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If Alabama were its own conference, here’s where it would rank in recruiting conference rankings
By Andrew Olson
Published:
When Nick Saban was hired by Alabama in January 2007, he guaranteed to late athletic director Mal Moore, with some colorful language, that the Crimson Tide would dominate college football recruiting.
“I just want you to know you’ve hired a horse—- football coach,” Saban told Moore. “But nobody will out-recruit me.”
Technically, for his first four recruiting classes Saban was out-recruited, but nobody was complaining. Alabama finished No. 13, No. 3, No. 2 and No. 5 from 2007-10. From 2011 forward, however, Alabama has held the No. 1 recruiting ranking for six consecutive classes. With a class score of 311.20 on the 247Sports Composite, the Crimson Tide is currently ranked No. 1 and looking to make it seven top classes in a row.
With Alabama, the SEC gets to brag about being the top recruiting conference, with an average score of 224.98 among the 14 teams. What would the Power 5 conference recruiting rankings (with Notre Dame thrown in for comparison’s sake) look like if Alabama became its own conference? Here’s how the rest of the SEC would stack up:
- Alabama (311.20 score)
- Notre Dame (233.03, current No. 12 team nationally)
- The rest of the SEC (218.35 average)
- Big Ten (201.78)
- Pac-12 (195.06)
- ACC (193.92)
- Big 12 (184.21)
Even without Alabama, the SEC would still be pulling in the best recruiting talent on average outside of Alabama and Notre Dame. The Alabama-less SEC’s average score of 218.35 checks in above current No. 18 Maryland on the current team rankings.
For all the hype over the recruiting classes belonging to Ohio State (No. 2), Michigan (No. 4) and Florida State (No. 5), the SEC would still dominate the top 10 with Georgia (No. 3), LSU (No. 6), Auburn (No. 8) and Texas A&M (No. 9) all looking to sign classes ranked in the single-digits. The only other conference with multiple top-10 recruiting classes is the Big Ten with two (Ohio State and Michigan). The ACC (Florida State, No. 5), Big 12 (Oklahoma, No. 7) and Pac-12 (USC, No. 10) each only have one team in the top 10.
As far as recruiting rankings within the SEC, here’s how things would look without Alabama:
- The new No. 1 class would be Georgia (299.29). The Bulldogs are No. 3 nationally, behind Ohio State (307.27)
- The new top SEC commit would be 5-star Tennessee OT commit Trey Smith, ranked No. 14 overall. Alabama currently has the top three SEC commitments: RB Najee Harris (No. 3), OT Alex Leatherwood (No. 4) and LB Dylan Moses (No. 13). Smith would also be replacing Leatherwood as the top SEC offensive lineman commit.
- UGA commit Jake Fromm (No. 4 QB) would now be the top quarterback pledge in the SEC, replacing Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa (No. 3)
- UGA commit D’Andre Swift (No. 5 RB) would be the top running back commit, taking the place of Harris (No. 2).
- Texas A&M commit Jhamon Ausbon (No. 12 WR) would be the SEC’s top pass-catcher committed, replacing Jerry Jeudy (No. 3).
- LSU commit Jacob Phillips (No. 3 LB) would be the top linebacker commit, replacing Moses (No. 2).
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.