Even the bluebloods aren't immune to the madness...
Bama loses 9 players in 15 minutes
- Thread starter 79COUG
- Start date
Saban has zero issues with talent acquisition. He has moved kids on for years. He used to have them retire medically and stay on scholarship without counting towards the 85. There comes a time at Bama where you are either moving up the depth chart or the guy behind you is. So you leave. Saban isn’t going to carry dead weight.
The kids at Bama were all very accomplished HS players. They have met a ton of diff coaches across many leagues in the recruiting process. There is no reason for a player with that much talent to sit. They could all be 3-4 year starters and have meaningful careers somewhere else. Wherever that someplace else is??? Why be buried on the depth chart somewhere else?
Or they may have had offers that Bama isn’t gonna match.
Good points. Would be curious to see who these guys are, if any are starters or projected starters. Bama will reload no doubt but this is a pain in the ass Saban would rather not deal with I’m sure. He had things humming getting top 3 recruiting classes year after year, now he’s got to re-recruit those same kids every year in this environment.
Remember, many if not most kids from rich programs who enter the portal were pushed.
As they say in New Jersey, "It's just bidness".
As they say in New Jersey, "It's just bidness".
Many top schools are losing recruits to the portal. Portal-era things (sometimes new) we've seen at Georgia:
I will say, one of the new things I didn't anticipate is, even big schools can't pay ALL the players. A starting Alabama LB might now happily play for Kentucky, which has no real shot at anything, because UK needs an LB worse than Alabama does, and Alabama isn't ponying up $3MM for 85+ players.
- Kids low on the depth chart trying to get reps for an NFL resume
- Kids who thought they were a starter next year move on when the starter comes back
- Players moving on bc they're not happy with scheme/position (DB playing Star)
- Following coaches who get poached (Lanning @ Oregon)
- Team leaders leaving to be closer to home
- Fleeing for NIL money
I will say, one of the new things I didn't anticipate is, even big schools can't pay ALL the players. A starting Alabama LB might now happily play for Kentucky, which has no real shot at anything, because UK needs an LB worse than Alabama does, and Alabama isn't ponying up $3MM for 85+ players.
I think NIL will shake out like this…. kids get a deal to sign…. they won’t see much else until they’re a starter.
Saban isn’t going to pay backups a starters wage. They can go to Kentucky for that.
Economics of NIL are going to be a lot like the NFL. Starting QBs make a pile, backup QBs make 10-20% of what the starter does. In the NFL, the starter gets 40 million, the backup gets maybe 5. Scale that to college - the starter gets $3M, the backup maybe gets $200K...probably less. In the NFL, the backup has a contract and is stuck with his team - unless they decide to trade him. In college...they can leave whenever they want. So why would a backup getting $100-200K stay there when he might get 500K and an opportunity to play somewhere else?
I don't think the $$$ will be there for kids in the portal who haven't played. They might get a couple bucks tossed at them as a sweetener but the value of coming to WSU for a transfer is playing time. Josh Kelley came here for a year, balled out and got a nice NIL deal at Tech. No one is dishing out the big bucks for a guy who was a HS All American but hasn't seen many snaps at Bama. The guy with D1 film is a known quantity.
