re: Bama owns 10% of the nation's Top 100 with ten months to go.

Not to rain on your theory, but you have to remember that "blue-chip" classes are very different in football than in basketball. UK or Duke can sign an entire starting line-up of top 100 players. No football program, not even USC or Bama, does that. There's always an extremely generous allotment of "blue collar" in the mix. Granted, "blue collar" for those programs may be top-ranked recruits for, say, Vandy, but they're still hardly elite on a national scale.

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With rare exceptions, it is the blue chip/blue collar mixed classes that win the championships and set things on the right path, not the resulting #1 classes which are the results of winning the championships in the first place.

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Perhaps. But one thing to consider is that some blue chip recruits have blue collar mindsets. I know in Bama's class we had one five star, Christian Miller, tell us that he wants to redshirt because he wants to be stronger and more mature when he sees the field. Another five star, DaShawn Hand, told our staff he was coming to Bama because he didn't want to be the big man on campus. He wants to work for it. Despite what AJ McCarron says, not all five stars are primadonnas.

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It is obvious that Saban has constructed a dynasty of sorts. He should be winning championships every year - he should be unbeatable ... if it's all about #1 classes.

Correct?

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OMG, OP's posts seem to be getting dumber and dumber. No one ever said getting the number one classes guarantees you championships, it's still a game that has to be played on the field and there are gobs and gobs of variables and chance, not to mention parity at the top of the recruiting food chain and even moreso in this conference itself. If Alabama was in the Big 10 or 12 with these teams they'd have even more success due to less regular season competition. Having consistent top classes however will clearly indicate that you are bringing in top levels of talent to work with and Alabama has elite coaching to go along with it.

Look at Alabama's success rate over Saban's stretch as coach. That's what bringing in all those top classes, year after year, does. I don't quite understand what you don't get about that.

Oh, and I hate Alabama, but common sense is common sense.


ETA: And to add, I believe their stability at the quarterback position has been crucial to their run. The SEC has tremendous parity and Alabama has been able to win key games in crunch time to keep their run going. Having a screwed up quarterback situation can kill your team being solid everywhere else, as any LSU fan can tell you.