Alabama and USC were among the teams that garnered the most hype ahead of the season with lots of reason for optimism on both sides of the ball.

But not everyone sees the level of talent between the two programs as particularly close. Joel Klatt of FOX Sports is one of those.

“Talent is like a bell curve,” Klatt. “When you’re rating these players, rating these rosters, the difference between Alabama at No. 1 and USC, a top-10 team and No. 11 in the composite this year… that’s the exact same difference as when you go from the the 11th best team, USC in the talent composite all the way down to 69th. That team is FAU.”

From a recruiting perspective and number of 5-star recruits landed, it’s easy to see where Klatt is coming from here and it is hard for programs outside of the three top-ranked teams to snag some of the most sought after players at the high school level when they’re competing with a dynasty team like Alabama.