A small bandwagon wave has appeared on the Alabama Crimson Tide's horizon. At first, it was Mark Schlabach's preseason ranking of Alabama as next season's No. 21 team. He ranked six SEC football teams above the Crimson Tide. The ranking was scoffed at by some Alabama football fans as being extreme. Other Alabama fans chalked up the rankings as a common ESPN effort to inflame rather than inform.
This week, Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams joined the parade. Adams is a contemporary of Paul Finebaum, who does good work. His main beat is Tennessee, but Adams, Toppmeyer, and Schlabach are respected professionals. When they make guesses about next season, they are not just ginning up sizzle out of nothing.
John Adams recently ranked next season's SEC teams, and like Schlabach, he has the Crimson Tide at No. 7. Toppmeyer did not disagree with him when they discussed the SEC's most overrated teams going into the 2026 season. They chose Georgia, Texas A&M, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Talking about underrated teams, Adams chose LSU, and Toppmeyer chose Ole Miss if Trinidad Chambliss is able to return.
Talking to Paul Finebaum about Alabama on Friday, Adams said he believes the Crimson Tide cannot be competitive in NIL funds, because Alabama has no billionaires in its donor base. Finebaum verified that no billionaires are supporting University of Alabama athletics.
Adams used the example of Alabama having appeared to have landed NCSU transfer Hollywood Smothers, only to lose him to Texas after he had enrolled at Alabama. The probability that the sudden change by Smothers was driven by anything other than cash is likely less than 1%.
Can the Alabama Crimson Tide keep up?
Billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell said recently that Alabama cannot keep up financially. There is no doubt that Greg Byrne, Kalen DeBoer, Nate Oats, and others will do everything that can be done to prove Campbell wrong. There is also no denying that BIG money has tipped the scales, with no current indication that throwing cash at players and at championships will do anything but escalate.
The impact on the 2026 college football season is unknown, but despite the financial challenges, the Alabama Crimson Tide as anything but a top-tier SEC program is unfathomable. The goals will again be championships.