Alabama Football Recruiting 2012: The Tide Has Turned in the State of Louisiana

And the rich seem to get even richer. The Alabama Crimson Tide just won the BCS National Championship, they already have one of the most talented teams and yet they're able to stockpile even more talent in this year's recruiting class.

According to top recruiting sites, the Crimson Tide either has the No.1 or the No. 2 recruiting class in the country. That doesn't include the several uncommitted players that still have Alabama on their list of possible schools. They currently have received a total of 27 commits and majority of those players are 3-star prospects or higher. 

What makes this class even sweeter is that they are landing some of the top players from the state of Louisiana and taking them away from their rival the LSU Tigers. In fact, according to Scout.com, the Crimson Tide will sign the top-two players from Louisiana in safety Landon Collins and middle linebacker Denzel Devall. They've also picked up a talented and big wide receiver from New Orleans in Raheem Falkins.

All three of those players had offers from LSU and turned them down. Landon Collins even picked Alabama even though his mom showed her displeasure with the decision as she wanted her son to become a Tiger.

That's three of their top recruits coming out of Louisiana. It's not like the Crimson Tide aren't also landing key players from their state either, Reggie Ragland, T.J. Yeldon, Tyler Hayes and Ryan Anderson are all from Alabama. 

Meanwhile, the Tigers can't seem to have the same success in this year's class. Sure, they still have a better recruiting class than most teams, but they've also had their fair share of failures as well. Not only did they miss out on Collins, they also lost offensive linemen Patrick Miller to Auburn and quarterback Gunner Kiel to Notre Dame.

LSU does have 23 commitments so far and 16 of them are from Louisiana, but none are as highly ranked as the players Alabama landed. In fact, eight of those players are 3-star recruits or less on most recruiting websites. Teams should be able to recruit well in their own state, especially national championship-caliber teams.

This isn't saying that LSU is a bad team or is falling off. They still have a great coaching staff and a talented team, so they will remain at the top of next year's rankings. It's just very interesting to see that Alabama is stealing marquee player's right out of the Tigers backyard.

“This is a rarity for LSU,” recruiting analyst Mike Farrell for Rivals.com said. “I don’t think it’s going to happen again anytime soon. It’s not like this is a bad LSU class or the coaching staff didn’t do a good job. There was just a series of events and extenuating circumstances.”

The BCS National Championship may have ended a few weeks ago, but Alabama is still coming out victorious.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]