They didn’t belong on the same field with Indiana. I can’t believe I just said that.
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Indiana now 1–0 vs Alabama all-time as well, outscoring the Crimson Tide by 35 in the short series. Thought it was worth mentioning. 
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Two years ago Alabama was losing in OT in the Rose Bowl to Michigan who would go on to win the national championship. Nick Saban then retired after Michigan beat Washington that year. Indiana was 3-9 in that 2023 season. Alabama has now lost 8 games in two years and Indiana is now 14-0 in the 2025 season. They went 11-2 in 2024 as well. Today was Indiana’s first bowl win since 1991. They’ve won the Big Ten, the Rose Bowl and are probably favored to win a national championship.
I have no idea how this happened? I do wish my dad had lived to see it though. He’d never have believed it. He was from Indiana, loved IU, was indifferent to Purdue and HATED Notre Dame. Must be where I picked it up. This kind of success just doesn’t happen for IU in football. He would have been stunned. I think we all are. Change can happen fast in sports.
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Alabama started to fade in recruiting under Saban towards the end. The problem is the networks don’t adjust their recruiting rankings and everytime Bama signed someone they would just move them up just because they were Bama.
Just look at Bama class this year. Ranked #2 in the country. Not a single player from the state of Florida. Their 2024 and 2025 Classes in Florida produced Zavier Mincey (Mainland-DB), Jamroc Grimsley (Tampa Catholic-DB), Joseph Ionata (Calvary Christian-OL), Michael Carroll (IMG-OL), Ivan Taylor (West Orange 4-Star). That is what they have signed. They have not landed any of the elite players from Florida. Taylor was an average player in HS and not one that Saban would have ever taken. Their recruiting classes have been over inflating due to them being BAMA.
You take a look and Bama just missed. Saban also did a very good job of landing classes of 25-30 every year with over half the classes being studs and than flushing out the other part of the roster every year and just kept this up. Deboer has not been able to do the same thing. You can go and look at Saban last classes and there were misses. Ty Simpson was a five star QB but lets be real he has been slightly above average in most games. Where is that STUD RB. You go from Derrick Henry, Mark Ingram, Harris….to name that Back. They don’t have one. The average fan goes BAMA has all those five stars and four star players but they really don’t look closely. You will have a five star receiver like Ryan Williams who is good but is not Devonta Smith good. That little adjustment in five stars and than not hitting on the same ratio of 4 and 3 stars and you go from 12-0, 11-1 to all of a sudden 9-3.
Reality is Bama should have never been in the playoffs. If you watched them against FSU this year they were beaten up and down the field. Georgia destroyed them in the SEC championship. Ole Miss who won last night was not in the SEC title game. Neither was Texas A&M. Guess what Bama did not play either of them. Bama would have lost to both teams. Bama lost to a very average OU team. They almost lost to Missouri who did not have their starting QB and Auburn was driving against them and they could have lost. Bama should not have gotten in over ND or Texas. Just watch those teams. Love would have run for 250 yards on Bama. ND would have shut Bama out as well on offense. The media has sold everyone on Bama being great. It was a lie.
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Bama is likely fading due to NIL.
They lost their big advantage, like Clemson did, in paying top players to play for them.
With NIL, the recruitment playing field is much more level. It is much harder to stack talent now.
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Kids don’t want to sit if there’s a place they can play right away as well. NIL and Transfer portal has changed everything. We still needs some guidelines put in place because now it is literally the Wild Wild West out there now.
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