OT: U of F president weighs in on oversigning and greyshirting

Submitted by MWW6T7 on
The president of the University of Florida has wrote his thoughts on the issue of greyshirting and over-signing. Not anything groundbreaking and I'm sure we all agree but it was interesting that it came from an SEC president instead of the Big Ten or Pac Ten. Thought it was an interesting read. Link: http://bit.ly/f6OBU7 Edit: Sorry about the formatting. I posted this from my phone.

psychomatt

February 1st, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^

Florida is one of the big boys in most sports, especially football, and is in the SEC. Florida's decision to make a public statement against oversigning is a big deal. If a few more of the top football schools outside the B10 would get on board (e.g. Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma), the NCAA would have the necessary support to implement FBS-wide changes to stop the most abusive practices.

BlockM

February 1st, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^

Good for him. The attention being given to this issue seems to be inching closer to critical mass. Once the general public is fully aware of it, it seems like it should be only a matter of time before the NCAA is pressured into some change. Maybe that's a bit optimistic/idealistic, but it'd be nice to put this practice away forever.

Brhino

February 1st, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^

It's funny.  A lot of us think of oversigning as "That horrible thing the SEC does"... but SEC East fans claim it's "That horrible thing the SEC WEST does".  I don't know if it's a completely clean split, but most of the worst offenders are in the west.

Brhino

February 1st, 2011 at 12:02 PM ^

Follow-up: Here's Oversigning.com's current list of offenders (keeping in mind these are based on verbal commitments, not actual players):

 

1. Ole Miss (SEC West)

2. Alabama (SEC West)

3. USC (GOATBOY)

4. LSU (SEC West)

5. Arkansas (SEC West)

6. South Carolina (SEC East)

7. Mississippi State (SEC West)

8. Clemson (ACC)

9. Michigan State*

 

So yeah, looks like it's mostly the SEC West that's the troublemakers.

*Apparently, Michigan State currently has one more verbal commit than they have space for.  Interesting.

Skunkeye

February 1st, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^

It is good to see that 3 schools in the SEC haven't sold their souls for more victories.  I applaud Florida, Georgia, and Vanderbilt for sticking to their priciples while competing with the schools that will do anything to win.

ken725

February 1st, 2011 at 12:03 PM ^

To me when I think of over-signing, I think of Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss St., Auburn, South Carolina and LSU.  Lets not forget Alabama and their medical redshirt practices.  

People constantly say the SEC is the best conference.  That might be the case, but I wonder how much better they would be if they were not allowed to over-sign.  

oriental andrew

February 1st, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^

i think you're thinking of the medical hardship whereby they get to stay in school but are no longer part of the team due to medical issues.  This is where the sketch comes into play because 'Bama has presumably been tabbing kids as having career ending injuries for teh sole purpose of opening up roster space.

Beavis

February 1st, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^

I believe the Wire could have done a sixth season on high school athletes trying to get into D-1 schools, and the schools/system that abuse them (but at the same time give some the keys to riches in the NFL). 

I'm not serious, obviously.  But I consider the NCAA to be one of the things wrong with this country (along with the drug war/docks/politics/schools/papers that the Wire attacks). 

UMaD

February 1st, 2011 at 12:04 PM ^

What matters is how it is conducted.  The practice he describes is pulling offers aka "backing out of the contract", which isn't how many programs use gray-shirting.  As a school like Oregon State they gray-shirt players who know exactly what is coming.  Basically, they take kids that wouldn't otherwise get a chance to be at a Pac10 school and give them an extra year to develop.  They have to pay for a semester of schooling on their own, but do so willingly.  Oregon State has been doing it to give their program an advantage in player development.  They offer some kids (particularly OL) gray-shirt offers and other kids standard scholarships.  Its really no more reprehensible than being a prefferred walk-on.

The key moral question here is if kids are being deceived.  If you're openly offered a gray-shirt, there is nothing wrong with this practice.

Grayshirt is another new term and is applied to the prospect that signs a letter of intent in February, but doesn't report in the fall with his teammates. He delays entry to college until midyear, i.e. January. That NCAA five-year clock doesn't start ticking until the player enrolls as a full time student, so gray-shirting is really a delayed version of red-shirting. For Example, Texas Tech, signed 34 players in February 2006, but NCAA rules prevent them from enrolling more than 25 to start the fall. Some of those nine other players gray-shirted during the 2006 fall season. They cannot enroll in college as full time students, can’t receive their scholarship, nor practice. It is like getting an extra year of practice, because most of these players don’t see the game field until two years later and they have the advantage of going through an extra spring practice.

 

bluebyyou

February 1st, 2011 at 12:06 PM ^

This needs to be done on a national level using NCAA guidelines that are unequivocal. 

I can't remember where I read this, but oversigning, except to the extent of three scholarships and then only with written justification, has been banned by the B1G since the 50's.

jblaze

February 1st, 2011 at 12:26 PM ^

or didn't this year, it's in his best interest to make this issue as public as possible to pressure the SEC into stopping oversigning.

Make no mistake, he's directing this to the other SEC teams.