OT: ESPN OTL on CFB oversigning

Submitted by Slippery Rock … on
For those of you that are interested, the ESPN show Outside the Lines is doing a piece on oversigning recruits in college football nowadays. It's on ESPN now (9am-930) after a lesbian story.

wolverine2003

December 19th, 2010 at 9:30 AM ^

Anyone who thought or still thinks Les Miles should be associated with UM football needs to watch that piece.  Even if you take oversigning as necessary is the SEC, I can't believe he would publically bad mouth a kid like that a media day that Miles forced out the door.  Also can't believe he would have a meeting with a kid and say everything is going well when a decision had already been made to pull his scholarship.

myrtlebeachmai…

December 19th, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^

Yeah, Nutt's 37 was noteworthy, and Miles certainly came off a dirt bag (meeting with a kid, saying nothing to him about cutting him, and the next day the kids gets a "goodbye" letter dated a week before the meeting...), but for the love of God...   where was National Champion Alabama??

dayooper63

December 19th, 2010 at 9:30 AM ^

Click Me

 

As usual, the blogosphere is useful for more than rumormongoring.  Many blolgs were on to this almost three years ago, including Brian.  It's taken the main stream media this long to make a stink about it?

GunnersApe

December 19th, 2010 at 9:34 AM ^

They really hammered Les Miles and LSU, where’s the Alabama yellow hammer on Old Saint Nick Saban.  Well thank God the SEC set a cap at 28 so they only can fuck 3 kids a year. No wonder the ESS EEE SEE has the best conference, as Brian has said they get an extra class every 4 years…Hope B1G Ten rolls those fools this year. I’m surprised ESPN had the balls to air this.  

For the lazy. The last 4 years average recruits signed:

B1G Ten= 86

ACC= 89

PAC 10=90

Big East=92

Big XII= 97

ESS EEE SEE=103.

I hope the recruits see this and it doesn’t die out. GO B1G TEN.

pjmasi

December 19th, 2010 at 9:38 AM ^

Nothing gets me more upset than that video of the kid, in tears, who had to move out of the dorms in August after working out all summer at LSU.  These jerks, who make millions, couldn't be interviewed?  Unbelievable cowardice.

And I still say no, ESPN still isn't really taking this seriously.  Bob Ley gives Houston Nutt a pass on his comment about signing 80 kids by saying "oh, that quote was just a joke."  Well, the joke isn't funny, Bob.

Grrrr.

Tater

December 19th, 2010 at 9:54 AM ^

Every recruit thinks he is a world-beater and won't be one of those who get fucked.  On a side note, I was trying to find a nicer way to express this, and I couldn't.  There is no way to sugarcoat or justify what goes on there.   

Waters Demos

December 19th, 2010 at 10:23 AM ^

The other constant is that the overwhelming majority of recruits think they're going to "the league," and are just looking for the right platform to stand on.  Of course, only - what,  2% or less (not sure about this figure) actually do. 

Recruits could go a lot further with even a small dose of humility/reality. 

Of course, said small dose is hard to come by in the wake of recruiting hype (see, e.g., 500+  post thread on a single recruit).  They're constantly told how great they are. 

Tagg

December 19th, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^

That's because they've had their ass kissed for their entire football lives and in all likelyhood have benefitted from scewjobs. So they just assume it will continue and then they end up getting burned. They then end up leaving college and driving around with bottles of Grey Goose, AK-47's and bullett proof vests.

Skunkeye

December 19th, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^

This has been stated numerous times but I'll say it again.  The yearly maximum of 25 or 28 in the SEC is not the issue for over-signing.  It is the total scholarship limit of 85.  25 + 25 + 25 + 25 > 85 and that is without even considering 5th year seniors or the 3 extra allowed by the SEC. 

It seems like every year teams like Alabama need to find 10-15 players to get rid of after signing their classes.  They get part way with non-qualifiers, then they start looking at the injured and recently arrested, and then if they are still over the limit, the true cuts begin.

Planning for some of this might be considered prudent rather than being 10 scholarships under the 85 like Michigan seems to be lately, but by conference rule Big Ten teams aren't allowed to follow this practice and can only hand out open scholarships.

I see the whole thing as creating a non-level playing field for the teams that don't over-sign.  SEC teams can take a flier on as many marginal qualifiers as they want but teams like Michigan know that taking a player at risk like Demar Dorsey might mean having less than a full team of scholarship players going into a season.  When some of these players do make it, the result is advantage SEC.

Slippery Rock …

December 19th, 2010 at 11:08 AM ^

I thought that the comment that the story "followed a show about Lesbians" was even stranger.

Nah, not so creepy if you tuned in.  The first 15 minutes of the OTL episode was quite literally a story about a lesbian (Soccer coach that was fired for being a lesbian at a Christian school yadda yadda yadda).  I was just trying to get the message out that it was worth bearing through the first 15 minutes to get to a story that I'm pretty sure we all find a little more interesting. Although, if the story was about the two girls above, it would've been a different story.

GunnersApe

December 19th, 2010 at 9:47 AM ^

Also with the new secondary violations/suspensions for coaches, well see how our good friends the Kiffins/Tressel “Sorry we made a boo-boo again” habitual offenders quit self-reporting themselves. Tom Izzo has already received a one game suspension from the new rule.  

MichiganGoBlue8

December 19th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^

the overall message of this thread. Treating a young man, no matter how inflated his ego may be, like commodity without being at least upfront about it is morally wrong. I'm sure this carries a consequence of being a burden on the offenders conscience. Afterall karma's a b!tch right?

Now I have something to add that may be a bit silly. I can't resist though. I was in Panama City, FL (I know). For spring break one year. One of the nights at the beachside nightclub was particularly packed. On said night out of nowhere a chant of "S! E! C!" started up. Then, out of nowhere, it turned into, "F#CK OHIO STATE! F#CK OHIO STATE! Childish I know. I live in Columbus and constantly have a to hear about how "great" OS...Who? is. So I joined in the chant and loved every second of it. GO BLUE!

Sorry, had to share.

UMichinCA

December 19th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^

Thanks for posting.  I was getting ready to look for a replay of the segment on TV.  Now I don't have to.

I was encouraged to hear Terry Bowden's comments.  I always viewed TB (and all the Bowdens) as a bit of a shady coach, but maybe I had him mis-characterized.  Maybe his moral compass is straighter than I thought.

MichiganFootball

December 19th, 2010 at 6:09 PM ^

So what happens with oversigning is pretty bad, but it apparently used to be even worse

Below is a book review that desribes what things used to be at Texas in the days Darrell Royal.  In the days of 100 scholarships they would have 45 freshman every year and they would get heaviliy winnowed down.  Among other things, anyone who wasn't first or second string was denied medical attention.  And if you fell below the fourth team, you got kicked out from regular practice and were sent to to drills that had the goal of getting to people to either cut themsleves or inducing injuries that would get you off the team. 

http://residualprolixity.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-review-meat-on-hoof…

Search4Meaning

December 19th, 2010 at 6:50 PM ^

The problem is that it has always let things go too far.

As far as main stream sports reporting goes - wining is the elixir that makes looking the other way easier.  This is not new.  It has been this way for a long, long time.  

EDIT:  ESPN's contract with and lover affair over the SEC puts them at a whole different level of "looking away".