This is one of the more unique weeks in Southeastern Conference football recruiting, as coaching staffs of 12 of the 14 teams can hit the road in their quest for the stars of tomorrow.
The two exceptions are hardly drawing sympathy, as Alabama and Georgia are preparing for Saturday afternoon’s SEC championship game in Atlanta. While Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban and Bulldogs counterpart Kirby Smart aren’t blanketing the country with in-home visits, they are more than reassured by the amount of eyeballs that will be fixated on a game involving top-three teams in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
“The magnitude and coverage and exposure that we’ll get – those same coaches and those same teams will be seeing the same players that we’re recruiting,” Smart said earlier this week, “and they’ll all be watching this game, I can assure you of that. The best advertisement you can have is to go out and play well.”
Saturday will mark the 30th SEC championship game and the 26th straight to sell out. The last time Alabama and Georgia vied for the league crown took place in 2018, when the Tide’s 35-28 comeback victory was viewed by 17.5 million people, making it the most-watched and highest-rated college game – postseason excluded – on any network in seven years.
How can Eli Drinkwitz, Bryan Harsin or Shane Beamer sitting on your couch compare to that?