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Link: 2026 Transfer Portal

I think we're far enough in that I owe an updated rankings and what have you, since in my most "critical" phase I was pointing out the poor performance at the time. I don't expect anything else of note to happen past this point.

According to 247, Alabama is ranked 15th in the transfer portal. This compared to 21 last year. These rankings do not include some unranked players like the punter and long snapper. After being at the bottom for a little bit, they moved up to 7th in the SEC portal rankings.

This brings their overall rank to 5th (combined recruiting+portal) on 247. The assigned point values actually bring them closer to LSU at #1 than to Georgia at #10.

On3's portal rankings calculate things based on incoming and outgoing portal players, so it's a bit more accurate a view of the portal situation. Alabama is ranked 45. They lost more than they got in return, and it is a team that's at the moment focused more on building through recruiting, although there was more of a shift towards the portal.

The previous portal class on On3 had a 63 ranking, so it is meaningful improvement in that area.
 
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Got ZERO faith in these rankings. These services don't know these kids nor their capabilities, which is the job of the coaching staff. Fitting pieces to a puzzle that is a college football team every season has a whole lot more to do with personal interaction than any kind of numbering system. There are role players that make the team jive then there is the in person scouting...like Coach said, it is the difference in Josh Jacobs and Damien Harris.
 
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CoolBreeze said:
Got ZERO faith in these rankings. These services don't know these kids nor their capabilities, which is the job of the coaching staff. Fitting pieces to a puzzle that is a college football team every season has a whole lot more to do with personal interaction than any kind of numbering system. There are role players that make the team jive then there is the in person scouting...like Coach said, it is the difference in Josh Jacobs and Damien Harris.
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Probably most of the pencil pushers at these services have never even played football... :rolleyes:
 
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CoolBreeze said:
Got ZERO faith in these rankings. These services don't know these kids nor their capabilities, which is the job of the coaching staff. Fitting pieces to a puzzle that is a college football team every season has a whole lot more to do with personal interaction than any kind of numbering system. There are role players that make the team jive then there is the in person scouting...like Coach said, it is the difference in Josh Jacobs and Damien Harris.
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Obviously, if you treat them as gospel or actually spend NIL money or what have you based solely on these rankings, you are an idiot.

But, the data also says more than some people realize at first glance. I will give an example. 247 had last year's Indiana portal class at 25 and Alabama's at 21. This was the classic example of what you are alluding to. Alabama had higher ranked players, but Indiana had a deeper class with more quality additions. That simple formula did fail.

However, On3 ranked Indiana 13th and Alabama 61, their formula judging the incoming vs. the outgoing was far more accurately in this case as it realized Alabama was losing talent at a higher rate while Indiana was stockpiling it.

Even the 247 ranking though does offer some insight into good portal classes though, for instance their 2-5 teams in 2025 were Texas Tech, Miami, Ole Miss, and Oregon. That seems more accurate than just randomly throwing darts at a board doesn't it? After all those teams all made the playoffs and finished ranked, 2, 3, 4, and 7. On3 for the record has a top ranking of Texas Tech, LSU, Ole Miss, Oregon, and Miami.

If I switch it to overall, the 2-5 247 teams in 2025 also all made the playoffs (Georgia, Oregon, Alabama, Ohio State). The high rankings do not guarantee success, but they are still a good indicator of future success. You can still screw up in the process of accumulating talent, but top 5 is a solid indicator you are likely to make the playoffs, so it does mean something and that is the basic principle that if you stack enough talent your odds of success go up dramatically.

The mistake here is to rely on these rankings when going after talent. You need to do your own in-house evaluations and find your own gems. It is pretty useful to the average fan though, who doesn't have the means to do that and in this case those nerds on the recruiting sites still know more about the prospects than the average fan.

TLDR: To me it would be more accurate to say the rankings don't mean everything than to say they don't mean anything.
 
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KrAzY3 said:
Obviously, if you treat them as gospel or actually spend NIL money or what have you based solely on these rankings, you are an idiot.

But, the data also says more than some people realize at first glance. I will give an example. 247 had last year's Indiana portal class at 25 and Alabama's at 21. This was the classic example of what you are alluding to. Alabama had higher ranked players, but Indiana had a deeper class with more quality additions. That simple formula did fail.

However, On3 ranked Indiana 13th and Alabama 61, their formula judging the incoming vs. the outgoing was far more accurately in this case as it realized Alabama was losing talent at a higher rate while Indiana was stockpiling it.

