Oversigning: The Depressing, Eternal Line

Somewhat surprised to see you linking to anything written by Ty Duffy. If I remember correctly, I thought you weren't a fan of his. Can't blame you for that

If it's a business then it shouldn't be tax exempt.

the SEC 28 scholarship limit is a joke anyway,  this year south carolina took 31 and arkansas 30.

Bud Light is refreshing and it gets you drunk and makes fat girls pretty and tastes like America.

I'll have no more of your slanderous lies!

You should be proud of yourself for being on the front lines of this for so long.  

and making noise, Brian.

They should do a reality TV show where the oversigning coach has to return kickoffs against a team of players he grayshirted/medical redshirted.

Also, while you can argue that it's the SEC system that's the problem here, I still have no respect for individual coaches who take advantage of it. I'm very happy that we didn't hire Les Miles.

I think any feigned surprise that Saban is oversigning and being disingenuous about it is kind of silly.  (Not here, but some members of the MSM appear to be shocked, shocked to find oversigning on the premises.)

Saban's an egocentric piece of shit, and oversigning is the sort of thing that naturally occurs when an egocentric piece of shit is put in charge of the lives of 120 +/- student athletes (non-scholarship players included).  We wouldn't be surprised if Alabama made an alligator its coach, and the Coach tore someone's arm off.  That's what alligators do.

So much sinful behavior is justified by "just being business." If college football is a business, shouldn't players be able to sue the schools who yank their scholarships for breech of contract? What rights does a player get in return for signing a Letter of Intent? Isn't the LOI some sort of contract between player and school? If it isn't, it should be. Afterall, college football is a business.

...on this blight, Brian.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you that there are CFB fans that seek to dismiss this issue with a wave of the hand.

The SEC is well aware that a great deal of their success is due to oversigning. Don't expect them to give that up willingly.

On this...though there aren't a lot of posts. I wonder if it's just a Bud Light/SEC thing...there were a lot of posts HERE using the same "it's a business, they know what they're getting into" mentality when it looked like Les Miles was going to be our next coach.



What does it mean, other than they must sell a lot of Bud Light around Michigan, too? I don't know. But this is one topic that will never be a waste of time to further expose, because change "is" possible. And even if it weren't...it's the right thing.

But we've got a Tim Horton's now.  And a TCBY is on the way.

Just so you know.

So just wondering....what is the punishment for oversigning? Who regulates oversigning the NCAA or the Conference themselves? Why is there one set of rules for the Big Ten and one for the SEC?

Reason being is in looking at oversigning.com I noticed USC had an uptick on its signings this recruiting class as well. Now that could be because they are getting ready to take a hit once their appeal comes through but it is a loophole schools are going to really start to exploit if not closed.

Why is there not a hard number in place is my question. For every number over the hard number a school should have to submit in detail as to why they went over that number. Every scholarship kid that leaves a football program should go through an exiting process that list the reasons why a student athlete is leaving the program and the circumstances behind them leaving. A criteria should be met and once that process is completed then the school should be awarded that scholarship back...and it should be rewarded in the corresponding recruiting season. And put a max of three per recruiting class.

Pawwwl, here's the thing.  The Ess  EEE Say's been winnin' the chrystal bawl ever year the past bushel o' years.  Whare's the problem?

I commend Brian for his continued dilligence on exposing this inequality, but I am getting a bit too jaded to really care anymore or expect any meaningful change to occur.  Auburn just won an MNC with a couple of kids who will undobutedly be deemed retroactively ineligible and stripped of their title, yet nobody really cares.  People look at the fact that the SEC has won 6 of the last 8 titles and just say "well, the SEC must have better teams and players" without much of a second thought.  All the while, simple math would show you that 28+ kid classes each year is way over the 85 scholarship, even if you factor in juniors leaving in droves, yet I don't see anyone with meaningful authority doing anything about it.  As long as schools continue to receive $15M+ per BCS game, I expect this to continue and for schools in the B1G and the Pac-10 to continue to suffer a competitive imbalance as a result. 

This almost feels like there should be two different titles a year, like they do in weight lifting with tested and untested athletes.  Have a title for schools that stay reasonably close to 85 scholarships with their recruiting and another for the schools that basically recruit 5 classes every 4 years.  That way, at least there would be an even playing field.  Otherwise, I expect to see the SEC continue to dominate CFB for years to come.

I'm glad to see this subject brought up on this board because it is so galling to see these schools subvert the rules to give themselves an advantage. To think that Michigan went on probation for not properly accounting for stretching, while these SEC schools skate even though they deny scholarships to kids after they've moved in on campus, well, that says it all about the NCAA's priorities.

Paul Finebaum has been all over this in terms of it being the wrong way to treat student/athletes or, in the case of the SEC, football players who are registered for classes. But no newspaper in the South wants to touch this, which is why you see Sports Illustrated hitting it hard. Where are the newspapers in Jackson, Birmingham, Columbia and New Orleans? Not only is there no outrage, they think their schools are smart for finding ways to bend the rules.

