Alabama and Clemson will face off Monday in the National Championship, pitting two of the most talented teams in the nation against each other to finish off the second College Football Playoff.
While both teams have mostly regional footprints, they recruit nationally. Here's where the talent for Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney's squads comes from:
While Clemson does spread out the farthest, with players hailing from both Hawaii and Italy, Alabama has a much wider footprint consistently. A large bulk of the Tigers' talent comes from North Carolina and South Carolina, with a significant population from Georgia as well.
Alabama's been the top recruiting team in the nation for five straight years, and that's why the Tide entered the field as overwhelming favorites. While much of the Tide's roster hails from Alabama or neighboring Georgia or Florida, the Tide have been able to utilize their national footprint to land a high number of players from Louisiana, Texas, Washington, D.C. and California.
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