Darius Philon Signs with Arkabama

On national signing day, Darius Philon thought he was going to be signing with Alabama.  He even brought his Alabama hat with him to his signing ceremony.  That was until Alabama landed Korren Kirvan from Virginia.  The addition of Kirvan, a higher rated prospect, meant that Alabama no longer had room under the 25 per signing year limit, and instead of being able to sign him now and then cut someone existing from the roster during the spring or summer, Nick Saban had to break the news to the kid on national signing day that there wasn't room for him in this class.  Philon could join next year, but there was not room for him now. 

Kevin Scarbinsky has all of the details here: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/02/darius_philon_was_more_committ.html 

Here's a video of Philon appearing to announce that he is signing with Alabama, but later in the day it is announced that he signed with Arkansas.  He never even visited Arkansas.  He was originally an Auburn verbal commitment that Saban flipped to Alabama, only to pull the rug out from under him several months later. 

Could you imagine if Urban Meyer flipped Kyle Dodson from Wisconsin, only to screw him on national signing day and have Dodson sign with Iowa or Penn State?  Bret Bielema would have called the police instead of Barry Alvarez.

Nick Saban tries to blame the new signing rules for taking away opportunites, but the bottom line is that he is the one taking away the opportunities.  He took two of them away from kids that were committed to him this year.  There was no rule that said he had to take those opporunities away.  The rule is there to keep him from trying to give out opportunities he doesn't have to give or to keep him from giving opportunities at the expense of taking opportunities away from existing players. 

Every school only gets so many opportunities to give out.  When you attempt to give out more than you are allowed to give out and then have to take some of them away you can't cry wolf and say "we HAD to take away some opportunities."  No, you didn't.  You weren't supposed to give them out in the first place.

Saban of all the coaches in the SEC should know this.  He spent 5 years in the B1G conference during a time in which oversigning was completely banned.  He knows how to manage the numbers and managing them under the new SEC rules is much easlier than he had it for 5 years at Michigan State.