Randy Smith: College Football's Rich Getting Richer

With the start of the 2019 college football season still more than three months away fans are clambering for as much information as they can possibly  get. In fact, at this point in the pre-season recruiting rankings are most prominent, and we're talking about the class of 2020. There is one major takeaway from the rankings thus far and that's the rich keep getting richer. On top of the 2020 rankings thus far is defending national champ Clemson with an obscene haul of commitments. The Tigers have a total of sixteen which includes five, five stars and ten four stars. Currently in second place is Alabama with seventeen commits but only one five star player.

In case you're wondering about the Tennessee Volunteers, they are currently 29th in the 2020 team rankings. That came after a 12th place finish for 2019 which is considered quite successful for Coach Jeremy Pruitt. It is no secret that Alabama and Clemson have dominated college football over the past four years. Each team has won a pair of national titles and the two powers have met in the championship game three out of four years. How does a team like Tennessee eventually compete with the Tide and the Tigers ? By continuing to work hard on the recruiting trail. Programs that have been as low as Tennessee has been in the last decade can't compete by recruiting two and three star players.  Former coach Butch Jones did well recruiting but was horrible when it came to p/layer development. Coach Pruitt needs to work even harder in developing players until he can regularly sign more than just a few five star players.

Eleven years ago when Dabo Swinney was given a chance to rejuvenate the Clemson program the Tigers were about where Tennessee is now, though perhaps in a little better shape. It took Dabo seven seasons of outworking the competition in recruiting and development to get into a position to play for a national championship. Now entering the 2019 season, he's the highest paid coach in college football and his team is being tabbed to win it all once again.   

Winners in college football come and go in cycles. Even Bear Bryant had a few down years, but it looks as if Clemson and Alabama will continue to thrive and get richer each and every year. Everyone else will be forced to work harder in all areas just to keep up because the rich indeed keep getting richer.