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There are a lot of things wrong with the world of college football today, from lying coaches, to boosters paying recruits/players, fans getting personal on twitter and facebook with players and recruits, players receiving death threats and alike for poor play, coaches unethically recruiting, etc., etc., but one of the things that seemingly gets shoved out of the spotlight and is not highly reported is Oversigning.
Essentially, oversigning is when a program signs more recruits than they have available spots for. As the spring and summer go on, players in the program are either forced out, or incoming recruits are forced to gray-shirt or go the JUCO/prep school route at the last second.
Now, this allows programs that oversign to essentially have a tryout process, and allows them to cut the dead weight and bring in new recruits that can have an impact, while the older guys who haven't impressed are simply forced out. Not only does this give schools that oversign an advantage on the field, but more importantly it allows them to basically disregard any player that fails to live up to his promise as a contributor without a second thought and bring in another highly touted recruit to take his place, thus yet another situation where the student athlete gets screwed by the school.
This isn't a problem that's specific to the SEC, but it's definitely one that's highly prevalent there. According to last year's oversigning cup, the teams most guilty of the practice were Ole Miss (+12), Alabama (+11), LSU (+10), Arkansas (+10), and then ACC school Clemson (+7), followed by South Carolina (+6).
A couple of years ago they passed a rule in the SEC mandating the only 28 LOI's could be accepted per year, and this was later changed to 25 per year, but even that's not adequate enough to put a stop to it. NCAA legislation currently says the only limits are 85 players on scholarship per year, and 25 per new per year, at the start of fall camp. You can get around the 25 per year with early enrollees (that backcount to the previous class), and the 85 is pretty easily to manipulate around if you've paid any attention to what Nick Saban does in the 6 months between NLOID and the start of fall camp.
Here's a couple of excerpts from Oversigning.com (aka The March to 85):
Possible solutions?
- Make scholarships 4 year deals, not 1 year renewable ones.
- Hard cap of 85/25 year round, NCAA wide.
- Don't allow early enrollees to backcount with the previous class.
Thoughts?
Essentially, oversigning is when a program signs more recruits than they have available spots for. As the spring and summer go on, players in the program are either forced out, or incoming recruits are forced to gray-shirt or go the JUCO/prep school route at the last second.
Now, this allows programs that oversign to essentially have a tryout process, and allows them to cut the dead weight and bring in new recruits that can have an impact, while the older guys who haven't impressed are simply forced out. Not only does this give schools that oversign an advantage on the field, but more importantly it allows them to basically disregard any player that fails to live up to his promise as a contributor without a second thought and bring in another highly touted recruit to take his place, thus yet another situation where the student athlete gets screwed by the school.
This isn't a problem that's specific to the SEC, but it's definitely one that's highly prevalent there. According to last year's oversigning cup, the teams most guilty of the practice were Ole Miss (+12), Alabama (+11), LSU (+10), Arkansas (+10), and then ACC school Clemson (+7), followed by South Carolina (+6).
A couple of years ago they passed a rule in the SEC mandating the only 28 LOI's could be accepted per year, and this was later changed to 25 per year, but even that's not adequate enough to put a stop to it. NCAA legislation currently says the only limits are 85 players on scholarship per year, and 25 per new per year, at the start of fall camp. You can get around the 25 per year with early enrollees (that backcount to the previous class), and the 85 is pretty easily to manipulate around if you've paid any attention to what Nick Saban does in the 6 months between NLOID and the start of fall camp.
Here's a couple of excerpts from Oversigning.com (aka The March to 85):
Here is what appears to be the final shake down on Alabama's post NSD attrition this year. Much like last year, Alabama is one of the few teams in the country to lose double-digit players post NSD. Quick, name another school that has lost 21 scholarships players between NSD and August over the last 2 years. That's an entire recruiting class. And 6 of those 21 were medical hardships. Here is the attrition for Alabama between National Signing Day and the August deadline to get to 85 players for the last two years. Any way you slice it that is a lot of attrition. For comparison's sake, Penn State has had 2 players leave their program over the last two years during this period of time.
Elliott Porter woke up Tuesday morning planning on taking care of a few personal things and preparing for the start of pre-season camp in Baton Rouge, La., today. But a summons to Les Miles' office changed all of that.
"I got called to coach Miles' office. I had no idea it was coming," Porter said of his being asked by LSU to 'grayshirt' this season and re-enroll next year. "He just told me that they didn't have room for me. I moved out of my dorm today and I am now back home trying to figure everything out. It's been a rough 24 hours."
"I got called to coach Miles' office. I had no idea it was coming," Porter said of his being asked by LSU to 'grayshirt' this season and re-enroll next year. "He just told me that they didn't have room for me. I moved out of my dorm today and I am now back home trying to figure everything out. It's been a rough 24 hours."
- Make scholarships 4 year deals, not 1 year renewable ones.
- Hard cap of 85/25 year round, NCAA wide.
- Don't allow early enrollees to backcount with the previous class.
Thoughts?
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