There are different paths to the end goal.
Much like we've learned in tracking the College Football Playoff, especially in 2021, there is more than one way to make it to the top. On the eve of the Early Signing Period's National Signing Day, the race for the nation's top recruiting class plays similarly.
Penn State had the best, and biggest, recruiting class for the summer months and still has a top five-type group having extended James Franklin late in the season as a binding agent for the national group. Around the same time, Alabama began to pick up momentum to overtake the Nittany Lions with the top class in the country during the fall.