I think the main issue many of us take with Bama is their power to get highly-rated but not elite players to come sit on their bench for at least 3-4 years then maybe play a meaningful part as a junior or senior (or maybe not), when they could play a lot and even start almost immediately at many other schools. If not for that, I don't think there would be nearly as much complaining about their recruiting prowess. I can't say it doesn't frustrate me as well, but there's not much to rationally do about it because,

1.) Most 17 or 18-year-old D1 football recruits are confident, cocky, and believe they are the baddest mf'er on the board no matter what the recruiting rankings say and can compete anywhere with anyone. They don't see their true level of ability and aren't thinking about how it fits into depth charts like we do.

2.) No matter how recruits see their situation, if they want to sit on Bama's bench their whole career, that's their prerogative. Doing anything to take away from that completely free choice will only hurt the sport in the long run, as has already been discussed in this thread. And frankly, I question the competitive spirit of the handful of prospects who do understand that they're going to sit on the bench for a long time when they could play right away somewhere else.