OT: SEC prepares for possible recruiting reform
The ACC has recently suggested a change to recruiting rules, allowing for an early signing day of August 1st. The SEC has countered saying they'd like to keep the same signing day in February.
BUT, if the NCAA does decide to add an early signing day, the SEC HAS A PLAN!!
Excuse me for a moment....
Under the SEC suggestion, the early signing day would be the Monday after Thanksgiving and recruits "would only be eligible for the early signing date if they haven't taken any official visits."
"If we can clean up some of the things around the edges, meaning there's a lot of kids that know where they want to go and don't want to go through the process of wasting all those trips, the time and expense that it takes to take five official visits," Mississippi athletic director Ross Bjork said."
I don't necessarily subscribe to the same belief that there's as many kids who know exactly where they want to go as some believe there are. I think this would result in more instability in the recruiting picture than there already is, especially for the type of kids Michigan and other top programs are targeting. Considering how some kids have changed their commitments recently having taken a visit, asking a kid to decide having not taken any visits I think is asking for trouble.
In theory, focusing on kids who don't yet know where they want to go and not worrying about the ones who already know will save time, money and effort. But I think Michigan for example thrives on getting kids on campus for official visits. Even they get a lot of kids on unofficial visits, getting the higher ranked kids who may not be from the area has been a strong selling point for recruits lately.
But I'm open to other opinions.... Link: http://msn.foxsports.com/college-football/story/sec-prepares-for-recruiting-reform-creates-model1-052814
I've heard that the SEC schools will only be spending $2,000 on SUV wheels instead of $4,000.
Free gas for life. It is an arms race after all.
I hope they aren't going to go overboard with crazy cost-savings ideas.
is like hearing Aaron Hernandez complain about the cost of bullets.
The SEC is also trying to "close the loophole" of allowing coaches to be at camps further than 50 miles from their campus. They don't like northern folks in their territory, unless it's for a football game, because EVERYONE knows they are not traveling west of Arlington or north of Nashville for a "neutral site" game.
I remember when the recession hit and the SEC schools starting goiong with IROC's instead of Corvettes. It really gives you a better appreciation for the current economic climate.
The SEC definitely has a finger on the pulse of what's good for recruiting.
Over at Yahoo!, They quoted Muschamp regarding the possibility of some sort of early signing proposal being an NCAA-wide thing for Division I football:
''I really think we're going to have a hard time agreeing on something that's good for everybody just because of the regions of the country,'' Florida coach Will Muschamp said. ''A lot of the northern schools don't want kids visiting in January because it's freezing cold and they lie to them and tell them it's really warm year-round."
That's exactly right. It's much like the "dry heat" argument. We tell them, "...but it's a warm 10 below wind chill." I am pretty sure that's a thing, Will. *rolls eyes*
and considering where he coaches, I'm immediately suspect of his motivations. But one quote that followed, from the FoxSports article concludes: "I'd be for it, but it's something we've discussed a lot in my time here and I don't think we're ever going to agree on something nationally."
Sounds like he at least realizes that many others won't have the same motivations as the SEC. Will was, afterall, seemingly on UM's side when it came to us vs. OSU. IIRC, he took to Hoke's practice of referring to them as Ohio. Kudos, Will.
the SEC wants recruits to take officials in the fall when it isn't fumunda-cheese creating humid-a$$ hot out. They certainly don't want them to know what they will be doing their two-a-days in!
/s
/s (maybe)
Thanks a lot for the visual.
/s (definitely)
Is that like a Casu Marzu cheese?
Somebody needs to tell Muschamp that only SEC players are stupid enough to believe it's warm around here in the winter.
I mean does he honestly believe players are that dumb? Scratch that question - he coaches in the SEC. He KNOWS players are that dumb.
more like he HOPES they're that dumb.
it's not possible to explain that kind of cold. It has to be experienced.
That being said, July in Texas is just as bad as January in Ann Arbor. Moreover, July in Ann Arbor is about the closest you can get to heaven on earth.
^^^THIS^^^ is why the SEC does not want to allow official visits prior to the early signing period.
Let's not give these kids from the south an opportunity to see what the summers are like up north.
I'm not sure three months of nirvana trumps two months of hell (Jan/Feb) (three months? I usually don't count Dec. for whatever reason).
That being said, I love Ann Arbor.
I already prefer that the seasons change from hot to cold instead of hot to fucking hot, but that would be an even stronger preference if I had to do "fall" camp in that heat.
exercising/playing in the cold is waaaay better than humid heat (edit: to be fair though, playing sports in extreme cold also sucks. It just sucks less).
As an aside, though, my post was just meant as someone living in the town. Which we disagree on. I prefer hot, f'cking hot, lukewarm to: best weather of all time, awesome, oh my god I'm going to die from the cold just walking to my car, I probably won't die now.
An early signing day would be such great protection for recruits. I'm sure not one football coach would ever tell a kid, "Signing early would prove your commitment to us. We can't consider you committed unless you do."
I think it's a load of crap that other sports do. It creates all kinds of problems and doesn't solve any except to give coaches peace of mind. Something that tilts the recruiting playing field more in the direction of coaches isn't a good idea.
I submit that we would never have had Roy Roundtree had football had an early signing day; I further submit that Devonte Graham wasted a whole year of his life because basketball has one.
(Graham signed early with Appalachian State, then played his senior season, during which other schools found out he existed and tried to get him to flip. App State wouldn't let him out of his LOI. He spent a year at prep school trying to get out of it and finally got out this spring, and ended up at Kansas.)
About the only benefit to recruits is the ability to get unwanted attention off their back - and sometimes even that backfires, as above. You could easily do the same by creating a do-not-contact list that any recruit can sign up for at any time and take himself off of at any time. Everything else about an early signing period benefits coaches only.
but ACC's proposal is probably much worse for Michigan. They wouldn't allow any official visits for early signees either. The ACC is in a talent rich area and are just trying to keep more players at home. If the NCAA is going to have such an early signing period they need to allow juniors to take official visits.
This feels like a bunch of complaining for not a big payoff. Lots of the lower-rated kids might be more inclined to sign, but the big-time recruits (or at least the ones that think they are) aren't going to be swayed that much. I think they like the wooing process, and those are the kids that all the schools care about with regards to early signing and locking them up. I think you'd just see more kids hold back on even a weak commitment, which might eliminate some of the flip-flopping later on but wouldn't fundamentally change the recruiting game.
Read the title too quickly and thought it was SEC prepares for possible recruiting violations...which is not news and all (and the word possible entirely unnecessary)
My joke is what do you do with dead chemists?
Barium!
A post-Thanksgiving signing day would much better than August but the part about recruits only being eligible if they haven't taken any official visits doesn't make any sense. You would think kids who have taken officials would have a better idea of where they are going.