Happy Thursday, everyone. The big news of the day is the commitment of point guard Anderson Diaz.
“The love and loyalty was there from the start. I feel like from my first unofficial visit and before, even when they first started recruiting me, I feel like they’ve been non-stop, just with love, reaching out, bad games, good games. I see that it’s deeper than wanting me to help them. They want to see me get to the next level. They want to help me be a part of the journey as well. They care about the on-court stuff, off-court stuff, and it just felt right. It felt like home, literally. It just felt like it was home.”
In his own words, what type of player is Alabama getting in Diaz?
“I can get anywhere on the court at will. Make my teammates better. I can score the ball. I’m a point guard that can do everything on the floor. And they’re going to enjoy watching my games. They’re going to enjoy being there.
Diaz is only 6-foot-1, but knows how to get to the basket. His game looks a bit like a left-handed Aden Holloway.
Nate Oats rolls on.
Joe Gaither looks at potential captains for the 2026 football team.
Senior safety Bray Hubbard – The senior has appeared in 36 games over the last three seasons for Alabama and is one of the most experienced players on the roster. Hubbard was selected as an AFCA second team All-American and Associated Press third team All-American, and was named All-SEC first team by the AP and the conference coaches for his play last year. He tied for the SEC lead with four interceptions and forced three fumbles on 79 total tackles in 2026.
The high school quarterback turned college defender offers the Crimson Tide everything the program needs in a captain. Hubbard stayed at Alabama through the transition from Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer. He’s already experienced numerous high-leverage moments in college football, having appeared in two SEC Championship Games, and he opted to return to Tuscaloosa for his senior year despite NFL interest.
It would be a shock if Bray wasn’t on that list.
Big House shared his correctly cynical view of the reasons for the divide between conferences on playoff expansion.
The Big Ten would have had six teams in a 24-team bracket using last year’s rankings. That includes Iowa, an 8-4 team in the regular season. The Big Ten would have had three of the top five seeds and No. 16 USC, No. 18 Michigan and No. 23 Iowa.
So, you can see why Petitti wants a bigger field.
Or why the SEC’s Greg Sankey isn’t as motivated to expand. His conference dominated the four-team era. There’s more balance in his super league compared to the Big Ten.
Using the Sagarin ratings, the 16 SEC teams had an average ranking of 27.7 (high of 7, low of 67). The Big Ten’s average was 39.3 with a high of No. 1 and a low of 96.
Sankey has been more of a proponent of expanding to 16 teams than to 24.
Last, ESPN’s Eli Lederman wrote about recruiting in the NIL era, and this nugget from Courtney Morgan raised some eyebrows.
“If you have that meeting on Sunday morning and you are not aligned on the money,” one Big 12 GM explained, “the whole weekend was a waste of time.”
Recruiting, in spite of it all, remains a relationship game. Prospects still frequently talk about longstanding connections with assistant coaches who offered them as eighth graders. Coaches who spend the years cultivating bonds with recruits and their families can still be the difference.
However, in college football’s money era, official visit invites and committable offers can disappear quickly, and relationships can fracture in an instant if the business end falls through.
“If we can’t come to an agreement, you just don’t bring them for an OV — we’ll cancel the kid’s visit,” said Alabama’s Morgan, who followed coach Kalen DeBoer to the Crimson Tide from Washington. “There was a big-time player last year, top of his position, we just told him don’t come because we couldn’t meet on the terms he wanted.”
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.