Article on oversigning (link)
We all watched in wonder as UNC signed 29 kids with only 12 graduating seniors last year.
Good article on oversigning:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/02/24/oversigni…
Coaches who do it generally say that it works if you let the kid know what is going on. Greyshirts are the major method used.
Talks about how Saban did it.
Good quote from the article:
Georgia coach Mark Richt refuses to oversign for two reasons. First, he wouldn't want to run out of scholarships for qualified players. Second, he would not want to run off current players who have eligibility remaining to keep the Bulldogs under the 85-scholarship limit. "We could always get into a situation where we oversign, but there's no way I could look at a kid and his parents and say, 'We had some room, but now we really don't.' I just think you have to be careful," Richt told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Signing Day. "I don't want to oversign, then tell one of the kids we've already got, 'You've got no value to us' and toss him aside. I'm not going to do that."
February 26th, 2009 at 9:42 AM ^
And, he has been very successful. But, as a testament to just how volatile coaching positions are these days, many people down here in the South are calling for his head.
Personally, a consistent top 10 ranking while competing for a National Title every few years when the stars align properly, all while running a clean program, would make me proud.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:07 AM ^
When bitter rival Florida makes it into the NC game two years out of three and UGA doesn't, the natives get extremely restless. The fact that LSU made it the year in between doesn't help, either.
In a way, Richt is a victim of the SEC's success. Unless he wins the NC, there will always be people in GA calling for his head. Most football fans want to see their team win. They don't care about graduation rates or how classy the coach is.
In Athens, like most college towns down here, they would let OJ Simpson coach them from his jail cell if they were guaranteed a National Championship, and fire Mother Teresa if she lost six games.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:48 AM ^
"This is our plan for your son." For some reason, that quote made me laugh.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:41 AM ^
This is our plan for your son:
We have at least twenty guys who trusted us just like you are going to when we signed them, but they just aren't good enough to make a difference here, so we are looking for excuses to get rid of one of them to make room for your son.
We will definitely find a place for your son. But he better not "skate with his head down....."
February 26th, 2009 at 10:52 AM ^
I'm not totally against oversigning one or two players. I would figure out how many people you have to sign on an average to actually have twenty-five show up and go from there.
I'm sure one of the mathematician/statistical abstract people here can come up with an equation, but there are other factors involved, too.
In my rather simplified view, you would need to figure out how many people leave the program for legitimate issues and what percentage of recruits actually make it into school and go from there.
What we have in the more abusive cases, though, is coaches "encouraging" kids who trusted that they would have a four year scholarship to leave the program early.
If they are going to have rules such as sitting out one year to keep kids from moving around, they need to have rules protecting them from being moved around by their "coaches," too.
I would like to see the NCAA protect the student-athlete by allowing those below a certain threshold of playing time to transfer without sitting out a year. I use PT as a factor because it is a good indication of whether or not the kid is in the coach's plans. This isn't perfect by any means, but if a coach actually does run a player off, the player shouldn't be penalized for it.
This, however, is too easy to criticize by railing on its potential for abuse, so I see the NCAA abolishing oversigning and grayshirting the first time a coach really goes off the bell curve with it and embarasses the NCAA.
And, from my seat down here in Florida, I am guessing it is one of the SEC teams that becomes the "poster child."
February 26th, 2009 at 11:08 AM ^
Change the rule so that recruits signed count against a program's scholarship count for what would be their first four years in college. This aligns incentives for the program to get their kids to get the grades and perform on the field and ensures that the recruit has four years of education.
Maybe the scholarship limit needs to be raised from 85 to 90 or 95 to account for kids that leave a program without unduly punishing the program. But oversigning will become very prevalent because it is a huge advantage for the programs that are willing to do it.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:37 PM ^
coach Richt is a good coach and seems to me to be a man of high integrity. Saban on the other hand, well let's just say that he should be glad those kids got caught with their felonies. Nutt is an idiot, he ran off the #1 QB recruit in the naiton in Mitch Mustain. A guy who will probably start for USC this year. I really hope that we never do it. I am with Richt that if it were my kid who had been promised a 4 year scholarship and then that was pulled away from him because some other kid came along I would be mad. Choosing the school that you play football for is one of the biggest decisions these kids will ever make. I think it is something like 95% of all kids that play NCAAF will not go pro so for most of these kids it is about the education. At the end of the day that is what this whole thing boils down to. College Football is about providing education. Ultimately it is there to raise money for the school so that they can do a better job of educating our youth. The school makes money off of the sale of tickets, concessions, TV rights, and many other things but at the end of the day it is about improving the education that the University gives and getting more and more people into the University to get that education. This should not come at the expense of some young man's education.