Verification 2.0
We have been accused of pulling numbers out of thin air, not being able to count to 85, and not knowing the difference between recruiting by-laws and the dollar menu at McDonald's, so every now and then we have to post something from a 3rd party source to verify that we are not making this up as we go.
The same source that published verification 1.0 has put out an update on Alabama's scholarship numbers. They have the magic number at 2, we have it 3, however, there seems to be some confusion regarding the status of 1 player's scholarship and whether or not his parents are paying his way. Given all the variables to the Alabama scholarship equation, which is nearly as complex as quantum field theory, we feel fairly satisfied with being within one scholarship, if not dead on the magic number.
Nick Saban's roster management equation:
Notre Dame's:
(60 + 23) - 1 = 82
One has to wonder why it is so complicated and why there are so many back stories to Alabama's roster. Notre Dame doesn't have this problem - there is no need on June 27th for a 5,000 word explanation as to how Notre Dame is going to get to 85 by August. The explanation for Notre Dame's roster can be summed up in one sentence: Notre Dame had 60 players on scholarship on signing day, they signed 23 players, and they now have 83 players on scholarship. End of story. Oh wait, there is a need for another sentence, sadly, one of Notre Dame's recruits tragically fell from a balcony and died, so Notre Dame is at 82 scholarship players. Instead, with Alabama and other schools that oversign you have to sit down and go through something like this to get to the bottom of where their numbers are and how they are going to get down to 85.
This is the exact area that needs attention:
Before getting into the actual roster as it stands now, you also need to know exactly what has transpire since the Tide headed home from Pasadena.
On January 11, eleven new Tide players began their academic career at the Capstone:
Cade Foster, Jalston Fowler, John Fulton, Brandon Lewis, Chad Lindsay, Darius McKeller, DeMarcus Milliner, Anthony Orr, Austin Shepherd, Phillip Sims, Petey Smith
That saw Bama's number of scholarship athletes climb to 78.
Within one week of that, both Rolando McClain and Kareem Jackson declared for the NFL Draft (and went on to be 1st round draft picks), dropping Bama's number to 76.
On February 3, 18 more student-athletes signed their national letter of intent to play for Alabama in the fall. Those guys don't count towards the scholarship limits until fall practice begins, so we won't add them into the mix quite yet.
Obviously, those 18, plus the 11 that enrolled early gives Bama a total of 29 new players. Since an incoming group can not exceed 25, something has to give.
The NCAA has got to recognize this as a problem (actually they are currently investigating and gathering research data on oversigning). With Alabama's scholarship numbers sitting at 76 on national signing day, Alabama accepted signed LOI from 18 more student-athletes. 76 + 18 = 94. That is just plum ridiculous, legal, yes for the time being, but ethical? Not hardly. The days are numbered on this practice - we just wonder why it has taken 40+ years for everyone to recognize it for what Bobby Dodd saw it as, a scam.
The solution is simple and it is one that we are sure the NCAA is going to adopt soon; before a LOI can be offered to a player to sign, the school has to prove that there is an opening for the scholarship at the time the LOI is signed - no opening, no LOI - period. If Nick Saban and others want to replace players that fall to the wayside because of "natural attrition" they can do it when the attrition happens. If a guy transfers in the spring and opens up a scholarship then Saban can go out and recruit a replacement or give the scholarship to a walk-on. We have got to put an end to coaches recruiting and signing these extra players 4-5 months before the scholarship becomes available.
Against Oversigning
In Favor of Oversigning
Blogroll
- Atholon Sports
- CFBDataWarehouse
- CFN – College Football News
- NCPA – Website
- NCSA – Athletic Recruiting
- POPA – Parents of Players Association
- RTN – Reform the NCAA
- The Drake Group
2011 Oversigning Cup
ESPN OTL Oversigning Video
Oversigning.com on Twitter
- Could not connect to Twitter
From People on Twitter
- Could not connect to Twitter
Reader Survey – Vote Today!
