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We received this email earlier today and thought everyone who follows this site would find it interesting.
"You might already received news about this transfer and Alabama’s March to 85 – Star Jackson.
Here in Alabama, this one has been rumored for over a year, but it looks like it is finally coming to fruition. Several media outlets are reporting that quarterback Star Jackson will transfer. Ever since this kid stepped on campus several years ago, I’ve had to listen to crazy stories about Jackson being the future and probable Heisman winner. Of course this was before the tide signed 5 star AJ McCarron in 2009 and 5 star QB Phillip Sims in 2010.
I love your website, please keep it up. I find great entertainment reading these Alabama tide newspapers and message boards. I was born and raised in San Diego and moved to Alabama in 1985. The move was a culture shock especially at 16 years old, but I love living on the beautiful gulf coast.
The hardest part about living in Alabama is the crimson tide sidewalk alumni. I’ve never seen a more arrogant and obnoxious fan base. I spent one school year in Tuscaloosa before moving across the state to the University of Auburn. I also spent a lot of money putting my daughter through 4 years up there and she graduated from Alabama in May 2009.
I really feel I can look at this objectively since I wasn’t brain washed with Alabama and Auburn at an early age, but I’ve lived here off and on for the last 25 years. I can imagine all the emails you probably receive from these oversigning schools, especially the tide fans. You can talk/chat with them until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t do any good. Their fan base has an aura around them that gives them a feeling of entitlement, their god given right to have a minor league farm system. Scholarships are for one year and one year only and the god-like saban has the right to cut any player he feels isn’t living up to that 5-star rating. Unless you’ve lived in Alabama, I really don’t think you can imagine this culture. Most all sidewalk alumni worship the tide first, then god and then family, I’m not kidding. Most measure their self-worth with the success of Alabama football.
I’m not one of those black helicopter guys, because I’ve seen the cheating with my own eyes. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it, but 3 current tide players are from my high school. I’ve known 2 of the kids since the 9th grade and the other transferred in for his senior year. I’ve seen these “gifts” and “benefits” they received. Now that the tide has won another national title, their feeling of entitlement is growing. Unless the NCAA steps in, college football has been thrown back to the 70’s all over again.
Even as an Auburn fan, I’m objective enough to admit that the playing field needs to be evened. The oversigning must be reigned in and controlled. Tuberville didn’t do a good job at recruiting the last 6 years and the Auburn fan base knows he signed way too many “project” players. His “sign and place” practice made most fans I know sick. Tuberville got lazy after the 2003 season of jet-gate and the undefeated 2004 season. Tuberville routinely signed 10 or so kids he knew were questionable and played the percentages that only half would make it in to school. This sure doesn’t make Auburn fans proud we oversigned by x players. Would any school’s fan base be proud? The diehard bama fans I work with are proud of the fact that saban will cut a player who is underperforming. It doesn’t mater if a kid blew his knee out the year before and needs another year to get full speed; they need to make room for their next set of studs, so they say cut’em. Is this ruthless? Yes, but that is the price you pay for championships. I can’t tell you how many times I heard this said at work or sports talk radio.
I don’t have the answers for oversigning, but I see the problems. I’ve been saying for 2 years now that some of these stories should be getting back to the parents about scholarships being taken away or forced to go with the “medical hardship” scholarship. These kids are naive in thinking it can’t happen to them, but the parents must be right there with them. They think … “my kid is a 5-star and there is no way he’d be cut”. I’m sure most of them all believe they’re receiving a 4 to 5 year scholarship commitment. Don’t you think some stories should surface? What about a story on a kid that was forced to transfer? The University of Alabama controls the state media and any big story on Alabama oversigning practices or cheating won’t come from within the state. The Memphis paper broke the last major infraction at Alabama and the same thing will have to happen again and I’m betting on the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Saban is really starting to recruit heavy in Georgia and this isn’t setting well with the bulldog nation.
Sorry for this long email and any spelling or grammatical errors. I’ve been typing on this email since 7am during my breaks and lunch. I feel like it is a little therapeutic to vent a little of the frustration I see and feel every day. Hopefully one day the playing field gets leveled and over a 4-year period Auburn signs the same number of recruits as Vandy and the spring minor league system is done away with forever.
Have a great day!
