8.
The fact is the recruits are going to the warmer climates and not to Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue, Mich St or Minnesota. Recruiting is just as competitive as play on the field in the SEC. Tennessee is ranked #16 but that's only good enough for #6 in the SEC
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=9&c=14&yr=2010