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Days before National Signing Day, four-star California quarterback Brevin White announced he’s sticking with his July 2017 commitment to Princeton. His commitment was obviously a surprise at the time, considering the Ivy League’s second-subdivision football status and lack of athletic scholarships, so we all waited to see what would happen if more football powers came calling.
They did! White visited Alabama in late January after receiving an offer, impressed Bama QB coach Dan Enos on the whiteboard, and stuck with the Ivy Tigers anyway.
“I just wanted to stick with my heart. I wanted to lay out what’s important to me and what school offers me the best opportunity to achieve goals on and off field. Alabama is a great school and a great opportunity, but Princeton checks more boxes,” White told CBS Sports, and he’s said versions of the same thing to several other outlets.
He’s helped boost the Tigers’ class to No. 103 in all of college football on the 247Sports Composite, ahead of FCS big boys (FCS dynasty North Dakota State is No. 127, for example) and dozens of top-level teams.
This is throwback behavior by Princeton.
Alabama famously claims about a million national championships. Well, Princeton claims about a billion.
It’s also not the first time Princeton’s beaten an SEC team for a QB.
In 2013, Cali QB Chad Kanoff left Vandy (right after signing!) for the Tigers, then broke Princeton and Ivy passing records.
Bama’s fine, though.
This has been a slightly disappointing class for the Tide, whose seven-year streak of No. 1 classes is likely to end, though you should expect a bunch of Signing Day additions. At QB, they have likely new starter and rising sophomore Tua Tagovailoa, veteran Jalen Hurts (for now, at least), 2017 redshirt Mac Jones, and so forth, plus whoever signs on at the last minute.
Anyway, the point is that this fact is both true and funny:
Princeton beat Alabama in a recruiting battle for a four-star QB.