Alabama Football No. 2 in SI All-American 2022 Class Rankings

In receiving its 15th commitment last week, the Crimson Tide bumps up a spot from its September ranking.

Idle with 14 commitments for over a month, Alabama football received No. 15 last week when offensive tackle Elijah Pritchett committed. 

The Carver High standout and Columbus, Georgia, native chose the Crimson Tide over Georgia, Southern Cal and Florida State, and in doing so bumped Alabama up to the second-ranked slot of the 2022 class rankings by SI All-American.

Trailing only Penn State, the Nick Saban-led Tide are ranked first among SEC schools in the October edition recently released. 

The thing is, though, the Nittany Lions currently boast 10 more pledges than Alabama, with 25, and have maintained the top spot since SIAA initial class rankings were released in August.

As part of its evaluation, SIAA comes out with an annual SI99, the top 99 high school football prospects of the current cycle, regardless of position, and in the senior class the Crimson Tide has seven of the nation's top 99 recruits already committed, a mark second-best to Clemson which has nine.

Of the seven, however, defensive edge Jeremiah Alexander ranks highest at fifth overall. He's followed by Pritchett (16), running back Emmanuel Henderson (23), quarterback Ty Simpson (24), offensive tackle Tyler Booker (27), defensive tackle Jaheim Oatis (67), and linebacker Shawn Murphy (99).

Five of the seven Alabama commits in the SI99 are ranked inside the Top 50.

Pritchett's decision to attend the Capstone increased that number from six, and the 6-foot-6, 280-pound offensive tackle makes three 2022 pledges along the offensive line for Alabama. He joins projected tackles Booker and Dayne Shor, who each made their decision during the summer.

Notre Dame, Oregon and Georgia complete the remaining Top 5 spots, and each program boasts at least two more commits than Alabama, with Notre Dame sitting at 21, the Ducks at 20 and Georgia at 17. 

Texas A&M (8th) and LSU (10th) are third and fourth among SEC programs, both in the Top 10 and overall in the SIAA 2022 class rankings.

What's remaining for the Crimson Tide, meanwhile, is room for 10-or-so recruits to join its current class of only 15 verbal pledges.

Tight end Jaleel Skinner of IMG Academy, one of the top-ranked Alabama targets and a player who listed it as one of his finalists, announces his college decision this Friday. His final five also includes Florida State, Clemson, Miami and Texas.