Alabama men’s basketball is already deep into the next wave of recruiting, and the Crimson Tide’s board for the class of 2027 is starting to take shape.
Nate Oats and assistant Preston Murphy still haven’t landed a commitment from that group, but Alabama keeps showing up on the short lists of several highly regarded prospects. As August opens, there are five names worth keeping close tabs on.
One of the headliners is 4-star shooting guard RJ Moore, who trimmed his list to seven schools on Friday, July 31, according to Rivals’ Joe Tipton. The 6-foot-7 prospect from Ambassador Christian in North Carolina has an official visit set for Alabama on Sept.
- Vanderbilt and Rutgers are also on his visit schedule, while Texas Tech, Utah and Wake Forest remain in the mix.
Another guard with Alabama in the hunt is Devin Cleveland. The Chicago native, a top 25 recruit, has the Crimson Tide among his top seven along with Arkansas, Marquette, Michigan, Missouri, Syracuse and TCU, Tipton reported.
Cleveland has already taken unofficial visits to Michigan and Marquette, and his only official visit currently lined up is to Missouri on Oct. 3.
The biggest name on Alabama’s board right now may be 5-star small forward Malachi Jordan. The 6-foot-6 standout checks in at No. 14 overall in the Rivals Industry Ranking for 2027 and has Alabama in his top eight.
That group also includes Kansas, Ohio State, Tennessee, UConn, USC, Vanderbilt and Washington. Tipton reported in June that Jordan has an official visit to Alabama scheduled for Oct. 10, following stops at USC, Kansas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and UConn.
Alabama is also set to host 4-star forward Chase Lumpkin again. The No. 35 overall recruit is scheduled to be in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 19, when Crimson Tide football plays Florida State. Lumpkin, a 6-foot-4 rising senior at McEachern High in Georgia, has been on campus multiple times already, with his most recent unofficial visit coming in May.
Then there’s TJ Jamison, a 4-star point guard from Calvary Baptist Academy in Louisiana and a top 40 recruit. He plans to visit Alabama in October on the same day as Jordan, when Alabama football faces Georgia.
Jamison took an unofficial visit to Tuscaloosa in January and has since taken official visits to Iowa and Maryland. His top 10 also includes Arkansas, Baylor, LSU, Maryland, Miami, Oklahoma State and SMU.
In Other News...
Alabama Could Be Built For What College Football May Do Next
The next major shift in college sports could be decided far from Tuscaloosa, but Alabama is one of the programs that would feel it immediately. The Big Ten and SEC have both backed the Protect College Sports Act, a bill that has gathered bipartisan momentum in the Senate and is expected to come up for a vote soon. It lays out a more formal framework for how the sport would operate, including limits on athlete compensation, a one-time transfer exception and a standardized five-year eligibility window.
For a program like Alabama, where roster management, retention and recruiting are always front-and-center, those changes could matter as much as anything on the field. The proposed agent registry and fee cap would also add another layer to a system that has changed rapidly in recent years, with schools and conferences increasingly pushing for clearer rules. What remains unsettled is how much of this package will actually make it through the Senate intact, and how college football would adapt if it does. [Read more 🡒]
Kalen DeBoer Just Framed Alabamas Two Biggest Questions
At SEC Media Days, Kalen DeBoer offered a glimpse into how Alabama is thinking about both the present and the near future. The Crimson Tide coach pointed to true freshmen EJ Crowell and Cederian Morgan as players who could become part of the programs longer-term answer, a reminder that even in a place built on immediate expectations, roster development is still at the center of the conversation.
DeBoer also had a clear read on the outside perception around Alabama entering the season. With so many new faces in the mix, he acknowledged the Tide may not be getting the usual level of noise right now, but he framed that less as a problem than a challenge. For Alabama, the message was simple enough: the talking is done, and the team will have to show where it stands once the games begin. [Read more 🡒]
Alabamas SEC Money Race Just Got A Lot More Real
The money race in college football is getting harder to ignore, and Alabamas place in it is now part of the conversation. According to estimates compiled by CPA Patrick O'Rourke, the Crimson Tides player payroll budget for the 2026 season sits at about $36.5 million, which puts them eighth among Power Four programs. That kind of figure underlines how deeply NIL spending has become woven into roster building, especially in the SEC, where the arms race is now as much about finances as recruiting rankings.
The broader picture is even more revealing for Alabama fans: the SEC has 11 teams inside the top 20 highest player payroll budgets, with Texas, LSU and Texas A&M all projected to outspend the Tide. The numbers are still hazy, because NIL data is difficult to pin down with total certainty, but the direction is clear enough to matter. Competitive balance in college football is increasingly being shaped by who can spend, and Alabama is no longer operating at the top of that market by default. [Read more 🡒]