Putting Oversigning Rules Into Practice: Best Course of Action?
The oversigning article on the board today featuring Steve Spurrier and Bobby Petrino got me thinking: how, if at all, will oversigning be brought to an end? We've had plenty of very good proposals for rule-changes ending oversigning in the SEC and elsewhere, but I'm curious how MGoBoard feels these changes can be enacted, if at all?
The two ideas I can think of are:
- Since the SEC is the biggest offender, they change from the inside following outcries from the administrations at Florida and Georgia (links embedded in names), and the oversigning problem dies down immensley in college football.
- The Big Ten, maybe the Pac, and certainly the smaller conferences that share territory with the SEC band together to force a change to the NCAA rules regarding recruiting classes.
I do not know which is more likely. Florida and Georgia carry a ton of clout in the SEC, though they seem to only be joined by Tennessee and Vanderbilt in not oversigning. Alabama is also a political heavyweight within the conference, and has the status-quo and conference commissioner on their side.
On the other hand, forcing a nationwide rule change is no small order, and while I would like to believe the Big Ten would stand up against oversigning, I have no idea the intentions of the other BCS conferences, not to mention the myriad of smaller conferences.
Can oversigning be ended? And, if so, how do you think change will come about?
(I realize these links have been posted before, I'm trying to ask a different question.)
Realistically, the conferences are going to need to make a commitment not to oversign. The NCAA is largely toothless, so without conference support, nothing is going to change.
Edit: Media can play a serious role in this. If ESPN really wanted to embarrass the SEC/Big 12, they could make SEC media days, for example, really uncomfortable. "Coach Saban, I see you're still two players over the 85 player limit. Whose scholarships do you plan on not renewing?"
I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, but didn't your diary solution depend on the NCAA?
There's also the 25 signee rule now in place with the NCAA, do you think there's a chance of this being amended?
Fair enough.
I liked your proposal, FWIW. Like you said, way too much for the NCAA to tackle, but I just went and reread it and you have some really good ideas.
Thanks!
Title IX rules require the 85 limit to be there. You can't get rid of it.
One thing the NCAA could do is get rid of the dumb idea that January enrollees are somehow a member of the previous year's class. Any kid who attends his first college class in the ____ calendar year should be considered a member of that year's recruiting class.
Next step: a hard 25-signee limit. Some of your signees don't qualify? Tough. It's your fault for going after kids who aren't college material.
Third: no more than 45 signees in any two years. (College basketball used to have a rule like this.) So you follow up your 25-man class with a 20-man class, or vice-versa.
You could still theoretically oversign under this proposal, but not by much (you could have an absolute maximum of 90 scholarship kids on signing day).
They need to enforce the hard 85-scholly limit on NSD. Let the schools announce who won't be coming back by the end of the day. That way, kids have the rest of the semester to find another situation instead of it happening in late August or early September.
And let any kid who is "cut" become immediately eligible at the school of his choice. Better yet, schools should be required to give any kid who is on an athletic scholarship in any sport "free" classes as long as it takes him or her to graduate.