re: Article says Bama doesnt have NIL to compete?

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Frankly I don't think any sane person expects them to be close to that.

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if Deboer delivers another 9-3, then you might find that more than a few on your side of the state line aren't very sane

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Probably has more to do with inflation and people not willing to spend money on paying 18-20 year old kids

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I’m talking about people with money. In the 1960s and ‘70s, the rich parts of the state were dominated by Bama graduates. Things slowly started to even out in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And now there are way more Auburn grads living in the million dollar homes than there are Bama grads.

I have bama friends with elementary age kids who tell me their kids always complain about how at school they are so outnumbered. This was not a thing 30 years ago I can assure you. If anything it was the opposite.

You can see it now in the data. Going by schooldigger.com records of the Top 15 highest rated schools in the state and comparing it to state data on where public school graduates are going to college, Auburn took more kids in the most recent year of data from 14 of those Top 15 high schools.

Mountain Brook: 94 kids chose Auburn; 78 kids chose Bama

Vestavia Hills: 147 kids chose Auburn; 107 kids Alabama

Homewood: 62 kids chose Auburn; 41 kids chose Bama

These are areas with million dollar homes on every block.

If you take all 15 of the top rated high schools, Auburn took 1,018 kids to Bama’s 609.

It’s been this way for over a decade. Eventually that catches up with you when you are going to these communities in search of donations.

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Makes sense they dropped hard last year and there had to be a reason Saban was getting out. Did they lose their competitive advantage when buying players became legal?

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Do you fricks even follow the sport? Alabama didn't lose last year due to a lack of talent. It was probably the most talented team in the country if you believe recruiting rankings. Alabama has pulled in top classes repeatedly in the NIL era.

What you guys for some reason don't seem to understand is the difference between a talented played and an elite player. What Alabama had during the dynasty were ELITE players. Not just talented players, but elite players. There is a difference.

What Saban did was he took talented players and made them elite. It's not an instant process, it takes years of a player being in the system, doing the right things, training the right way, etc.

Saban was still bringing in the talent, but the talent no longer had the desire to become that elite player. They are already getting paid, or they just want to get paid more now for their families, etc.

Keeping a guy for the amount of years required and having the mentality to become elite is what dropped off. Previously that was the way to get paid, become elite and make NFL money. Now it's not.

When they no longer cared about improving as a player etc, Saban said frick it. It's the same reason he didn't like the NFL.

Saban added his own value, so that part is gone. But beyond that, any coach that comes to Alabama is going to get what he needs to be successful. I think in the future more attention is going to be paid towards the guys who stay and develop rather than chasing stars in the portal Kiffin style.

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Bama made a gigantic mistake about 20 years ago when they decided to focus more on out-of-state kids vs in-state. They went from being 70% in-state to just 34% in-state by 2018. They are trying to correct things now but it’s hard to reverse course quickly.

Now that they are 20 years into their experiment, they’ve discovered that most kids from Illinois and New Jersey who come to school there have a great 4 years and then move right back to where they came from, and very few donate back to the school… both for academics or athletics.

In the OTM areas of Birmingham (upscale suburbs), the kids are choosing Auburn at about a 2:1 ratio and Bama is realizing now that they are losing out on the better in-state kids who come from money and are more likely to settle in-state with high-paying careers.

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Surely Auburn has been able to capitalize on this mistake and hasn't lost 5 in a row to Alabama.

Surely.

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Judging yourself against a school you "never even think about".

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You're our little brother.

You throw more toilet paper on those concrete trees after an Alabama loss than you do an Auburn win.

You bag our groceries in Winn-Dixie.

How can we not think about you?

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My how the mighty have fallen.

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I agree. So sad.

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Arkansas fans, folks..

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From the looks of things its going pretty well........... not so much for the poor golden flake boys. Well be taking them out of Walmarts to put you further in the hole

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Is there anything to back this up? I really have no idea, just would like to see some proof.

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I had a guy who was on the University of Alabama School of Engineering Board tell me back in about 2016 that the university was making moves to try to bolster its in-state numbers because they were seeing some negative side effects of being so lopsided towards out of state kids… primarily in fundraising efforts and alumni engagement.

Sure enough, the numbers are reversing, but steering a large ship in a new direction takes time.

Bama Out of State Incoming Freshmen %

2015- 63%
2016- 66%
2017- 65%
2018- 64%
2019- 61%
2020- 58%
2021- 61%
2022- 63%
2023- 61%
2024- 57%

2024 was probably the lowest % of out of state kids since about 2009.

It doesn’t help that Alabama is a relatively slow growth state. If we had the population growth of Tennessee or Florida, it would be very easy to change course. But trying to increase instate kids and keep certain academic standards without shrinking your overall enrollment is a difficult balancing act.

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Sure enough, the numbers are reversing, but steering a large ship in a new direction takes time.

Bama Out of State Incoming Freshmen %

2015- 63%
2016- 66%
2017- 65%
2018- 64%
2019- 61%
2020- 58%
2021- 61%
2022- 63%
2023- 61%
2024- 57%

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Dude, you are retarded if you think there is any trend in these numbers. If you graduated from Auburn, you might want to contact them and see if they will pay you to keep it a secret.

Your statement makes sense.

It’s a pretty good bet that the average families of out of state students are wealthier than the average Alabama residents.