The rumors had been percolating for a while now, and apparently they are true. According to Andrew Bone, Sanders' mother has told him that her son has de-committed from Alabama, and will attend Auburn. Sanders recently attended the Auburn v. West Virginia game in Jordan-Hare, but dismissed claims that he was waivering with his commitment to the Tide.
Coupled with the de-commitment of JuWuan James, this makes the second de-commitment for the Tide in the past few weeks. Obviously it's a disappointment to lose a player like Sanders to Auburn because he is a talented player, but I'm afraid that depth chart concerns got us with this one. We were already loaded at Jack linebacker with, at least, Courtney Upshaw, Ed Stinson -- and possibly Tana Patrick and others -- when Sanders originally committed to the Tide (and that was apparently a concern with Sanders even in the beginning), and the recent commitment of yet another Jack linebacker prospect, Alfy Hill, only made matters worse.
Congrats to Auburn on the pick-up, Sanders is indeed a fine prospect. As for Alabama, you hate to lose someone, particularly to Auburn, but by the same token I'm afraid this sort of thing is bound to happen with some prospects given how loaded we are at just about every position. It's simple... if Sanders comes to Alabama, he's probably a fourth or fifth string player who gets scout duty; he goes to Auburn, and he can very easily start as a true freshman. The good news, though, is that we are still loaded at Jack linebacker and Sanders departure doesn't really hurt us very bad in that regard.