Dear Coach Saban,

Congratulations on your recent College Football National Championship.  Your Defense was truly inspiring, if not your television ratings.  We hope all is well with you and your staff.  We trust that you are enjoying a well deserved break before spring practice starts in earnest.

We, the Michigan faithful, are writing to you to ask you for your wisdom and guidance in an area where you are the undisputed master of the college football world.  You see, we at Michigan suddenly find ourselves in a position that, quite frankly, bewilders and confuses us.

No doubt you've heard about the recent recruiting tear that we are on.  It's only March, and we've already signed 11 4-star recruits, 8 of them in one weekend!  That's more than the rest of the B1G teams . . . combined.  But now it is starting to get out of hand.  We are on the verge of having to turn away elite recruits in March because all of our slots are filling up.  Worse, we are in a position where many of the players we may have to turn away are 5-stars.  It's true.  We have 5-stars lined up waiting to replace the 4-stars that we just recruited.

It's just not funny any more.  We can't keep up with this madness.  And with Coach Hoke on board at Michigan, it's likely to become an annual problem. 

Coach, it has become clear to us that there is only one answer:  Oversigning. 

Yes, we know we are on record as being vigorously opposed to Oversigning.  It's true we have looked down our noses on the SEC in general, and on this topic in particular.  But that was when it was only a theoretical concept.  Now that it's a real issue for us, well you know, we can kind of see the appeal.  Perhaps we were a bit too harsh.  Perhaps we were a bit too judgmental.  There are lots of new innovative concepts out there being tried by true pioneers such as yourself, Coach Saban.  Maybe it's time for us to quit being so insular, and get caught up to modern times.

The problem is, we're babes in the woods.  We're Oversigning virgins.  We don't understand any of this stuff . . . Greyshirting . . . Medical Hardships . . . and don't even get us started on how you can get to a roster of 85 players by signing 25 a year for 4 years.  Our heads just hurt.  So we ask ourselves:  "What would Nick Saban do?”  As the undisputed master of Oversigning, we humbly ask for your sage advice. 

Coach Saban:  Please teach us how to Oversign.

We have watched in awe all these years your expertise in Oversigning.  We have watched you essentially recruit 5 classes to everyone else’s 4.  We have watched you masterfully clear up roster space of, shall we say, "disposable players" to keep the recruiting pipeline flowing.  We have even watched you clear up space within a recruiting class for better players, before any of those players even stepped foot on campus.  Now that's Oversigning mastery. 

Nick, please teach us the tricks of the trade.  A skill-set such as yours should not be locked away.  It needs to be shared where it will do the most good. 

We at Michigan are ready for your lessons.  We are willing to be your loyal apprentice.  We will be the Luke Skywalker to your Yoda of Oversigning.

Thank You for your consideration,

  The Michigan Faithful.  Go Blue!

P.S.  We are truly sorry for all the grief we caused you when you were at Michigan State.  We were just doing what comes natural to us.  It turns out your observations about MSU always being second fiddle to Michigan were on the money.  In fact, they even came up with a name for it:  "Little Brother".  The current regime up there can certainly relate to your plight.  But it all worked out OK for you.  You moved on to "greener" pastures (sorry, lame joke).  I hope we can let bygones be bygones and put this unfortunate history behind us, okay?