Opinion: Don't expect Nick Saban and Alabama to start relying on the transfer portal

Don't expect Alabama coach Nick Saban to constantly refresh the NCAA transfer portal waiting for new names to appear.

If you take Saban at his word, he plans to keep building his program the old-fashioned way – recruiting high school standouts – and use the transfer portal where it makes sense, even as college football moves into an era that will make it easier than ever to transfer.

The NCAA Division I Council this month approved a one-time transfer rule that will give first-time undergraduate transfers immediate eligibility without needing a waiver. Already, graduate transfers could play immediately without needing a waiver.

A hot topic surrounding the undergraduate transfer rule change is whether it will widen the gap between college football’s elite and everyone else.

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“Is that going to make the rich get richer? I don’t know. You can decide that,” Saban said last week.

“We will only look for transfers that are going to help our team be better. That means we have to have a need for them. They have to be better than the guys that we have in the program right now at their position, and, so, we’ll be selective in how we choose guys. We’re still going to recruit quality players that we can develop in the program. I don’t think it’s going to change our philosophy on that.”

In other words, Alabama plans to continue recruiting and developing the nation’s best high school players rather than rely on the transfer portal as a farm system.

None of Alabama's offensive or defensive starters in its national championship victory over Ohio State last season were transfers. (Florida State transfer Landon Dickerson would have started, if not for a knee injury.)

Saban has proven he’s willing to evolve and take new avenues to success, so if he thinks there’s an edge to be gained by farming the transfer portal, you can bet he’ll do it.

But the transfer portal includes a lot of “bad players (leaving) good teams, because they’re not playing," as Saban put it.

That’s not the full story.

Good players hit the portal, too, whether because of a coaching change or a bad fit at their previous school or they simply want to finish their career elsewhere.

Maybe the new transfer rule will encourage more elite players to head for the portal, knowing they don’t need a waiver to play immediately.

Nonetheless, until proven otherwise, Alabama’s method of loading up on premier high school talent and developing those players is the best way to build a program, while using the transfer portal to fill the gaps.

As for Saban’s question of whether the rich will get richer, the answer is yes.

But this new transfer rule shouldn’t help only Alabama.

A transfer who was a backup at Ohio State or Clemson could help teams like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri and others in the SEC. A Group of Five starter who enters the portal might not entice Alabama, but he could be a boost for Kentucky or South Carolina.

More than ever, recruiting will be paramount – not only the ability to recruit high school prospects, but the ability to attract quality transfers.

In particular, look for SEC programs to use the portal to improve their quarterback competition.

All the while, the NCAA’s rule limiting programs to 25 new scholarship players per year should help keep even the nation’s elite in check. Programs must decide how to divvy up those 25 spots – known as initial counters, in NCAA lingo – between high school recruits and transfers.

It’s a delicate balance, and it’s why you see minimal interest in many players who enter the portal. If a transfer isn’t going to provide a surefire boost, he probably isn’t worth adding, knowing he’ll count against your 25.

In effect, the limit of 25 initial counters each year helps keep programs from stockpiling players.

Even Saban and the defending national champions.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Nick Saban says Alabama will continue to recruit old-fashioned way