How would Alabama football adjust to decreased roster limit? ‘There’s always a way’

During spring practice, Kalen DeBoer was using a familiar Nick Saban technique. Alabama football was two-spotting, practicing with two offenses and two defenses in separate locations at the same time.

The technique allows for more players to get practice reps, hopefully furthering their development. It could also be tricky to pull off if schools rosters are limited to just their 85 scholarship players, as a current proposal reportedly would have.

“You obviously have to adjust and figure it out,” DeBoer told reporters at SEC spring meetings on Tuesday. “And when you when it gets hard is when you have one position group that gets hit by the injury bug or whatever it might be, and you got all these other guys that you’re trying to develop and trying to get them the reps, and that becomes the tricky part when you don’t have as much depth across the board.”

DeBoer said he’s generally worked with roster sizes between 110-135 players, preferring to operate in the middle of those numbers. A possible reduction to 85-95 players, all on scholarship, comes as part of an effort to find a viable athlete compensation model.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that the league’s coaches have been upset by the reported proposal.

“I know other conferences discussed it, coaches have then texted our coaches, they get fired up,” Sankey said. “We said ‘Just wait, we’re gonna have a conversation.’ That’s where it is. It’s a concept. And understand that, football captures the attention, but we have 21 championships, all of which need to have a conversation about that roster piece.”

The proposal comes just as the college football season is getting longer. The playoff is expanding to 12 teams for 2024, adding more weeks to the season.

That could make things difficult if the rosters are eventually cut down, with less replacement for a team’s attrition.

DeBoer said the Crimson Tide is making changes geared toward peaking at the end of a long season, including a switch from evening to morning practices.

“We want to make sure that we’re always conscious of communicating, working with our team to adjust and do what’s needed to make sure we’re playing our best ball at the end of the season,” DeBoer said.

DeBoer spoke throughout his press conference about his adaptability. If college football dropped to a lower roster limit, he suggested more professional development spent learning from the NFL could be in order.

“There’s always a way,” DeBoer said when asked whether he could operate safely and effectively with an 85-player roster. “You can ask me any question and I’m going to say there’s always a way to get it done. Would it be a much different look than what we probably do as far as coaches and executing our practice plans? Absolutely. But I guess I’ve always been one to adjust with the times, and you’d have to do what you got to do.”