The Rest of College Football

[Tony G]

The house would defund whatever group went after it.

[hack]

The house has already indirectly defunded most of us...

[entropy]

According to a 2011 Tulane Law School study, the SEC signed 321 more football players than the Big Ten over the preceding 9-year period. For example, when Ohio State met Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl, Arkansas had signed 30 more players than OSU in the preceding four years.

According to another study, Alabama cut 21 players in 2010-2011. That's about an extra player at each of the 22 positions on the field.

SEC schools grant one-year scholarships. Big Ten schools grant four-year scholarships for ethical reasons.

In addition to cutting players, SEC schools regularly pull scholarships from incoming players at the last minute, forcing them to "grayshirt" (pay their own way, limited rights, practice-only, and it's too late at that point to transfer because other top programs are full) and hope for a scholarship later.

Give the Dallas Cowboys - OK, maybe the NY Giants - an extra draft pick at each position, and they, too, will suddenly become a "dynasty."

[Da Geezer]

Never knew that, entropy, nice post.

Why would a kid take a one year scholarship as opposed to a four year scholarship? Answer = money

[whodean]

SEC changed rule in 2012 to 25 max per year

http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/2011/06/03/sec-presidents-vote-to-cap-football-scholarships-at-25-per-year/

Big Ten schools grant four-year scholarships for ethical reasons.

This isn't entirely true, and only started in 2012

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7528614/some-big-ten-offering-4-year-scholarships

[entropy]

who dean... yet A&M has 33 or 35 offers right now.

t

[entropy]

A little old but still relevant (From 2011)

Capital One Bowl
Alabama (113) vs Michigan State (88)
Alabama +25, Michigan State -25

Gator Bowl
Mississippi State (113) vs Michigan (93)
Mississippi State +20, Michigan -20

Outback Bowl
Florida (93) vs Penn State (82)
Florida +11, Penn State -11

Sugar Bowl
Arkansas (109) vs Ohio State (79)
Arkansas +30, Ohio State -30

Also:

Story Highlights
In past five years, 25 of 120 FBS programs averaged more than 25 signees
That list includes eight of 12 SEC schools and five of current Big 12 teams
Troy has signed 164 players over that span, a staggering average of 32.8


Read More:
Blog with info from oversigning

[whodean]

A&M has 33 or 35 offers right now.

t

Apparently A&M is far under 85.

The third Wednesday in December is a big day for many college football programs around the country and goes largely unnoticed. It is one of two signing days in the entire year as prep school or junior college football players can sign their National Letters of Intent to enroll in the spring semester. This year, Texas A&M can see as many as 6 players sign their Letters of Intent (LOIs). Joining those players in the spring will also be several more high school seniors who decided to graduate early and start their college experience a semester earlier. But how can Texas A&M be bringing in all of these players? Where is the room and how does new SEC rules come into play? Let me try to explain the best way I can.

The first thing you need to know about to understand college football signings and scholarships is the 85 man scholarship limit. At any point in the year, a college program must have no more than 85 players on scholarship. At the beginning of the school year in August, a program must report to the NCAA how many players are on scholarship to ensure they are at or under the 85 man limit. This will be the single most important number to determine if a program can take players at the mid-term.

The second thing you need to know is the idea of an initial counter. An initial counter is a student athlete receiving financial aid for the first time. This can be a high school senior signing on National Signing Day, a junior college or prep school player signing today, or a walk-on player receiving a scholarship they have earned for the first time. A school is given 25 of these per year.

Now that we have those two key facts down, let's get into what is happening at Texas A&M this year. As I said earlier, a school reports how many players they have on scholarship in August at the beginning of the football year. Most schools will have a full 85. Texas A&M this year did not. If you are under the 85 man limit, you can bring in players at the mid-term (or the beginning of the spring semester). Since Texas A&M was so far below the 85 man limit, they can bring in a combination of junior college, prep school, or early graduating high school seniors to fill out the 85 man limit for the spring semester. When I personally counted how many players were on scholarship in July of this past year, I came up with 79. Since that time, players like Brandal Jackson, Hutson Prioleau, and William Randolph have left the program taking the number down even farther. That leaves 9-10 scholarships Texas A&M can use this month to bring in players for the spring semester.

That number makes sense. But the problem is with the initial counters. Remember, all incoming players have to be counted as an initial counter somewhere. So where can these mid-termers count? The NCAA allows mid-termers that are earning an unclaimed scholarship to be back counted towards the initial counters of the previous year. If you remember back to the Class of 2012, Texas A&M only signed 18 players to a national letter of intent. That is 7 unused initial counters there. Also, since players like QB Matt Davis and S Kenneth Marshall joined the team last December, they could be back counted all the way back to 2011. That potentially opens up even more unused initial counters to use making the numbers work for this December.

