Alabama Football: Signing Day defined CFB's Big Two
By Ronald Evans
Georgia with 28 Signing Day signees gained the 2024 No. 1 class. Alabama Football with 23 signees, plus two verbal commits was No. 2.
After the flurry of another Signing Day, roster building for Alabama Football is far from complete. Some recruits will sign this week and not go public until later. Others may wait until the February signing period.
There are some schedule window guardrails for transfers, but teams will add and lose players for months. Also, many top players are undecided about returning for another season or leaving early for the NFL.
With so much future roster transition, it is hard to define what teams helped their 2024 rosters the most on Signing Day. What can be seen is the dominance of the SEC. Only three of the SEC's 16, 2024 teams failed to gain a Top 25 in 2024 Team Rankings. The three are Arkansas, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt.
Among the other conferences, only the Big Ten can be said to have had a strong Signing Day. Though far behind the SEC, seven of the 18, 2024 Big Ten teams gained a Top 25 ranking. Limping along behind the Big Ten was the ACC with just three of its 17, 2024 teams gaining a Top 25 Team Ranking.
Almost left out of Top 25 Team Rankings was the Big 12. Only Texas Tech, of the Big 12's sixteen, 2024 teams gained a Top 25 ranking.
It is clear that many recruits understand where the power lies in college football. Being generous to the B1G, it can be said college football is now led by a 'Big Two' and the ACC, Big 12, or any other conference will never catch up.
2024 Signing Class Team Rankings (from On3 and 247)
Southeastern Conference
- Georgia Bulldogs - No. 1
- Alabama Crimson Tide - No. 2
- Texas Longhorns - No. 5 (On3) and No. 6 (247)
- Auburn Tigers - No. 7
- Oklahoma Sooners - No. 8
- LSU Bengal Tigers - No. 10 (On3) and No. 11 (247)
- Tennessee Volunteers - No. 12 (On3) and No. 13 (247)
- Texas A&M Aggies - No. 13 (On3) and No. 17 (247)
- Florida Gators - No. 16
- Ole Miss Rebels - No. 19 (On3) and No. 21 (247)
- South Carolina Gamecocks - No. 20
- Missouri Tigers - No. 24
- Kentucky Wildcats - No. 25
Big Ten Conference
- Ohio State Buckeyes - No. 3 (On3) and No. 4 (247)
- Oregon Ducks - No. 5 (247) and No. 6 (On3)
- Penn State Nittany Lions - No. 14 (247) and No. 15 (On3)
- Michigan Wolverines - No. 15 (247) and No. 17 (On3)
- USC Trojans - No. 18
- Nebraska Cornhuskers - No. 19 (247) and No. 21 (On3)
- Wisconsin Badgers - No. 22 (247) and No. 23 (On3)
Among the 'also ran' conferences, Miami led the ACC with a highest Team Ranking of No. 3; FSU had a highest ranking of No. 9 and Clemson's highest ranking was No. 12. For the new Big 12, Texas Tech landed at a highest ranking of No. 22.