The Rest of College Football

[Da Geezer]

Another approach to this whole mess is to raise the scholarship limit back to what it was, I believe 115. As I've pointed out before, the marginal cost of adding 30 more students to a university population of around 30,000 is practically zero. This would depreciate the value of each scholarship to the coaching staff, and they might not have as much incentive to cheat. Great players who wanted to be paid would still be paid, but marginal players wouldn't be as apt to get "cut".

Additionally, we wouldn't keep running into the problem of kids wanting to go to UM in our case, and being told there is no scholarship available. We turned away lots of talented kids this year.

Most importantly, many more kids would get to play D-1 college ball on scholarship

[Hannibal]

Getting caught up on my DVR collection. Just watched the Gator Bowl.

I think that MSU's QB may have been point shaving. That was absolutely the worst bowl game QB performance that I have ever witnessed. Ever.

[iam416]

Did you watch Champagne Gary Nova against Virginia Tech?

[Hannibal]

No, I didn't.

The MSU QB threw for 100 yards on 28 pass attempt with 4 INTs against a MAC caliber pass defense though. Northwestern's corners are embarrassingly bad. Definitely the worst QB bowl performance I have ever seen (when quality of opponent is taken into account). He was either intoxicated or he was point shaving.

[entropy]

A telling excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article a couple years ago:


In some cases, oversigning seems to have given Mr. Saban a significant competitive advantage. Two years ago, after having signed 29 players—four more than the limit for an incoming class—Mr. Saban decided to add three more: wide receiver Julio Jones, running back Mark Ingram and defensive lineman Marcell Dareus. All three not only stayed on the team but became stars. Mr. Ingram went on to win the Heisman Trophy last season, and Mr. Dareus was named most valuable player of the BCS championship game. If Mr. Saban hadn't felt comfortable signing so many players, these players would have had to go somewhere else.

In April 2008, Alabama had 91 players already on scholarship or expected to enroll. A Birmingham News reporter asked Mr. Saban at a news conference how he planned to whittle the roster down to 85 by August. "We know how it has to be managed, and it will be managed," Mr. Saban said.

[Wild Hoss]

A telling excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article a couple years ago:


In some cases, oversigning seems to have given Mr. Saban a significant competitive advantage. Two years ago, after having signed 29 players?four more than the limit for an incoming class?Mr. Saban decided to add three more: wide receiver Julio Jones, running back Mark Ingram and defensive lineman Marcell Dareus. All three not only stayed on the team but became stars. Mr. Ingram went on to win the Heisman Trophy last season, and Mr. Dareus was named most valuable player of the BCS championship game. If Mr. Saban hadn't felt comfortable signing so many players, these players would have had to go somewhere else.

In April 2008, Alabama had 91 players already on scholarship or expected to enroll. A Birmingham News reporter asked Mr. Saban at a news conference how he planned to whittle the roster down to 85 by August. "We know how it has to be managed, and it will be managed," Mr. Saban said.

There is no way this will be changed legislatively. Its got to be an economic incentive for them to change, or everybody else (By that I mean us) needs to decide if they want to emulate and compete, or hold thier noses high while getting manhandled on the field.

[entropy]

or raise the limit to 100 scholarships and say all scholarships are 4 yrs and no medicals

[Wild Hoss]

or raise the limit to 100 scholarships and say all scholarships are 4 yrs and no medicals

Sounds great...how do you get it passed? Big 12 won't be on-board; they are oversigners as well.

Most coaches will object to not being able to let some kids go.

[entropy]

pac, acc, BIG, BE all demand.

I'm sure the PR would be in their favor.

[hack]

For now however the eyes are on the megaconference/megabucks TV contracts objective though. And who the heck is going to listen to the recently or soon to be dismembered conferences? No leverage there.

[entropy]

hack.. true

[lineygoblue]

Schembechler told the NCAA a long time ago, to leave the scholly limits at 100. They didn't listen then, and I doubt they'd listen now.

[iam416]

From the same OSU "source" that I posted a bunch of other things from:

As soon as there's clarity wrt to Terp exit fee (public or private) formal offers to Uva and UNC.

[WM Wolverine]

91 isn't uncommon in the SEC on signing day, B10 has a hard limit of 88 but it's really 85 and you have to know who those extra 3 that are leaving are... In the SEC you can sign 95 and 'work' your way to 85 by summer practice/school by cutting the guys who aren't going to contribute.

Other conferences need to make rules to negate the SEC's advantage as they can replace 4-star with 4-star...

re: medical scholarships - Saban abused this as much as anyone and thankfully the other programs in the SEC stood up and put a stop to it, all medical scholarships go through the conference instead of the school. This loophole has been closed, now it's time to close the other two obvious ones; a hard limit on signing day (B10 rule is perfect imo) and 4-year scholarships across the board. SEC was supposedly 'close' to passing the 4-year scholarships but I don't think they did. Anyone?

[Da Geezer]

What is hard to believe is that there is such little media coverage of WHY the SEC has such an advantage. It would seem to me that the B1G would want to protect its franchise value to cable providers. I don't follow college football as much as some on this site, but I am more than just a "New Years Day" fan. I've never heard about the disparity in the one year vs. four year scholarships. Why isn't there more publicity?

Cowherd was bragging about Sabin a couple of days ago, saying he graduated 75% of his athletes. How can you calculate a graduation rate when you are giving one year scholarships, and then cutting?