Nick Saban has the reputation of putting players in the NFL. A 5-* player will want to go where they can learn their craft. If players aren't good enough to play for Alabama (being injured, not panning out, etc.), Alabama has a scholarship program for those players to complete their education.

He has an unlimited budget to recruit assistant coaches, and to hire "consultants" (ie, coaches or assistant coaches who are there as advisers). He can only have 11 assistants, but an unlimited number of "consultants" (Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian went this route trying to rehab their images before getting back into coaching).

The only way the rest of the SEC can compete is to outrecruit Saban, put a rule in place to limit the number of "consultants" you can have in the athletic department, and/or ban scholarship programs for players who wash out of the football program.