Semi OT: Over Signing, Sat...ahem, Saban speaks

Submitted by GoBlue007 on

Steward Mandel from SI tackles oversigning and writes a pretty fair article premiering on their NCAA FB page.    ESecPN would never do that, conflict of interest to Mickey Mouse.  

Most interesting article is Sab(t)an's take on recruiting:

"Any player that has left this program prematurely has created his own exit route. He's created his own conditions for leaving, if that makes sense."

Oh, it makes sense, you're a douche and I cannot believe any parent trusts you with their son. I know that spotlight's on the Alabama but more in the SEC and mini-12 and USC are to blame.

Here is the link: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/stewart_mandel/02/04/saban-oversigning/index.html

Roll Tide...I guess, blah (insert gastric reflux)

 

 

Tater

February 5th, 2011 at 11:08 PM ^

1.  It IS OSU people who insist that "OSU," which worked for years, is no longer good enough for them, and expect people to add the "t" in front of their name because they want it that way, as if the entire country should actually care what someone in Columbus thinks.  Arrogant fucks.

2.  I don't mind that it is reminiscent of Hayes.  Hayes mentored this guy you might have heard of: his name was "Bo."  Back in the days of Bo vs Woody, there was actually mutual respect between the schools.  The "hatred" in the rivalry was actually a lot classier back then.  That would be nice to see again.  

3.  It's a lot more fun to reference something Hoke said than it is trying to cram old memes ("all in," etc) into what is hopefully a new era.  

4.  It's hasn't been around nearly as long as "Lloyd Brady" has, and LB hasn't gotten old yet.  

5.  It REALLY hasn't been around as long as "Tacopants," and that hasn't gotten old yet, either.  

GoBlue007

February 5th, 2011 at 7:18 PM ^

Agree with the fact that its not very original; however, they keep bashing the B10, Squeezing out premier B10 games on their network (e.g. just reflect back on the downplay on "The Game" vs the hype re: Iron Bowl).  

Evidence by example: They wont release their contract w/ B10 in fear of market share, but they wont promote it either.  They have it right where they want B10 fans.  Meanwhile they fuel their $2.5bn SEC franchise, collude the AP to vote for the SEC, and help get a 2 time cheater, laptop stealer, and $180K down payment player voted into the Heisman.  You might be fine with their stranglehold on college football - I am not. 

 

 

 

 

mstier

February 5th, 2011 at 7:29 PM ^

Um...the Iron Bowl had the #1 team in the country, last game of their (regular) season, against arguably their hardest oponent that year on the road, who also happens to be their biggest rival in an area of the country that is die hard about football.

"The Game" had a really good Ohio State team at home who most predicted would plaster Michigan for the 7th straight year.  I mean, we all care, but if you were NOT a Michigan/OSU fan, which game do you think would have been more exciting to watch?  Which game actually was more exciting to watch?

True Blue Grit

February 5th, 2011 at 6:30 PM ^

has the cajones to take on the SEC on this blatant area of abuse that is adversely affecting student athletes?  I agree, Saban is a self-serving d-bag.  Love his comment:

"When you look at the numbers without knowing all the facts and internal information, I think that is a little premature and unfair. Then for people to go out and use that against you in recruiting is even more unfair."
 
Like Saban has never negative recruited.  If anyone thinks he's signed all these top players without he or his coaches bad-mouthing other programs, they're drinking some serious Kool-Aid.  What a mealy-mouthed, slime bag.

Keeeeurt

February 5th, 2011 at 6:30 PM ^

This reminds me of one of the ESPN sportsnation voting thing on the bottom of their homepage.  One day it was what coach would you let recruit your soon?  The options were: Saban, Mac Brown, Tressel, and Kiffin.  The runaway winner at about 67% of the votes was Saban. I couldn't believe it. 

P.S. I voted for Brown.

Calvin

February 5th, 2011 at 7:08 PM ^

But the OP even said ESPN wouldn't do it. It's a conspiracy thing. Must not be true. No way would ESPN side with one conference and screw all of the other conferences, and in the meantime hurt their bottom line. No way would they do anything but.

