It is no secret that the Big Ten is as deep as any conference in college football. The Big Ten has not been able to get over the hump however when all the dust settles, and a national championship is named, with Ohio State winning the only two titles that the Big Ten can claim in the past 20 seasons.

As we get ready for the start of the 2018 season, the Big Ten will have plenty of teams vying for national supremacy as no less than five teams will all have solid claims to being in the middle of playoff conversation before the first game is even played.

A familiar debate that is had every season is which conference is the strongest going into the season and Joel Klatt of FOX Sports weighed in with his thoughts as he declared the Big Ten to be the best Power Five conference in the country.

“The Big Ten Conference this year is as strong at the top as I’ve seen in quite some time. Take into consideration if Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State all start in the top 10 or top 15 in the country, that would be the equivalent of Washington, Oklahoma, Clemson, Georgia and Notre Dame all being in one conference," Klatt said. "We’d be going bonkers right now. That’s exactly what’s going in the Big Ten. Four of those teams are in one division. The East Division in the Big Ten is the toughest division in all of football, and there’s really no argument about it."

These are the type of headlines that the Big Ten would rather be in the paper for rather than unresolved situations at Ohio State and Maryland.

It is not only the teams at the top of the league that give the Big Ten the power going into this season with the middle of the league stepping up and capable of producing a highly-ranked team as well.

"You’ve got mid-tier teams in the Big Ten winning 10 games like Northwestern did a year ago," Klatt added.

This of course does not predict success in January when the playoff takes place, but the league did go 7-1 in bowl games, including a perfect 3-0 record in New Year's Six games with Ohio State defeating USC in the Cotton Bowl, Penn State defeating Washington in the Fiesta Bowl and Wisconsin taking down Miami in the Orange Bowl.

A certain four-letter network may still be beating the drum of the SEC and there is good reason to respect what that league has done in the post season and they are the home of the defending national champion after putting two teams in the College Football Playoff last year, the first league to accomplish that feat.

But, 2018 is a new season and Klatt is not even hesitating in anointing the Big Ten as the best league going into the season.

"This conference is as good as any in America, and I would argue they’re better," Klatt said definitively. "And that’s why they’re No. 1 in my ranking.