Randy Smith: SEC Dominates College Football Recruiting

With the emergence of the transfer portal in college sports, some of the luster has vanished from the recruitment of high school seniors. The recruiting industry is still flourishing however and as far as the class of 2024 is concerned, it's totally dominated by schools from the Southeastern Conference. According to Rivals.com the top three schools are all SEC teams....Georgia, Alabama and Texas. (Remember, Texas and Oklahoma join the league beginning this fall.) Of the next seven teams in the top ten, two are SEC teams. (Oklahoma and Auburn.)

I know that Tennessee fans are asking about the Volunteers and Josh Heupel's 2024 class is rated 14th and that leaves the Big Orange with a number six rating among SEC schools. And as far as the class of 2025 is concerned, the Vols are again ranked 14th. In addition to recruiting rankings, there are now lists of players in the transfer portal specifying the schools who lost players as well as the ones who signed them. All these rankings and lists seem to be just another way to determine how competitive schools have become.

There are still a few coaches who refuse to become a part of the transfer portal fiasco with Clemson head coach Dabo Sweeney being one of them. Even though his Tigers have lost a few players to the portal, of the top 250 athletes who have transferred, Clemson has not signed a single one. Sweeney continues to build his program with high school seniors. That was fine when the Tigers won a pair of national titles in 2016 and 2018 but things have changed drastically since then.

I've always said college football was a big business and that's more true now than ever. I've also said many times that the recent changes in college sports have made athletes more self-centered and " money hungry " and that's one of the reasons Alabama coach Nick Saban retired. It's not the same game it was only five years ago. Change is good but only in small increments and with NIL deals and the transfer portal both coming in at the same time...well that may be too much change all at once.