Winning a national championship does keep one busy

11 overall, signing three five-star players and nine four-star players, but signing only 17 players overall. Winning a national championship does keep one busy.Notable recruits: Saban woos five-star defensive back Dre Kirkpatrick away from his Arkansas verbal and the USC Trojans, while Meyer lifts stud linebacker Jelani Jenkins from his native Maryland.2010: Alabama currently leads Florida with two five-star verbals and 10 four-star verbals to Florida's one five-star and 11 four-star verbals.Notable recruits: Saban strikes it rich, shoring up an already-formidable defensive backfield with verbals from five-star DBs Keenan Allen and DeMarcus Milliner, both Alabama natives. Saban has recruited terrific defensive players and offensive linemen, but his struggles in landing dynamic offensive playersspecifically quarterbacksmake for a significant caveat.The good news is, Star Jackson, the fifth overall pro-style quarterback in the 2008 haul, currently resides behind Greg McElroy, a fourth-year senior and a three-star overall to Rivals from the 2006 class, on the depth chart.That's a good sign for Jackson, an Army All-American stud, who appears to have benefited greatly from his redshirt and backup years in the Tide's system. His name is continually brought up in pieces on oversigning, and the dismissal of four players for unspecified team violations in early August was uncomfortably timely.Other transfers and withdrawals for medical reasons have shrouded the program in an unpleasant light.

And with Houston Nutt's well-publicized 37-person signing class likely paving the way for a recruiting cap, Saban needs to make sure the Tide take it easy the next few years. If not, he risks the shame of sanctions, particularly damning for a team still reeling from vacated wins.Meanwhile, aside from minor, self-reported recruiting violations that won't keep you up at night, Urban Meyer seems to recruit without flaws. Equal attention has been given to both offense and defense, and more importantly, a Tebow-succession plan has likely been put in motion with the hiring of Scott Loeffler.Loeffler is an ex-Michigan Wolverines and NFL quarterbacks coach, with Tom Brady and Chad Henne as former pupils, and he will probably take a larger role, possibly as offensive coordinator over the embattled Steve Addazio, once pro-style QB John Brantley takes the reins next year.Additionally, when one considers what a difficult state Florida is to recruit, it somewhat mitigates the supposed gap between Florida's and Alabama's successes on the trail.Meyer and his defensive coordinator, Charlie Strong, have done a terrific job against the other two major and three-or-so minor Florida football programs (Miami, Florida State, South Florida, UCF and Florida International, in that order). In addition, Meyer has managed to keep the other national schools (Rich Rodriguez's recent love affair with Pahokee kids comes to mind) mostly at bay.And so the Gators have come as close as one can to domination in the second-toughest state to recruit behind Texas.Meanwhile, the most Saban has to worry about is an Auburn team just recently off a coaching change and a 5-7 season. Between the Tide's recent successes and the almost religious reverence of its progenitors, Alabama is, and will remain, a notoriously insulated state and a tough nut to crack to any meddling outsiders.Additionally, Saban won a tough in-state battle for Mark Ingram, a native of Flint, Michigan, who chose Alabama over the exhaustive efforts of Mark Dantonio at Michigan State.And so while Meyer's shown tremendous success in controlling Florida and selling the spread to skill players with NFL ambitions and justifiedhesitancy, Saban has shown that he can both recruit nationally, and circle the in-state wagons successfully, in spite of the Tide's struggles earlier in the decade.VerdictBecause of the in-state advantage and the beefy roster, I would say Saban holds the lead for now.But as the Bowden regime in Tallahassee continues to decline, and as Meyer continues his on-field success, and while the NCAA ponders a recruit-addicted intervention, this angle could tip towards a tie, or a Meyer advantage, as the battle wears on.A lot will depend on the result of the bowl games and the SEC Championship Game.

With an Alabama win, and maybe a good showing by Miami, Florida might find the power balance in the SEC shifting uncomfortably beneath its feet.As Big Game CoachesSaban has a long and inconsistent history as a big-game coach.Starting with his time at Michigan State, Saban's teams were fond of the upset. He led the Spartans to their upset win over Ohio State in 1998, and is the last MSU head coach to beat the Buckeyes.His best season was definitely 1998, when the Spartans beat Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State and posted a 9-2 record on the season and a bid to the Citrus Bowl. But Saban's tenure at MSU was cut short when he took the LSU job, and so his grade here is incomplete.At LSU, Saban's biggest wins were upsets of the No. After a strong start to the 2007 season, including an upset of SEC West rival Arkansas, Saban's team seemed to run out of gas after the loss to LSU in Saban Bowl I, dropping four straight, including a loss in the Iron Bowl, to close the year at 6-6. They went on to beat Colorado in the Independence Bowl.Last year's opening blowout over the Clemson Tigers was a great win that got the Tide rolling, and they kept up the pace with blowouts over Arkansas and Georgia. The Tide hung on in Saban Bowl II in Baton Rouge, winning 27-21 in overtime, and shut out Auburn in the Iron Bowl.That left the SEC Championship game.