GoBlue007

February 5th, 2011 at 7:32 PM ^

The other side of the story could be that the SEC is the best conference right now because of ESPN? Do not negate the impact $$$ on all this.  Disney has an invested interest to ensure that SEC country does well (as well as California).  Disney made $38bn in FY2010, $10bn was from theme parks where SEC country is their strongest contributor.  

Page 38 and 39 of their 10-K filing with the "other" SEC:  10-K

LA (Disney's 2nd most valuable television market) and Disneyland is their other and they would be hyping up USC more but Cheat Carroll (sorry, I know the people on this thread hate the sarcastic teasing but cannot help myself) got them into trouble.  Evidence: in 2005 our friends at ESPN had a 10 week (yes, weeks) countdown where they paired the 2005 USC team vs every great NCAA team in history, the conclusion was that USC was the greatest.  After New years USC gets spanked by texas. 

Just a thought...

justingoblue

February 6th, 2011 at 3:13 AM ^

 

There are so many things wrong with this post that I don't know where to start. I guess I'll begin with your "money trail".

Did you know that Disney's number one television market is in Big East country? And that their number three is in Big Ten country? Their number five is in Big XII country, and their number eight is in ACC country? They must really be spreading the money around.

And um...first of all the 2006 Rose Bowl was on New Years Day, just like every other Rose Bowl. 2005 USC was no doubt an incredible team, and were riding a 34 game win streak. It was perfectly fine to conclude that they were up there as a greatest of all time team. What else do you want ESPN to talk about before the game?

As to USC getting "spanked" the score was 41-38, they had equal numbers of first downs, there were 18 yards seperating total offense and Texas was +1 in turnover margin.

Please at least do some research and make a logical point before posting, your above post makes no sense. Also thought I'd let you see a copy off Brian's Pet Peeve List (http://mgoblog.com/content/official-mgoblog-pet-peeve-list):

 

 

Stupid, juvenile nicknames

Most relevant to Michigan fans is the infamous "scUM," but this idiocy affects many fan bases. Any "State" school is liable to find a dollar sign replacing the S in their abbreviation. In a rush to damn the NCAA people will completely disregard the fact that "NCAA" doesn't have any S's in it and go ahead and make the same swap anyway. Penn State gets called "State Penn" whenever a player gets drunk and frisky. Morons spell out "University of Spoiled Children" over and over again to display their disdain for USC.

EXAMPLE

"scUM and the University of Spoiled Children are playing in the Ro$e Bowl because the NC$$ needs the money."

DIAGNOSIS 

This person is a moron who is under the erroneous impression that he is being funny, like that one uncle who tells the same joke every Thanksgiving for 30 years. This affliction is always, always a sign that you can safely ignore anything the person says, as they are either twelve or have Down's Syndrome.

CURE

Insert bullet travelling at extremely high velocity into skull.

SUSCEPTIBLE FANBASES

Most common with universities best described as "technically not high school" or fanbases in areas where there is no pro alternative. Obviously, then, this is an absolute plague amongst OSU fans, and is rampant at MSU as well.

EXCEPTIONS

"tOSU" is permissible to use in a slightly disdainful fashion since OSU fans tend to use it themselves.

BlueBarron

February 5th, 2011 at 7:43 PM ^

To be fair, who DIDN'T oversign recruits in NCAA Football '11, '10, '09, etc... Though I did feel like a douche when I eventually had to cut like 12 players from my roster :(

Damn 70-Scholly limit.

bronxblue

February 5th, 2011 at 7:51 PM ^

As others noted, ESPN touch on this as well, so I'm not going to cry conspiracy on their part. And to be fair, ESPN has bigger promotional fish to fry when it comes to over-promoting anything in NY/Boston.  

