The Southeastern Conference is sitting on the brink of winning another football national championship.
Oh, sure it is a little too early to be thinking about a seventh consecutive BCS National Championship, but the SEC is cutting a path through the current recruiting scene and that's how you get to BCS national championship games.
To win on the football field, a coach has to continue to replace quality players with quality players, and coaches in the SEC are doing a great job of it in the current recruiting wars. How do you continually put teams in the Top 25 on the field? You continually put teams in the final Top 25 recruiting rankings.
That's exactly what is happening as the clock ticks down to National Signing Day.
Let's be honest here. Nobody really knows how good a recruiting class is on signing day. The recruiting rankings are guesses-educated guesses for sure-but guesses just the same. Just because a player is considered a 4- or 5-star player in high school doesn't mean he is going to be the same in college. The chances are he will be a good player but not every player continues to grow between his senior high school year and his freshman year in college. By the same token, some players who weren't highly thought of in high school suddenly put on 30 pounds of muscles and suddenly a 2-star recruit is a 4-star or better.
People who are supposed to be considered experts in the field will tell you that, no matter how closely you look at it, the Southeastern Conference teams are zeroing in on an outstanding haul on signing day.
Rivals has a reputation as being one of the best in the business, and according to Rivals.com the SEC is dominating the Top 25 at this stage of the game. According to the Rivals rankings from this past weekend, the SEC has nine teams currently ranked in the Top 25, including the No. 1 team, the No. 4 team and the No. 10 team.
It is no shock that Alabama is ranked No. 1. According to Rivals, the Crimson Tide has three 5-star recruits and 12 4-star recruits. Only Florida State has as many 5-star commitments, but the Seminoles have only eight 4-star commitments. In fact, only Texas and Ohio State have more 4-star recruits than Alabama, and they both have 13.
While it is perhaps no surprise that Alabama is No. 1 after winning its second consecutive BCS national title in three years, it may be a little bit of a shock to find out the Florida Gators are ranked No. 4. Florida does have the advantage of recruiting to perhaps the best climate in the country, and the Gators are coming off an impressive bowl victory over Ohio State. The Gators have just changed offensive coordinators, going from Charlie Weis to Brent Peace, and Will Muschamp is an excitable coach. A lot of players want to play for a coach who brings his personality to the football field.
Scanning the rest of the ranked SEC teams, the other member of the Top 10 is a newcomer-the Texas A&M Aggies. Making the move to the SEC from the Big 12 has to generate a lot of enthusiasm among recruits, especially those who have been Aggie fans even before the opportunity to play in the SEC was available.
Following Texas A&M in the rankings are two more SEC teams-Tennessee and South Carolina. Tennessee being ranked so high is a little shocking considering the struggles the Vols have had recently. South Carolina is likely going to be the preseason favorite in the SEC East next season, and the lure of playing for Steve Spurrier is always strong.
LSU comes in at No. 15, followed by Georgia at No. 19 and Auburn at No. 20. Bringing up the last spot in the Top 25 is James Franklin's Vanderbilt Commodores.
All in all it is a pretty strong showing for teams from the Southeastern Conference. Of course a lot can change between now and signing day, and there will inevitably be some players who are now committed who will change their minds and commit to some other team that might offer a chance to play right away. But you can be sure that when the ink dries on the scholarship papers on signing day, the SEC is still going to come out looking pretty sweet.
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