Georgia exited December’s Early Signing Period with one of the top signed hauls ever, and then Ohio State added enough strong commits to move ahead to No. 1 entering National Signing Day. The battle for the final No. 1 looked likely to come down to those two.
Alabama’s 7-year streak of No. 1 recruiting classes finally ended in 2018
Bama’s worst class is still probably better than your best class.
Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images
Poor, poor Alabama entered February way down at No. 6.
Whenever we joke on the internet about Bama struggling, multiple people always stride forward to say, “Um, they just won the national title and have won it several other times in the last decade.” We know. It’s fun to pretend the Tide have problems.
Wait, why was Bama way down at No. 6?
The Tide entered NSD week with only 18 commits, 14 of them signed. That was fewer than anybody else in the top 10 besides Clemson. The 247Sports Composite (and other systems) rank by total points, so bigger classes usually equal better rankings. Nick Saban said he only planned to sign 23 players in this class.
And now Georgia’s gonna have the No. 1, with Ohio State at No. 2.
The Dawgs cleaned up on Signing Day, adding blue-chips Tyson Campbell, Quay Walker (a Bama flip), and Tommy Bush, putting UGA within range of the highest-rated class ever, topping all of Saban’s in the all-time rankings.
We’ll see where Bama lands, but the Tide’s lowest-ranked class since 2007 will still rank higher than the best class in the same span by almost everybody else.
The list of teams who didn’t rank No. 6 or better in any year from 2008 through 2017 includes Clemson, Michigan State, Oregon, Penn State, South Carolina, Stanford, TCU, UCLA, Washington, Wisconsin, and so on. Miami and Oklahoma only ranked better than No. 6 once each in that span. Auburn finished No. 6 twice, but not higher. Ohio State’s worst in that span was No. 20 (during a coaching change), not No. 6. Notre Dame hasn’t ranked in single digits since 2013. For all that commotion, Ole Miss only topped No. 6 once. Texas fell into the teens or worse four times. Tennessee and Texas A&M have ranked in the top five, but also in the 30s.
Blah blah blah.
Bama’s worst class is almost certainly better than your team’s best class, is the point.
Bama’s dynasty isn’t over yet, but whenever it does end ...
... we might already know who’ll take over.
Is Saban’s team still as scary as ever, regardless of all this?
Well, here’s a freshman throwing to a freshman to win the national title, with four other freshmen contributing on offense late in that game ...
... so yes.
And now, because of a slightly lower recruiting ranking, Saban gets to tell his new freshmen that they’re a bunch of relative underdogs. What fun for everybody else!
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