Alabama Rolls in the Nation's No 1 Recruiting Class

Published on 5-Feb-2014 by Stacey Mickles

Football - NCAA    NCAA Football Daily Update

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Alabama Rolls in the Nation's No 1 Recruiting Class

If the start of college football is like Christmas Day to college football fans, than national signing day is like Christmas Eve.

National signing day -- the first Wednesday in February each year -- is when high school football athletes can finally sign a formal commitment as to which school they plan to attend. Basically, it's the college version of free agency.

And who is the big winner this year?

No surprise, Alabama.

The Crimson Tide, according most experts, has the No 1 recruiting class in the country. 

A lot of people -- OK, Paul Finebaum and Colin Cowherd -- thought that Nick Saban was losing his touch. Obviously not.

One of the big gets of the day for the Tide was outside linebacker  Rashaan Evans, who at one point was a virtual lock for Auburn. Evans goes to Auburn High School, his parents went to Auburn, and even the Auburn website had him chanting War Eagle.

Evans shocked everyone in Auburn when he announced he'd be going to play for the rival school in Tuscaloosa.

As you can tell, Evans' mom didn't seem to be thrilled about her son's decision, either, but I digress.

The SEC, of course dominated this day, landing seven of the top ten spots in the country, according to Rivals.com.

The Top 10 Rivals recruiting rankings are:

  1. Alabama
  2. LSU
  3. Ohio State
  4. Florida State
  5. Tennessee
  6. Texas A&M
  7. Florida
  8. Georiga
  9. Auburn
  10. USC

Now, it's hard enough for parents to know how their sons are going to develop in the next four to five years. For some, it's tough enough to know what they're doing now. But ranking teams by their recruiting commitments has become a cottage industry.

Getting the top recruits doesn't really guarantee a school very much, but coaches are always hoping that a consensus-quality class can improve their odds of success come fall.