Loading ...Pages
Meta
Categories
- ACC
- Announcements
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Big 10
- Big 10 Expansion
- Big 12
- Big East
- Coaching
- Feedback
- History
- MAC
- NCAA
- Non BCS Conferences
- Off Topic
- PAC 10
- Quick Links
- Rants
- SEC
- SunBelt
- The Oversigning Cup
- Uncategorized
Recent Comments
- Charlie9 on Elliott Porter 2.0
- shane on Elliott Porter 2.0
- shane on Elliott Porter 2.0
- shane on Elliott Porter 2.0
- tdogg on Elliott Porter 2.0
Archives
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
June 26th, 2010 - 08:26
I happened upon this link this morning. It explains in pretty good detail how to petition the NCAA to amend its bylaws. Unfortunately it requires the petitioner to have a certain status, but at least it explains how the process works. Now all that is left is for you to find someone with the proper status to act as your go-between.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2085378_petition-the-ncaa.html
You may have noticed that the NCAA is about to change or has changed when an LOI can be offered to a high school athlete–pushing the date out. This is designed to prevent kids that are too young to be wrestling with such matters from dealing with them until they are seniors. I couldn’t agree more with this idea.
On an unrelated note, is it possible for you to allow a poster on your blog to edit his/her comments? I pride myself on my ability to write, but not on my ability to type. My mother always told me it would pay off later in life if I would only learn to type when I was in high school, but alas, like so many things my mother told me, I ignored it. I am no stenographer. Thus, it would be nice if a poster had the ability to go back and edit a post with the purpose of correcting obvious typos.
June 26th, 2010 - 08:57
Who are you and what did you do with dsb??? We’ll check on the editing option and turn it on if possible.
June 26th, 2010 - 09:17
Don’t get too excited, Josh. I am not becoming an advocate for your cause, trust me.
The editing option would be a nice one.
June 26th, 2010 - 09:22
lol…don’t worry, I know better. Btw…I checked on the editing option and this template doesn’t offer that option (well it does but only to the site administrator). However, if you have something that you want to edit, just put it in a reply comment to the original post you want edited and I will make the change and update the comment.
June 26th, 2010 - 12:01
I suppose I could just re-read the post before I hit the “Submit” button, but how much fun is that?
June 27th, 2010 - 07:04
Joshua, here’s a simple question that will reveal your lack of character. Did Terry Grant quit football or was he cut?
June 28th, 2010 - 09:58
I don’t know, do you?
What would you do? I know going out on a high note (with his playing career) would be very appealing. Keep in mind that he has already graduated and is not the caliber of player the NFL is looking for. Add to that the injuries he has battled through his years at Bama, and is it not feasable that he decided a national championship would be a fitting end to the career as opposed to hanging around a campus just to play (sparingly it would seem) one more year? Why not get on with your life?
June 29th, 2010 - 13:38
No, I don’t know either but I’d say the weight of the evidence makes it likely that Grant quit football because he couldn’t stay healthy. I think there would have been a more substantial role for him last year had he been able to stay on the field. When he was healthy enough to play he returned kickoffs and he got a few carries at tailback in mopup situations. Saban talked about putting him in the slot in some offensive packages but shortly after that Grant was hurt again. I don’t think he was healthy enough to play in more than 5 or 6 games in either of the last 2 seasons. He was out for the SEC championship game and still wasn’t well enough to play over a month later in the BCS championship game. And he was hurt again at the end of practice this spring and didn’t participate in the A-Day game. His injuries have been a sports hernia and then repeated abdominal muscle problems. I suspect that most players who spent a significant amount of time 4 years in a row rehabbing from injuries would say enough is enough.
But Joshua, despite knowing all of this by now, writes that Grant was “cut”, then says he “quit football”. Those are 2 different things, but since Joshua has an axe to grind he starts with the unsubstantiated allegation that supports his thesis. No integrity.
June 27th, 2010 - 11:39
Verification #2 says “While the Tide did bring in a full group in the fall of 2009, three of those players were able to count towards the 2008 signing class.”