See how confusing this can get for even the best recruiting experts? The problem is the 85 man limit is never made public, nor how initial counters are being recorded to what exact year. It leaves for a lot of guessing and speculation on your favorite message boards.

What about seniors that graduate in December? Can a mid-termer take over their scholarship? Yes, a mid-termer can replace them for the spring semester. However, how their initial counter is recorded is different than a mid-termer using an unclaimed scholarship. Per NCAA rules, their initial counter must count forward to the new recruiting class, or for this year against the Class of 2013. You can read about this rule as well as go through several different scenarios using this document from our very own compliance department.

That simply leaves those players that sign on National Signing Day in February and join the team during the summer. Nothing new for those players. Texas A&M will sign 25 of them in February. Those initial counters will count towards the limit in 2013. The only requirement is that all 25 players can join and fit under the 85 man limit come August. That shouldn't be a problem.

This is were that "SEC Rule" you hear so much about comes in. The SEC's rule simply states you can only have 25 National Letters of Intent signed on National Signing Day. It doesn't effect those mid-term guys coming in this December. The rule was put in place to stop over-signing in February where teams would sign over 25 players planning to enroll in August, some of them grade risks that weren't expected to make the grades to get in. In some cases, those grade risks did actually make the grade and could enroll, leaving other signees in the class without a scholarship when they arrived on campus in August and are forced to pay their way into school. This is why you see Texas A&M cut ties with potential grade risks before they sign. The SEC rule should not come into play for Texas A&M this year.

With all 25 initial counters being used for 2013, that means no mid-termers next December, no matter who leaves the program between now and next August. Attrition this coming spring will only open up spots in the 85 man limit for the Class of 2014, allowing us to sign more players on National Signing Day in 14 months.

The SEC change to 25 implemented in 2012 will make the playing field more level.

[Hannibal]

The limit of 25 gets blown up to 28 with the backdating of three early enrollees. 5*28 means you can still sign 140 guys every five years. The class size limit is of minor importance compared to the limit of 85 on signing day.

A&M is signing 35 guys. You can't tell me they have only 50 guys on scholarship the day before signing day.

[Hannibal]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with you people when it comes to M. It's one thing for me to belittle them and sass them, but for fuck's sake, they're still Michigan.

We've still got tradition and resources, but the demographics are poor. You would never see Michigan pull in the nation's #1 class on the heels of a 6-6 season the way that Alabama did after Saban's first year. And we have lost a lot of commits or locks to the cheating schools in the past few years. Examples include -- Dior Mathis, Jake Fisher, Dee Hart, and Jordan Diamond.

Michigan's ceiling is this year's ND team. The only way that we will ever be in the BCS national championship game is by getting lucky against an easy schedule.

[whodean]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LMdu7r9NQw"]Investing Your Time or Spending Your Time? - Nick Saban - YouTube[/ame]

[entropy]

Don't forget their abuse of medical scholarships, too.

another big factor in the whole range of abuse going on in the SEC


****************

Former Alabama football players say the school's No. 1-ranked football program has tried to gain a competitive edge by encouraging some underperforming players to quit the team for medical reasons, even in cases where the players are still healthy enough to play.

At least 12 times since coach Nick Saban took over the program in 2007, Alabama has offered players a "medical" scholarship, according to public statements made by the team. These scholarships, which are allowed under NCAA rules, are intended to make sure scholarship athletes who are too injured to play don't lose their financial aid. A player who receives one of these scholarships is finished playing with that team.

Three Alabama players who've taken these exemptions say they believe the team uses the practice as a way to clear spots for better players by cutting players it no longer wants. These players said they believe Mr. Saban and his staff pressure some players to take these scholarships even though their injuries aren't serious enough to warrant keeping them off the field.

"I'm still kind of bitter," said former Alabama linebacker Chuck Kirschman, who took a medical scholarship last year. Mr. Kirschman said Mr. Saban encouraged him to accept the scholarship because of a back problem that he believes he could have played through. "It's a business," Mr. Kirschman said. "College football is all about politics. And this is a loophole in the system."

