cena05 said:
Fully loaded Bama teams with 5*s won for for about 15 years straight. Indiana does it one time with nobodys and now stars don't matter?
THIS. THIS. THIS.
Bama, LSU, UGA, OSU dominate the sport for two decades, consistently recruiting the top 3-5 HS classes every year, and now an anomaly proves the precedent is wrong?
Yes, the transfer portal is incredibly important, but how much? Indiana had the 25th ranked portal class last year. In 2024, Indiana had the 30th ranked portal class. This is mostly a CIGNETTI and money thing, with a nod to how the portal waters down the top of the sport.
Cignetti is a wizard (at least right now).
In this era, Bama doesn't have another 5*, 3rd year guy, waiting for playing time on the 2nd string. That's real. But, taking just A&M, nearly the entire OL in HS recruits (Zuhn, Fatheree, Nabou, Bisontis, Crownover), as are Moss, Owens, Reed, Bethel Roman, Melin Ohrstrom, Bussey. The defense is a transfer heavy, but still reliant on developing HS guys, i.e. Chappell, Anderson, Brooks, York, Sanford, Regis, Jones, Hicks, Rink, Kennedy, Mikhail.
Indiana may win the NC (I'd wager against them in a rematch against OSU), and they are MUCH better than that TCU squad, but let's not get over our skis with recency bias.