But to the bigger point, this is all bluster until something legitimately happens to teams that oversign (and not just in the SEC - the ACC has a sordid history, and the B12 has some offenders as well) and otherwise cheat.  What happened at USC, IME, scared the Pac-10 and damaged the brand a bit for USC (despite what this recruiting class showed, I think you'll see Kiffin out the door soon and USC will suffer in a couple of years), and no AD wants to see that happen at his or her school.  What it will take is a team like Alabama, LSU, or Auburn stripped of a championship and/or severely punished, to the point that presidents and alumni complain about how their school is portrayed.  Think about how UM fans and alumni bristle when people bring up the Fab 5, and now think how die-hard SEC fans will feel when people say they are cheaters and poke fun at their lost championships.  That is when change will occur - when enough people are embarrassed by what happens behind closed doors that they call for some real change at the collegiate level.

Robbie Moore

February 5th, 2011 at 8:46 PM ^

A quote in the article from Allen Wallace of Scout  "You're asking him to put his moral obligation to the player above his obligation to the school."  THIS IS COLLEGE.  THESE ARE 18 YEAR OLD KIDS. If the moral obligation to the student is in contradiction to an obligation to the school then shame on the school. If this is the case then the entire system should be burned to the ground.



 

MadMD

May 26th, 2011 at 3:48 AM ^

All I can say is THANK GOD the SEC doesn't shoot themselves in the foot like the Big 10 does.  Your own "oversigning" high and mighty moral rules only serve to make Michigan and the rest of the Big 10 poorly competetive, as exemplified by Bama's crushing of Michigan State 49-7.  Everywhere I looked on Michigan's blog sites where fans are lamenting "oversigning", you could smell their insane jealousy of the SEC and of Bama/Saban in particular.  Why is Saban such a demon to you guys?  He's not broken any NCAA rules.  Ole Miss has the most oversigned this year, but they are not being crucified.  If you crunch the numbers over the past 4 years, Auburn even has more "oversigned" players than does Alabama.  You don't hear the players who leave the team due to medical hardships, the guys who transfer out because they just couldn't compete with the talent level of their college, etc. whining like you guys in the Big 10 are.  At least they understand that college football is big business and it isn't a pansy world where "life is fair".  They understand very well that if you can't compete, you're going to be on the bench.  Should they stay on the bench at their beloved university of choice or, for the good of the team, transfer out for more playing time at a less competative school?  Saban says he hasn't forced any player to move on.  He sits down with them and explains reality to them and then gives them options.  Rodriguez, I assume, does the same thing.  Then the coaches have to try to get enough signees to reach their total talley of 85 scholarship players.  Who is hurting the kids more... 1.  Saban, who tells kids what their chances of playing really is and offers the injured ones a medical hardship scholarship for a college education or a transfer to another school where they'll likely have a better shot at playing, or 2.  Rodriguez who can't even give borderline achedemic high quality players like Demar Dorsey a shot to play because of dumb self-imposed rules by the Big 10?  The trouble with the Big 10 is that you are a bunch of whiners who believe somehow that you are on a higher ethical plain than everybody else!.  If you want to sit on your pedestel and cry about other conferences figuring ways to have the best football teams while at the same time being realistic with the kids, just keep at it, for all the rest of the NCAA cares.  According to the numbers everywhere I looked, Michigan had 17-19 scholarships available going into recruiting season, but somehow, magically, through transfers and losses of great players like Demar Dorsey because of Michigans's "achedemic standards", Rodriguez signed 20 players total.  So he "oversigned" one to three players, anticipating team members' transfers, drop outs, and achedemic non-qualifiers.  How THE HECK can you whine and complain with a straight face that he's somehow better than Saban?  They both "oversign", and have legitamate reasons as to why they do it they way they do.  As long as the numbers come out to be 85 scholarships by the beginning of the football season, you're within NCAA regulations, PERIOD.  So the SEC oversigns more than the Big 10... so what!?  Spurrier said that oversigning is "helpful" because so many of the players in the state come from underprivileged backgrounds and may not qualify academically.  He said the Big Ten, which has curbed oversigning for decades, is making a mistake by doing so. "I think that really hurts them a lot," Spurrier said. "They end up giving scholarships to a lot of walk-ons."  Keep whining Wolverines... and being irrelevent in competition to boot.