Alabama isn't the only school that has given players medical scholarships. Including the Crimson Tide, the 12 members of the Southeastern Conference have given at least 25 of these scholarships to football players in the past three years. Ultimately, it's the school's decision whether a player is healthy enough to play football.
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In a statement, Doug Walker, the school's associate athletic director for media relations, said Alabama's first priority in these situations is always the health of its players. "Decisions about medical disqualifications for student-athletes are made by medical professionals and adhere to the parameters outlined by the NCAA?and the Southeastern Conference," he said in the statement.

The school added that the "process for medical disqualification is very similar from campus to campus across the country." Alabama said that student-athletes sign a medical-exemption certificate agreeing that they fully understand the conditions, that the diagnosis of the injury or illness clearly appears to be an incapacitating one, and that there's a "reasonable expectation" they'll never again be able to play.

An Alabama spokesman said the school won't discuss individual cases, citing health-privacy laws. Mr. Saban declined to comment.

How college-football teams manage their allotted number of players is a serious competitive issue in the sport. The 120 schools in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision, the sport's highest echelon, are limited to 85 scholarship athletes each. No more than 25 new signees are allowed to join a team in the fall. Because injuries are common, teams do whatever they can to make sure those spots are filled by the best athletes.

Because some players may fail to qualify academically, some teams take on more players than they have room for, to make sure they don't get caught short. The problem for teams comes when the numbers don't work out and the team winds up needing to make cuts.

Alabama, which won the national championship last season, is off to a dominating 3-0 start this year, including a blowout win over Penn State. The Crimson Tide play at No. 10 Arkansas Saturday in the weekend's most anticipated game.

The program is one of several in the SEC that have developed reputations for pushing roster limits. Since Mr. Saban took over as coach after a stint with the NFL's Miami Dolphins, Alabama has routinely had to trim its roster ahead of the season. Placing players on medical scholarships has helped it do so.

In some cases, the players who took these scholarships say they didn't feel pressured. Charles Hoke, a former Alabama offensive lineman who took a medical scholarship in 2008 because of a shoulder problem, said the choice was left entirely up to him and was based on the many conversations he had with the team's doctors and trainers over the course of his junior year.

Others who took these scholarships say they believe the school is violating the spirit of the rule. Mr. Kirschman, the linebacker, said he injured his back in April 2008 but continued practicing with the team through the spring of 2009. That May, he was approached by coaches and trainers and asked to take a medical scholarship.

"I wasn't playing significant minutes, but I was personally upset because I did anything coach asked, I was a team player, I had a 4.0 average," said Mr. Kirschman, who played in two career games, both in 2008, and is now working full time as a robot programmer at Mercedes.

Mr. Kirschman said the school offered in the summer of 2009 to pay for his graduate degree in business?an offer he accepted?and that he still gets some of the same perks as players. "I still get game tickets, which is nice," he says.

Mr. Kirschman said the decision to take the medical scholarship was ultimately his, and that he decided to do it to open up a scholarship for the good of the team. But he said he felt he was pressured. "It was pushed," he said. "It was instigated for several players."

In August 2009, Jeramie Griffin, a redshirt sophomore running back at Alabama, tore an anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during a practice?an injury that kept him out for that season. After undergoing surgery, he said, "I came back in the spring and I was OK."

Indeed, Mr. Griffin's bio on Alabama's official athletics website said he "looked strong in 2010 spring drills, just eight months off of surgery."

Mr. Griffin said that he was surprised last month when the football staff told him he had failed a physical. At that point, Mr. Griffin said, Mr. Saban sat him down and asked him what he wanted to do besides playing football. He said that Mr. Saban floated the possibility of a medical scholarship and asked if Mr. Griffin was interested in student coaching.

Mr. Griffin said he doesn't contest the results of the physical and said it was "basically my decision" to forgo the rest of his playing career.

Mr. Griffin said he has agreed to take a job as a student coach. He added that he felt less angry about being pushed to take the medical scholarship?which frees up roster space for the team?than he did about not living up to his potential.

"I felt like I could have played," he said.




Post Extras:

[entropy]

Next Monday night, if things go as the oddsmakers think they will, Alabama head coach Nick Saban will win his fourth college football national championship when his Crimson Tide beat Notre Dame. And there will be much rejoicing… at least in Alabama.

The four-letter network and others will jump to anoint Saban as the “Greatest This” and the “Greatest That,” and he will forever wear the label of iconic college football coach. The praise will stop just short of sainthood. Yet all those accolades should come with an attachment.

ALL of Saban’s success as a college football coach has come as a head coach in the Southeastern Conference, where he has gladly exploited a loophole in NCAA rules that allows him – and all other SEC schools – to “over-sign” the number of high school prospects they land on Letter of Intent Day. In other words, they get to sign more prospects than spots they have available.

