The new world of college football roster management has taken some adjustment by various fan bases. None have faced bigger adjustments than Alabama fans. For nearly two decades, Alabama fans watched Nick Saban’s recruiting machine dominate the sport in a few could have imagined. Over the course of 17 recruiting seasons, Saban’s Alabama machine finished with a #1 ranking by one service or another in 13 of the 17 classes. Only two classes didn’t reach at least #2. Only one class, his first in 2007, didn’t reach Top 5.
I know we say this a lot…but it bears repeating. The game has changed. In a recent study, College Front Office estimated the roster value of the Top 15 spenders in college football. They range from $30m to $48m per team. Alabama’s roster had an estimated value of $37.2m, coming in at #8 just below Texas A&M and interestingly four spots ahead of #12 Georgia. Obviously if you’re in the Top 10 in roster spending, that should be adequate to compete at a very high level if your evaluations are on point.
The last two High School signing classes by Alabama ranked #2 and #3 nationally by On3, and of those 47 players, 46 are still on the roster. In addition, of the 44 players projected on Alabama’s two deep roster at Ourlads.com, 37 have eligibility beyond this season. Look at that number again…Alabama is only losing 7 players to expired eligibility. Kalen Deboer has said repeatedly that this will be a smaller class because the organization is focused on retention. It’s important to realize that this has likely been the plan for a while. Deboer and GM Courtney Morgan didn’t wake up in February and find the bank account empty.
College football rosters in this age have three components. High School recruiting classes, transfer portal additions, and retention of current talent. If Alabama’s estimated roster value is $37.2 million as projected, then it stands to reason that you will need much of that to retain the 84% of your depth chart that is able to return.
Even if you believe that some of the current roster may enter the draft early, let’s say three of them. And even if you believe that some of the two deep will enter the portal, let’s say 5. Then you are only losing 15 players. You’ll want to add some pieces in the portal next year, so you need room for that.
Understanding the position that Alabama is in now, compare it to Deboers first two years. When Nick Saban retired in January of 2024, Alabama lost a large class to the end of eligibility, including 10 players chosen in the 2024 NFL Draft. They also lost 26 transfers following Saban’s retirement. It was the equivalent of losing TWO full recruiting classes in one off-season. That explains Alabama’s aggressiveness in High School recruiting for those first two off-seasons, and also explains the lack of quality depth that plagued the Tide quite a bit over the last two years.
Now, the roster is full and VERY young. They have highly recruited players who will play massive roles as second and third year players in 2026. As their role increases, those players will naturally expect to earn more money the following year. So Alabama will need to identify which players they most prioritize and save a little money in this recruiting cycle to retain what will be a roster likely ranked in the top 5-8 in the country in terms of pure talent. They are also likely to have a starting QB returning…and we all know those are not cheap.
No, Alabama is not “broke”. They are simply executing a plan that keeps a young and talented roster together for the next two years as it matures and develops. If Alabama has a good season in 2026, and they retain much of their top talent, then 2027 looks like a year that the Crimson Tide could be back in the first tier of title contenders. That’s the bet that Morgan and Deboer are making. In this new world of roster construction, it’s not a bad plan at all.
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