Prior to the 2024 season, Ohio State had only had two players ever from the state of Alabama: Donte Wheat and Willie Salter. Wheat was on the Buckeyes’ roster for just one season in 1981, and Salter was with the Buckeyes for just one season in 2001.

Over the past three years, however, Alabama has suddenly become fertile recruiting territory for the Buckeyes.

With his commitment to Ohio State on Saturday, Karlos May – a four-star defensive tackle from Birmingham, Alabama – is set to become the fourth high school prospect and seventh overall player from his home state to sign with the Buckeyes in three years.

In the 2025 recruiting class, the first recruiting cycle after Saban’s retirement, Ohio State landed two of the top seven prospects from Alabama: defensive end Zion Grady and running back Anthony “Turbo” Rogers. The Buckeyes followed that up last year by landing another top-10 prospect from the state, defensive tackle Emmanuel Ruffin. Now, the Buckeyes have landed the state’s top defensive tackle again in May, who’s ranked as the No. 5 prospect from Alabama and the No. 135 overall prospect nationally in the 2027 class.

They join a trio of Alabama natives who transferred to Ohio State after starting their college careers in the Southeast: running back Quinshon Judkins, who transferred from Ole Miss to Ohio State just before Saban’s retirement in January 2024, and defensive linemen James Smith and Qua Russaw, who each transferred to Ohio State from Alabama this offseason.

Ohio State’s five Alabama natives on this year’s roster are tied with New Jersey for the sixth-most of any state behind Ohio (52), Florida (11), California (eight), Texas (eight) and Georgia (six). And that total doesn’t include starting quarterback Julian Sayin or veteran cornerback Cam Calhoun, who both transferred to Ohio State from the University of Alabama – not to mention former Ohio State All-Americans Caleb Downs and Seth McLaughlin, who both transferred to Ohio State alongside Sayin in 2024 when Saban stepped down from his post leading the Crimson Tide.

No team in all of college football recruited better than the University of Alabama during Nick Saban’s 17-year run coaching the Crimson Tide. Every single one of Saban’s 17 recruiting classes at Alabama ranked in the top five of 247Sports’ composite team rankings. Add in the fact that Auburn was often competing for SEC and national championships, and it was rare for top prospects from Alabama to leave their home state.

Since Kalen DeBoer replaced Saban in 2024, however, Alabama has lost its stranglehold on top talent in its backyard. Mystifyingly, all of the top 15 prospects from the state of Alabama in the 2027 class are now committed to schools other than the University of Alabama. Auburn, meanwhile, is coming off five straight seven-loss seasons.

That combination opened the door for the Buckeyes to become a real contender for top players from Alabama, and Ohio State has taken full advantage, both by landing top high school prospects from the state and becoming a frequent destination for top players who transfer out of Tuscaloosa.

Ohio State’s recruiting success in the state of Alabama comes as part of a larger trend of the Buckeyes winning recruiting battles in Southeast states where they didn’t often recruit until recent years. Just last month, the Buckeyes landed only their second player ever from the state of Mississippi when they beat out Ole Miss and others for four-star offensive tackle Caden Moss, a top-75 national prospect. In the 2026 class, Ohio State signed two players from Louisiana, a state where the Buckeyes had previously had only four players all-time.

All of that comes while the Buckeyes continue to be major players in the states of Florida and Georgia, most notably beating out Georgia and Miami (among others) for five-star defensive end DJ Jacobs, the No. 1 prospect in the state of Georgia in the 2027 class.

NIL promises often supersede regional roots in today’s recruiting landscape, and that’s allowed Ohio State – not only with its financial resources, but also its track record of perennially competing for championships and producing early-round NFL draft picks – to have more recruiting success than ever before in states that were historically controlled by SEC powers. There’s no more striking example of that than how quickly Ohio State has created a pipeline of talent from Alabama to Columbus over the last three years.