Spring practice is over, and football season is right around the corner.

Alabama football has high expectations in year two under head coach Kalen DeBoer, and according to some post-spring rankings, some experts believe the Crimson Tide have the talent to achieve those expectations.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly has Alabama as the No. 2 team in the nation, only behind defending champion Ohio State, according to his post-spring SP+ team rankings. 

Per ESPN, Connelly’s SP+ rankings are heavily weighted on three major factors: 

1. Returning production. The returning production numbers are based on rosters I have updated as much as humanly possible to account for transfers and attrition. The combination of last year’s SP+ ratings and adjustments based on returning production makes up about two-thirds of the projections formula.

2. Recent recruiting. This piece informs us of the caliber of a team’s potential replacements (and/or new stars) in the lineup. It is determined by the past few years of recruiting rankings in diminishing order (meaning the most recent class carries the most weight). This is also impacted by the recruiting rankings of incoming transfers, an acknowledgment that the art of roster management is now heavily dictated by the transfer portal.

3. Recent history. Using a sliver of information from the previous four seasons or so gives us a good measure of overall program health.

With a 27.9 rating, the Crimson Tide edged out Penn State’s 27.7 rating for second place and fell short of the top team Ohio State’s 29.5 rating.

The SP+ ranked both Alabama’s offense and defense fifth in the country for the upcoming season. Contributing to the high ranking is the Crimson Tide is returning 14 starters from the 2024 team including six on offense and eight on defense.

The SP+ model also considers the strength of the schedule, and Alabama scored well in that department. The model considered Alabama to have the 11th toughest schedule in the country for the upcoming season.

It’s no surprise that the SEC performed the best of any conference, with 12 of the 16 teams ranked in the top-25 and 14 of the 16 ranked 43rd or better.

Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.