Seems strange, since Alabama signed 32 in 2008. ???
June 29th, 2010 - 18:32
Josh,
How does it work with the service acadamies? I notice that Army (West Point) just announced their incoming class. It was 27 direct entry commits (no army prep school) and 26 kids coming from their prep school. Looking back that is their usual class size. Are they exempt because every kid who enters is on a scholarship? Just curious being this is one of the schools that has offered my kid and is under serious consideration by him.
July 4th, 2010 - 01:34
Yes. Also, there is no redshirt program at the service academies; everyone is expected to finish in 4 years.
http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/AMA/RAPIC/June%202010/RAPIC%20June%202010%20Report.pdf
http://rise.espn.go.com/football/articles/2010/Recruiting-Road-Series/05-military-q-and-a.aspx
July 2nd, 2010 - 14:49
What if a rule limited the number of LOIs that can be signed over a 4-5 year period?
Say, if a limit like 90 (or even 100) were in place over a 4 year period, that would limit
oversigning eventually. I’d even be willing to allow a certain amount of fudge-room
for injuries and transfers out, but a limit would force schools to:
(1) try to retain and develop the players they sign
(2) limit their pursuit of potential academic and character risks
(3) avoid relying on next-year’s class to fill this year’s attrition
HS Football players who get injured, though, would be hurt by this to a degree if I am
thinking correctly. But I don’t think its a picnic for them now either.
July 6th, 2010 - 23:56
I posted in an earlier comment, but I think it should be mentioned here as well:
Oversigning is currently within the letter of the law, but certainly not within the spirit.
The 85 player scholarship limit (down from 95 in the 1990’s) was created in order to produce conformity and parity throughout college football, in an attempt to promote fairness and uniformity throughout the country.
Plainly said, the rule was designed so every team would have the same number of players on a team.
However, what Alabama (and other schools have done) is skirt the rule by manipulating the system in order to still meet the mandated 85 limit. Instead of bringing in a maximum of 85 players on scholarship, the schools have brought in new prospects and found a way to marginalize mediocre players (whether by medical waiver, transfers, kicking them out of school).
In fact, many Bama blogs and ESPN article speculate on how ‘Bama will get down to 85 by fall camp.
This in itself is a violation of the spirit of the rule. This should not even be an issue. If Alabama would have been playing within the spirit of the rule (that most schools do play within) they would not have to find room for newcomers.
They would not have to have grey-shirts. They would not have to have guys pay their own way. They would not have to place guys on Bear Bryant scholarships. They would not have to encourage guys to transfer.
Sure, attrition happens everywhere. However, forced/manipulated attrition does not happen everywhere and it is a slimy game.
Bama (and many of its peers in the SEC), are currently taking advantage of the rules, but with proper attention the NCAA will probably put an end to this policy.
It is a HUGE advantage to be able to bring in 13% more players a year. If Alabama conformed to the rules, they would not have their Heisman Trophy runningback on the roster. He was the last recruit in the class and would have ended up at Michigan State. Alabama had already oversigned by a few players when they got Mark Ingram to verbal and eventually sign a LOI. However, because Saban knew he could make room he offered Ingram.
After the NCAA takes care of this rule Alabama will eventually find another loophole to exploit (like contacting kids on facebook, Twitter, webcams and e-mail to BlackBerrys- all of which Saban, Kiffin, and Meyer have pioneered).
Just another step for college football becoming professional.
July 20th, 2010 - 13:41
How do you take advantage of a rule? That is just plain dumb. If the NCAA want to change the rule then fine. The top tier schools will always find the best way to manage their roster. Let me ask you this, if a recruit was told that you are expected to work hard in the Football Program, but after 1 or 2 years doesn’t seem to put forth the effort, is it bad to release him from his scholarship? I guess what you would like is to move to an entitlement program where all scholarship players stay on scholarship and the team because… gosh darnit they deserve to.