National Signing Day 2016: SEC football winners and losers

National Signing Day 2016 is in the books and the SEC dominated by landing ten top 25 recruiting classes. But who were the winners and losers?

The SEC is ideally located in the nation’s most fertile recruiting grounds, which gives league members easy access to an annual influx of talent that is unmatched elsewhere in the United States. As a result, the conference is a fixture in the national championship race, winning eight national championships in the last decade.

Alabama just won its fourth national championship in a seven-year span, which shouldn’t be surprising given the fact the Crimson Tide locked up five consecutive recruiting classes ranked No. 1 in the country in the 247Sports Composite, which takes the recruiting rankings of the industry’s best websites and analysts into account.

Well, make that six straight No. 1 classes.

Alabama sat in the No. 8 spot when the calendar turned from January to February but launched up the rankings and into the top spot after landing six players ranked among the nation’s top 200 high school prospects, including four on National Signing Day. Five-star standout linebackers Ben Davis and Mack Wilson were the crown jewels, both announcing their intentions to sign with the Tide live on national television.

The closing ability of head coach Nick Saban and his coaching staff made Alabama the biggest winner of the day, but what about their rivals in the SEC? Who got the players they wanted most, and who watched much-needed prospects sign elsewhere?

It will take years to know which SEC teams truly won or lost on National Signing Day 2016, but now that all the highly sought after high school players have signed we take a look at the teams that fared best and worst during the roller coaster that is Signing Day.

*Note: The recruiting rankings referenced on the following pages come from the 247Sports Composite unless otherwise noted.

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