Jeff
Thanks for taking the time to write, Jeff. It's obvious that your message was sparked by the recent news that Star Jackson plans to transfer from Alabama, something we pegged about a month ago.
The answer to oversigning is to help force the NCAA to further regulate the way coaches manage their scholarships and their LOI's. It is our goal to somehow help get new By-Laws passed that will eliminate the oversigning of players and make coaches more accountable for their recruiting numbers. There is no place for oversigning in college athletics and it needs to be put to stop.
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May 19th, 2010 - 09:51
LOL!!! Auburn has just as many sidewalk fans as Bama percentage wise. The state of Alabama is 70% Bama fans so obviously there are many more Bama fans who didnt go to UA, only because there are far more Bama fans period. Of the 30% if this state that are barn fans, probably 10% actually went to the cow college. I know hundreds of barn fans, and most of them never attended au and have never even been to the “town” of auburn. As far a entitlement goes, your d@mn right. When your team has been winning championships over the course of 100 years you expect to win and we won’t apologize for that. If auburn had ever won anything they would be the same way. Unfortunately, they have never experienced championships therefore will never have to worry about entilement!
May 19th, 2010 - 10:55
All anyone has to say in response to that email is who cares and just shows how pathetic this website is when there claim credibility from an Barn fan regarding UA. And for a Barn fan to say that their fans are normal I guess that is why just the other day they told to behave themselves on the Ringer and the Mods even say they are the worst fans on that site or any other.
Also to help out this site their is a Secret society called the Red Elephant Club, actually a booster club just like any other school has, but the Barn fans think they are equivilant to the Masons in CFB. And they control all in the state and elsewhere.
Now regarding Memphis breaking a story, well why wouldn’t they when the play in question back in the day was from Memphis. Again a Barn grad showing their intelligence. BTW the story broke because P Fulmer leaked info to nail UA. Again UA got caught so who cares that was in the past and we have a new coach, BTW P Fulmer was also the same one that tried to get Ole Miss in trouble regarding M Orr (the Blindside movie).
Now regarding AL papers, especially the Birmingham papers all support, BTW the largest in the stae all support the Barn. Go read their archives, but I doubt this site will if it hurts their arguement against Saban and UA. Last year it was a Birmingham reporting and Barn grad that broke a story about UA players getting extra benefits from going on a free fishing trip. The sad part when they were cleared of it it was released that the one player knew the older man since he was a child and good frinnd of the family. So the NCAA had no issue. The best part was when it was also released that when the old man accused og giving the free fishing trip and/or benefits to the UA players was a Barn grad with all his family being Barn grads.
But again to post an arguement made from a Barn fan regarding UA just shows how desperate you are in trashing UA and Saban. I guess if that is the case I will go make a website against OSU using only stuff from UM fan websites. Since you use the same sources to gain credibility I am assuming that anything a UM fan would say or other rival fan would be the gospel.
May 19th, 2010 - 11:30
THis is one of the biggest examples of complainers I have ever seen. It sounds more like envy and bitterness than logic and purpose. I’ll go get some more cheese for all your whine.
May 19th, 2010 - 12:10
I noticed in your recruiting numbers you had LSU with 29 players signed for 2010. That is not correct. They only signed 27 for 2010 and 2 enrolled early, leaving 25 to enroll in the fall. You need to do some fact checking and update your site. I love the information on your site but you always come accross more credible if your numbers are accurate and not inflated. In the 2010 class Dexter Blackmon never signed with LSU on signing day and will likely go JUCO. Houston Bates never signed with LSU on signing day and eventually signed with Illinois a few weeks later. The official number signed was 27 with 2 of those already enrolled…
May 19th, 2010 - 13:45
While I find much humor in this diatribe, I would simply like to point out the irony in you bashing sidewalk Bama fans who don’t care about the academic institution, all the while you do not even know the actual name of your supposed alma matter. It’s Auburn University, not University of Auburn. In anticipation of our defense, that was not a simple grammatical mistake or typo (of which your email is riddled). It is a Freudian display of your preoccupation with hating a rival over loving your own school. As you know, this is a unique phenomenon on the Plains.