And it certainly is reprehensible. It also produces a huge competitive edge for the SEC. What you essentially have here is schools signing students and then basically requiring them to "tryout" for the team each year. And if a guy comes in who was less than advertised, or a better guy comes along at that position, they just kick the first player off the team. They try to come up with a reason, but the fact is no reason is needed. They can just do it if they want to, and they want to. Nothing fascinates an SEC coach like a new player who looks better than the one they signed last year.

So imagine if everyone else lives with the 85-scholarship rule, but your school brings in 7-8 players each year beyond the standard 25-scholarship limit. Over a four-year period, that school has a pool of more than 30 extra players to evaluate and field a stronger team. It is a huge advantage: SEC teams don't have to live with their misses. They just oversign and cut the misses from previous years as needed, or force them to take medical exemptions even if they are not all that injured. Check how many medical exemptions Alabama has each year compared to any other school in the country. It's disgusting. You can see more here: www.oversigning.com

Giving your team a pool of players to build out of that is more than 30 percent larger than other schools are able to use can make a real difference in winning games -- games in which even a few players can give a team a decided edge.

The SEC builds in that edge, doesn't play by the same rules, and then boasts about how strong its teams are. The league's strength on the football field is not so surprising once one looks at how they go about it. They basically run them like NFL camps. Your grades don't matter. If a better player comes along, you're gone no matter how you're doing in school -- and it's not hard to do well at an SEC school. In the immortal words of former Auburn basketball coach Sonny Smith, who said this upon learning one of his players, Mike Jones, had failed out of Auburn. "How do you fail out of Auburn?" he asked. "We could pass a house plant at Auburn, if we could get it to go to class."

Listening to SEC sports talk radio is sickening.  All these "fans" come up with every reason and excuse that either their team(auburn, alabama) don't oversign, or if they do its ok because...whatever crazy reason they come up with.  People down here are either dumb, or crazy. 

Viewed as a business, I can certainly understand the desire to have a little extra inventory on hand. There are issues such as spoilage, theft, obsolescence, etc...

I normally read anything that Brian posts as gospel, when it comes to Michigan, but I feel like I do need to make an edit to the quoted section referencing the treatment of Jones and his mother's response. I actually thought that it's cool that a kid I coach showed up on MGoBlog - that's never happened for me before. Despite my thrill, I need to make sure we keep the story straight ...

I coach in Tennessee - and actually coached Jones. His name is Harrison Jones, and he is the younger brother of Alabama's academic All-American, Barrett Jones. Harrison's a good kid - and was expecting to redshirt all along.

The article that Brian quoted was a bit hasty on the whole situation. Jones did get a gray shirt - for about 5 days. Then, his scholarship was returned to him, and he resumed everything as normal. I've had numerous conversations with him about his experiences at Alabama - He has nothing negative to say about the way he was treated in the whole situation. He got to dress for all of their games, and was as much of a redshirt player as anyone else.

I'm not a Saban fan; he's been around school a couple of times to recruit our kids. He's a business man first and foremost. Though the Jones family was not expecting the whole gray shirt situation, they ended up saying that it was reported far differently than it actually went down. Saban did call the parents in - and Harrison in. He explained the whole situation to them. Harrision said that Saban spent nearly 45 minutes articulating it all - which is something that Saban rarely does ... have that long of a conversation with his players. He actually tried to make sure that everyone knew exactly what was happening ... and from what I understand, the family understood that this was most likely a temporary thing ... and that's what it ended up being.

Like I said, I don't like Saban one bit - never have. But, this specific issue was not reported - or at least followed up with accurately. There's no reason to say that Brian should know this ... but the article should have linked a follow up to the story. I do believe that more than a handful of kids have gotten screwed by Saban. Jones is not one of them.

I can never read enough of the comments.  They either fall into two categories:

1)  Accuse the author of being in the pocket of Auburn thus biased and then proceed to rip Auburn.  Apparently facts are irrelevant to those people.  

2) Make up ridiculous justifications, such as "Blake Simms place was held open because he changed the game by qualifying. Alabama did the right thing by allowing for him to join the team and now both players profit from the change. Why such a negative spin on a very positive set of events? Why don't you stick to writing kiddie stories and leave this stuff to the pro's?"   Didn't realize being unable to practice with the team, kicked out of the dorm and have to pay your own way was a benefit.

I've known for a long time that SEC teams hoarded players and ended up with more than their fair share of national talent, but couldn't put my finger on the reason why they got away with it.  I was convinced that they were lying to incoming recruits, promising the moon and going back on those promises....kids that could be starters at other schools are sitting on the bench, so that they end up with three and four deep of 4* talent but still only fielding 22 kids per game, not including special teams.  But now I see that the lies are actually ending up falling on the guys that have been there a while, they are dismissed for trumped up reasons, missing a 'punishment run' or skipping class (which they ALL do anyways) and the kid ends up getting left out in the cold after a year or two of putting in the work for his school.  All the while, new recruits who haven't played one down for the school take their scholarship, their dorm room, their seat at the training table, and for all we know...their girlfriend. 

Keep on keepin' on with this great research.  Its fun to watch SEC bubbas twist in the wind in chat rooms when they realize I've brought a big can of paint to trap them in the corner with.