Post-Portal close rankings for Alabama Football and other SEC teams

The spring edition of the college football Transfer Portal is closed. For Alabama Football there were late exit additions in Peyton Woodyard and Tony Mitchell. There is a lag in reporting after the Portal closes and the Crimson Tide could still have a surprise exit or two.

A common theme for the Transfer Portal is that the door swings both ways. That is generally true but there are frequent exceptions. One exception is for teams like Alabama that excel at recruiting high school players, Portal exits are a necessary cleaning up of the roster to make room for new talent.

Going back to December Alabama has had 39 transfer exits. As many as 15 can be considered top players who might have made strong contributions in the 2024 season. Given the transition from the GOAT to Kalen DeBoer, a loss of 15 potentially key players was not the roster meltdown most national pundits described.

Instead, with its 2024 high school recruits and key transfer additions, the Alabama Football roster might be comparable to last season. With another two or three key transfer additions, Alabama will have one of the top rosters in college football again.

Alabama Football and the Transfer Portal

Unlike many teams, Alabama can afford to be choosy in using the Portal for additions. So far, the Crimson Tide has added 12 transfers. Check out the complete list of transfer additions and exits as provided by 247Sports.

The Crimson Tide transfer class is ranked No. 4 nationally by 247Sports. Among SEC teams, only Ole Miss (No. 1) and Texas A&M (No. 2) are ranked higher.

Eight SEC teams are ranked inside the Top 20 nationally. The other six are Texas (No. 7), South Carolina (No. 12), Georgia (No. 13), Missouri (No. 17) and Kentucky (No. 19). The remaining SEC teams are Oklahoma (No. 21), Florida (No. 22), Auburn (No. 27), Arkansas (No. 29), Tennessee (No. 30), Vanderbilt (No. 40), LSU (No. 41) and Mississippi State (No. 42).

For several SEC schools the rankings are quite different when calculated based on the average player rating. The Crimson Tide is at No. 4, with only Texas (No. 2) and Georgia (No. 3) being higher. Ole Miss drops from No. 1 overall, to No. 6 in average player rating. Tennessee and LSU get big boosts with the Vols at No. 8 and LSU at No. 9. Other SEC teams are Missouri (No. 10), Texas A&M (No. 13), Kentucky (No. 15), Florida (No. 22), Auburn (No. 27), South Carolina (No. 23), Oklahoma (No. 24, Arkansas (No. 25), Vanderbilt (No. 36) and Mississippi State (No. 46).