This allows schools to circumvent the NCAA rule of 25-scholarships per year and 85 scholarships total. All they have to do is get down to the 85 limit by the start of fall camp in August and everything is fine. If you’ve signed 12 more newbies in February than spots you had available, then you simply cut your weakest 12 players over the summer to get back down to the limit. Easy.

Other conferences do not go for over-signing. They closed the loophole themselves, and exceptions have to be validated and approved by the conference. While some schools in other conferences have signed a few more players than spots available, they do so under tight guidelines knowing that those spots will come open due to players leaving on their own.

Many schools – including most of the members of the Big Ten – are now offering four-year scholarships in an effort to curb and/or eliminate over-signing. The Big Ten is the leading advocate to make this practice mandatory and is pressing the NCAA to do the same. Even though SEC commissioner Mike Slive is FOR the four-year scholarship rule, SEC football coaches do not want it. They want scholarships for student-athletes to continue to be a year-by-year deal, “so they have to continue to earn their spot.” It’s sort of like a multi-year NFL contract that is guaranteed for the team, but not for the player.

College football is nothing but a business after all.

Saban was among the coaches to loudly criticize the idea of the four-year scholarship and Alabama tried to have them made illegal. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier is also in favor of this continued exploitation of student-athletes (so he can continue to cut his weakest players every summer.) Spurrier lambasted the very notion of multi-year scholarship (even though he loves his own multi-year contract) and criticized the Big Ten for not allowing over-signing.

“I think that really hurts them a lot,” he told the media. “They end up giving scholarships to a lot of walk-ons.” Which is, of course, terrible for business.

Former South Carolina wide receiver Bryce Sherman was a victim of Spurrier “over-signing.” He was cut from the Gamecocks squad in July of 2011 after having started much of the previous season.

“They said they got better players over the last year,” Sherman told the Gainesville Times. “Everybody they recruited committed. It is what it is. It’s a business. I don’t think it’s fair, but it’s not my call.”

Justin Fielkow of the Tulane Law School Sports Law program disagrees. “Such an attitude fails to take into account the persistent exploitation of young men who are dependent on coaches and universities keeping their promises amidst a flawed system,” Fielkow blogged. “Where players are deemed to have no further value to an institution and punished through the revocation of their financial scholarship, the line between college and professional football becomes blurred to the point where universities forget that they are first and foremost academic institutions shaping the minds of young individuals, regardless of the amount of money that is poured into their football programs.”

According to the web site www.oversigning.com, SEC schools combined to sign 52 more players on LOI day than they had scholarships available in 2011. That means 52 current players had to be released and/or have their scholarships revoked during the summer, and it also means 52 prospects that should have signed with other schools. Saban and Alabama signed 11 more players to LOIs than they had scholarships available that year, meaning that sometime between mid-February and the end of July, 11 ‘Bama players (the 11 weakest players on the roster) lost their scholarships for one reason or another.

Do you need another reason that the Tide just keeps rolling?

The same Nick Saban who is about to start being mentioned among the greatest of all-time was not so great as the head coach at Michigan State in the Big Ten, where he went a modest 40-24-1 during five seasons from 1995-99 before bolting for LSU. Then, after a successful stint in Baton Rouge, the nomadic coach left to coach the Miami Dolphins for two seasons, where he went 15-17 and was widely considered to be a bust. Then, it was back to the SEC and the built-in advantage, and presto! Saban wins big again. Hmmm.

Yes, the SEC is the dominant conference in college football. Over-signing is the reason why. Take away this huge advantage, and the SEC schools would be forced to deal with the same rules and level of parity as everyone else, and Nick Saban would not have four national championships.

Is it going to change any time soon? Unless the NCAA makes the four-year scholarship mandatory, it doesn’t appear that way. The only team to beat Alabama this season was Texas A&M – a newly minted SEC member. The Aggies have already caught on: “What 25 per year scholarship limit?” A&M currently has 34 players listed as “commitments” for the 2013 signing class. That should make the bottom nine players on the Aggies depth chart pretty nervous this summer – and A&M a national title contender next fall.

[hack]

Michigan's ceiling is this year's ND team. The only way that we will ever be in the BCS national championship game is by getting lucky against an easy schedule.


The bright side is that Michigan was as good at this year's team if it didn't have Borges. Michigan is still going to get some hits in.

[Pasadena Blue]

Michigan's ceiling is this year's ND team. The only way that we will ever be in the BCS national championship game is by getting lucky against an easy schedule.

Pretty much agree with this statement.