Even the 247 ranking though does offer some insight into good portal classes though, for instance their 2-5 teams in 2025 were Texas Tech, Miami, Ole Miss, and Oregon. That seems more accurate than just randomly throwing darts at a board doesn't it? After all those teams all made the playoffs and finished ranked, 2, 3, 4, and 7. On3 for the record has a top ranking of Texas Tech, LSU, Ole Miss, Oregon, and Miami.

If I switch it to overall, the 2-5 247 teams in 2025 also all made the playoffs (Georgia, Oregon, Alabama, Ohio State). The high rankings do not guarantee success, but they are still a good indicator of future success. You can still screw up in the process of accumulating talent, but top 5 is a solid indicator you are likely to make the playoffs, so it does mean something and that is the basic principle that if you stack enough talent your odds of success go up dramatically.

The mistake here is to rely on these rankings when going after talent. You need to do your own in-house evaluations and find your own gems. It is pretty useful to the average fan though, who doesn't have the means to do that and in this case those nerds on the recruiting sites still know more about the prospects than the average fan.

TLDR: To me it would be more accurate to say the rankings don't mean everything than to say they don't mean anything.
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I see your point. But all of this ranking crap is for the fans and it is a big industry. I am looking at our team, looking at needs and making my own opinion on how we do based on my knowledge from the cheap seats. The staff has their livelihoods at stake so I am sure they are doing their due diligence. So whatever, 16 or 61, I don't give a flip.
 
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I've seen more than a few pundits -- and some members here, whose opinions I usually give good weight -- say something along the lines of "We lost more than we gained in this portal." I strongly disagree.

[I developed a way-to-long post about the losses and gains through the portal. Previewing it, I bored myself(!).]

Here's my summary: The future looks bright! Roll Tide Roll!!!
 
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Krymsonman said:
So, what we need to do is stop worrying about recruiting players, and go recruit billionaires.
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It isn't even that complicated really, I was just watching a show about people doing really stupid, pointless car builds that cost hundreds of thousands. In most of these cases these are cars they will never seen a return in and they're often barely drive-able. So billionaires don't have a monopoly on doing dumb things with money.

Toward that end, the 47 million dollar golf practice facility is hardly an isolated occurrence. Most people will never even lay eyes on it, on a scale of reasonable NIL to a 10 million dollar quarterback, that surpasses even the 10 million dollar quarterback because at least the football team earns some money.

They just need to be clever. If some rich booster wants some dumb facility to be built, sure, Alabama's athletic department has 200 million a year to spend, they can do that. But they should get some football NIL money from them so the program which actually earns revenue to pay for all that other junk can sustain itself. Likewise, there are quite a few people that can donate 6 figures a year, and if you engage with them properly and get them involved in the process in a sensible way you can probably figure some things out.

You just can't be dumb in how you go about it (not saying they are mind you).

Anyway, specifically to the topic of the portal one thing I was wondering about is if Alabama is sitting on some roster spots/scholarships on purpose just to see what things look like in the spring. Obviously with no new portal opening they're not going to get any more high ranked portal recruits, but they could possibly add depth at some areas of need that present themself by going after a few players still stuck in limbo.
 
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editder said:
Maybe we’re arguing semantics. He wasn’t forced out. He could have stayed around for another year as a backup. But he lost his starting position (which was perfectly justified) and he left because there was no avenue for him to start again for Bama, barring injury to Tua. No ill intent on Bama’s part, but it had the effect of driving him away.
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He wanted to first go to Miami. But Saban talked him into Oklahoma.
 
editder said:
Do you know why? I don’t remember the situation.
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My guess? First Saban thought Oklahoma was the best place to develop his passing game, particularly working through progressions. Given Lincoln Riley’s style, Hurts was going to get plenty opportunities for sure.

Second, and I think this was a big part, Dan Enos just left Alabama in the middle of the night to take the OC job at Miami. And Saban was not happy about that in the least. I believe Hurts was considering Miami because Enos, as QB coach, had really helped him improve in 2018 while sitting behind Tua. Saban certainly didn’t want Hurts in Miami playing for Enos.
 
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I wished Hurts had stayed. If Saban would have pulled Tua in the 2018 for Hurts, I believe we would have won the game. I also believe we could have won it 2019 with Hurts taking over after Tua's injuries. Then 2020, that would have been 4 in a row...
 
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I recall Saban discussing the conversation with JH and stating that he asked JH where he was considering, He replied Maryland because Mike Locksley was the coach and Oklahoma for a reason I don't recall. Saban then asked him who had the best players, and JH replied Oklahoma so that was Saban's advice.
 
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