May 19th, 2010 - 13:56
Just an FYI for the Auburn fan with no bias (LOL). Auburn has signed 119 players over the last four years. Nine more than Alabama. And this includes Chizik, not just Tubberville. So Auburn fans “disgusted” at this practice need to realize that they’re the biggest hypocrites in this whole discussion since they are, and continue to be the biggest “offenders”. I won’t even get into the fact that over-signing is perfectly legal, and in many cases needed when you know you have several recruits who will either not qualify academically or go pro in baseball as well as several existing players who will transfer, get kicked of the team for legitimate reasons, or have injuries that preclude them from playing football. Look at it this way, if you have three signees on any given year that don’t make it in for academic reasons or because they decide to go play pro baseball, and then you have 4-5 guys that leave the team because of natural attrition that occurs at every school(transfer for playing time, kicked off team for arrests, graduated and want to move on with their lives instead of being a 4th string tackling dummy, etc) and then another 1-2 guys who have to give up football because of injuries and go on medical scholarship..that’s eight to ten guys right there. Therefore, there is a need to over-sign. Any team that doesn’t over-sign by at least 3-5 per year is just being plain stupid because there WILL be attrition, injuries, academic casualties, etc. Coaches who are forward thinkers and have common sense realize this and plan accordingly. Lazy coaches who sit on their hands and pray there will be no injuries, no academic casualties or transfers are ignorant of the facts and deserve to be “short-handed”. In the scenario I just described, a coach can over-sign by 10 players and not have to run a single player off, no conspiracies, nothing dirty, nothing illegal or unethical…just natural attrition from the signing class and existing roster which easily adds up to 5-10 slots per year. Imagine that…sorry to interrupt the delusion…let the black helicopter watch commence!
May 19th, 2010 - 14:47
Chris,
This is a common problem with AU fans. They accuse Bama fans of their arrogance while steadfastly holding onto some sort of perceived moral high ground over Bama’s (again, perceived) win at all costs mentality. As you point out here, this high ground is usually not steeped in reality. When you look AU’s record with oversigning numbers, their massive football academic fraud exposed by the New York Times, as well as SACS’ threat to strip their school of its accreditation, one can quickly see that Auburn’s perceived morality is a figment of their own imaginations. Before any AU fans lash out at this by mentioning Bama’s numerous scandals, my point was not to start another unwinnable internet debate between the two schools. I actually admit that both Auburn and Alabama, and OSU for that matter, are all football factories where the rest of us can and do receive a great education. It’s just funny to me that AU fans vehemently maintain some sort of academic superiority along the lines of Vandy when the facts clearly do not support this claim.
To this site’s creator, I do not have a problem with what you are doing by bringing up this topic. However, I do think your credibility takes a hit when you post one sided emails from deranged lunatics that are not based on the facts. I do applaud your inclusion of the results from the past four years for all schools, which I found to be very interesting. I’m sure our unbiased Auburn fan here is interested as well to see who is at the top of the list. Sports fandom is an interesting phenomenon indeed.
May 19th, 2010 - 14:16
Just another FYI for our resident OSU whiner who started this website. Michigan, of the Big 11, has signed 93 players over the last four years, the same amount that UF and Meyer have signed over the same time period. Funny, I’ve seen you criticizing UF and Meyer….but I’m still waiting on your next article about Michigan and Big 11 schools who do the same thing you criticize “southern” schools for doing. Keep up the fair and balanced reporting…
May 21st, 2010 - 12:40
don’t forget to make a post about Auburn working on running theirs off too
http://blog.al.com/goldmine/2010/05/auburn_dismisses_running_back.html
May 23rd, 2010 - 08:24
Jeff, I notice you said “University of Auburn” in your post. Well dummy it’s “Auburn University” NOT University of Auburn” You are a fake, Don’t even know your teams name. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rtr oldtimer61
May 25th, 2010 - 11:30
There’s a ton of stuff that goes on every year. Hell, Ole Miss last year signed 38 kids. Auburn this year signed 32. Washington signed 31.
Yes, there will be attrition. With success comes more kids that want to play at your school. You don’t want to be stuck if there are academic casualties, or, in some cases, kids that decide to move on to other sports (i.e. Destin Hood opting into the MLB Draft a couple of years ago).
I find it all incredibly entertaining, but the bottom line is that none of us knows exactly how all of it works. With Bryant Scholarships, academic scholarships, and walk-ons (i.e. Tyler Love, a former 5 star recruit who actually didn’t take a scholarship because his parents could afford to pay for his schooling), none of us knows the actual numbers.