Alabama Football: A deep dive into CFB’s top 25 for 2020

Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? Alabama football fans, I’m taking a deep statistical look at every D1 team to bring you my ‘Way Too Early Top 25’ picks.

Every season after the national title game, college football fans everywhere start looking forward to the next season. That goes doubly true for Alabama football fans this year. After a disappointing and injury-riddled season that saw Alabama football miss the Playoff for the first time ever, fans are itching for next year.

Alabama football will undoubtedly be much improved in 2020, especially on defense. Couple that with the expected decline of some of last year’s top teams and Alabama is poised to once again be on top of the SEC and all of College Football.

If you look through the history of all of my posts here on Bama Hammer, one thing is clear. I love math and statistics. At the end of the day, numbers can tell you a lot about a team. The best indicators of success bare out in the numbers.

With that in mind, I decided to take a much different approach than most people putting out their respective versions of “Way Too Early Top 25s”. I’m not just looking at returning starters and recruiting numbers. I’m going to each position and looking at potential replacements. I’m looking at the last four years worth of recruiting numbers.

Beyond the surface, I’m looking at what each team’s strengths were last year. If they took a hit in a position of strength via graduation, transfer, or early draft entry then they got knocked down further (I’m looking at you LSU!).

Not only did I consider the players and last year’s stats, but I also considered coaching turnover. Did the coaching staff get better, worse, or remain consistent? Some of these things are unknown and as you know, this isn’t a perfect science, but this is a more in-depth look at the potential top teams of next season than most.

One other thing to consider when reading through my “Top 25”. I am not trying to predict where I think teams will be ranked when the first Coaches and AP Polls are released in August. I am predicting where I think these teams will finish in 2020. My expectation is that this Top 25 will be unlike any other Top 25 released to this point. I do not mind the debate that will ensue either. This will be controversial to an extent.

So, without further ado, here is my “Slightly Less Early Than Most Top 25”.