Perennial national title contender Alabama unveiled a new wrinkle in their National Signing Day plan by unveiling a billboard celebrating new Crimson Tide signees.
Alabama’s billboard plan was unveiled Wednesday morning as national letter of intent faxes began to flood in.
As the LOIs come in, billboards go up!
#BamaNSD17 #NSD17 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/oILAjFSYwQ
— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) February 1, 2017
While there’s no question that the billboard program is a nice move for Alabama, though there are some caveats. First off, Alabama isn’t the first to celebrate new signees with billboards. LSU used an identical initiative in 2016, and will again in 2017, announcing that this year they’ll have billboards celebrating their signees in four different states: Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee and Alabama.
And both Alabama and LSU are working on the prior good work of Louisville’s women’s basketball team, which first unveiled highway billboards for their signees in 2014.
Of course, theft is the most sincere form of flattery, so Louisville should be proud that their billboard plans are apparently now being copied by other top programs as a best-in-class practice. That Nick Saban and Alabama are now pushing the giant posters is surefire proof that others can’t be too far behind.