The early signing period does not begin until December, but Friday, August 1, is the first day that college football programs can send out official offer letters to the 2026 class. Under the House v. NCAA Settlement, this can include financial offers through the revenue-sharing cap, but those agreements also cannot be signed until December.
So, if they can’t sign just yet, what exactly are 2026 Alabama commits receiving today? Well, a really cool folder for starters.
Four-star tight end Mack Sutter took to social media to give Alabama fans and everybody else an in-depth look at the Alabama official offer letter, or at least the really cool folder that it arrives in.
Official #Rolltide pic.twitter.com/fIJWiF8p3U
— Mack Sutter (@M4ckSutter) August 1, 2025
The video is well-produced and appears to be the video that Alabama sent to Sutter, and likely to the rest of the 2026 class, to preempt the arrival of the official offer letter. The branding of “the chosen few” is particularly apt this recruiting cycle, as Kalen DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan prioritized quality over quantity. Their class of just 21 commits currently sits at No. 4 in the country and includes five composite five-stars: Xavier Griffin, Cederian Morgan, Jordan Edmonds, Jireh Edwards, and Ezavier Crowell.
Earlier in the day, Edmonds posted his offer letter to social media, wanting to “make it official,” though that offer will remain unsigned until December.
As everything is in college football, these specially designed folders for the offer letters and the accompanying hype video are a recruiting tactic, and one that will certainly be copied by the rest of the country if they don’t already have their social media strategy mapped out for official offer letter day.
The pervasive nature of recruiting can be tiresome. Do players really need a specialized folder for their offer letter and a well-produced video? No, certainly not. But again, it’s a really cool folder.
More than ever, with the legalization of pay-for-play, first through NIL rules and then through the House v. NCAA settlement, money rules the world of recruiting. Yet, Alabama, which is not one of the biggest spenders in the country, continues to recruit at an elite level. Why? Well, for some time, the Tide got a Nick Saban discount. Recruits were so desperate to play for the greatest coach of all time, they would take less to do it. Now, with Saban in retirement, it’s about prestige.
Yes, Saban led the program there, but Alabama has won six national championships this century. It’s the most prestigious football program in the country, and DeBoer and his staff have seemingly built much of their recruiting approach around that fact. The really cool folders are just another example of a well-executed recruiting philosophy and the mystique of the Crimson Tide.