I've been turning over in my head how to try to handle both the portal and recruiting and how to balance that. At one point I thought it would be important to stash some in-state 3 star type kids as developmental projects on the roster, but I'm not sure that's necessary.
The state of Alabama will have four non-power conference FBS teams. UAB, Troy, South Alabama and Jacksonville State. That's way too many, but it could be used to Alabama's advantage. If Alabama can develop good relationships with those staffs, things can go from an antagonistic, tampering type situation to more of a minor league structure.
In the minor leagues, despite a team losing one of their best players, elevation to the big leagues is celebrated. This is because the minor league team is a part of the process. If Alabama could start cooperating and sharing information with programs such as those, they could actually start steering raw talent in need of development/playing time towards those teams. Likewise, once they get ready to hit the portal, they could be steered to Alabama. It could go the other way, for instance Roq went to Western Kentucky, if Alabama took guys like that and instead of pushing them out and said there's a chance for you to play right away here, it changes the dynamic a bit.
Of course rules have to be followed and what not, but cooperation with other staffs would make the entire process so much less messy and it's a strategy I've employed in competitive video games with guilds. I would have allied guilds, I'd have places I sent people that were not quite up to par, and other places I would add people from that were, all maintaining good relationships. The truth is I was the one benefiting the most, but people appreciated it far more when I included them in the process. While it's not the same, I did employ it to reach the top in a game with something like 100,000 players so it's not entirely dissimilar.
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