Oversigning’s not just an (the University of) Alabama thing, it’s an (state of) Alabama thing, at least according to the stats that Chip Towers has unearthed:
Do you get the feeling there is a different set of NCAA rules in the state of Alabama than there is in Georgia? Over the last four years, Alabama has signed 11o football players to letters-of-intent. Auburn has signed 119. Over the same period, Georgia has signed 86 and Georgia Tech 79. The difference therein is equal to more than an entire year’s recruiting class. [Emphasis added.] NCAA rules stipulate that you can never bring in more than 25 players on scholarship in a single year and you can never have more than 85 players on scholarship at one time. This is something I’m just beginning to look into but there are only a few ways to get away with this. One, some signees you never expect to enroll; two, some end up on medical hardship; and, three, you run off those that can’t compete…
The discrepancy can be explained no doubt as being the result of more medical problems cropping up to the west of us – another reason we need national health care reform. (That’s a joke, conservatives, a joke.)
Get The Picture 
“another reason we need national health care reform”
Please don’t start another Hee Haw thread
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Our problem at Auburn is that Tubs was always looking for the “diamond in the rough, “…the “rough” parts being the kids’ academic standing in high school. Seemed like lots of non-qualifiers for Auburn from the 2005, ’06, ’07, ’08 classes.
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I didn’t realize the Sociology Department had such rigorous standards.
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Nick Saban doesn’t have time for this shit.
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Better planning before the season begins equals better results during the season…or haven’t Georgians learned that lesson yet?
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One good year and you own the world….Alabama know-it-alls
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But I bet he had time for Avatar…
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IIRC, Jbird is right. In one class, Auburn signed 30 kids and only 20 of them got to campus. I think sign-and-follow should be reined in — you can only sign guys who are sort of close to qualify — but that’s a whole different ball of wax than going into every summer needing to ten guys to no longer be on the team. I haven’t looked at it in detail, though.
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For the record: Auburn’s oversigning is not like Alabama’s oversigning. Thanks to Tubby’s non-qualifier-laden ’06 and ’07 classes and a stern disciplinarian hand from Chizik in his year on the job (well, stern if you aren’t a starter like Eric Smith), Auburn’s never signed a full class when they didn’t have that many scholarships to give out*. Alabama’s done exactly that each of the last three years. Last summer the number of players on the projected fall roster who had signed LOIs was at or below 85 for every team in the SEC … except ‘Bama, where it was 10 players over.
So let’s not lump us in with them on account of sheer numbers, please, thanks.
*OK, so they’re currently _one_ player over for the class of ’10 if a full 25 recruits qualify … which I’m not expecting to happen.
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Sounds like Saban has stumbled onto something that everyone else has known for years…start with a pool larger than you have room for and let the strongest 22 survive. You end up with a much better team this way. It’s not unlike professional sports’ minor leagues….on a much smaller level.
Not to mention the dozens who do not “make the cut” are still enrolled in a university that they may not have had the opportunity to attend without the help of Saban….so, really, Saban is helping these guys improve their lives by giving them a “shot” at the 85 man roster….even if they end up not making the cut.
Kudos to Saban for gaming the system and getting a better team for it.
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Why should anyone get a kudos for acts like that? You said it yourself:
If they don’t make the cut that means bye-bye scholarship. How does that help these guys? Academics are not the only reason a lot of guys that play big-time college football wouldn’t get in otherwise. A lof of college football players come from poor areas where they couldn’t afford to come to college even if they could qualify academically. So please explain to me how Saban is doing these kids a favor by getting them to campus then after a year if they don’t “make the cut” giving their scholarship to someone else? Sounds like a pretty raw deal to me.
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Audit,
My post was tongue in cheek. I apologize for not being clear. I don’t think what he is doing is a good thing and he is doing no favors to these kids. He’s acting like a scumbag and the UofA is as well for allowing it. Period.
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Thanks for the clarification. The other problem with Saban’s/Bama’s tactic about this is it takes away the opportunity for the player to play elsewhere. The kid might have been a starter for Ole Miss or Kentucky but instead gets thrown away by Bama. Then he has to transfer to a JUCO or a D-1AA or D-II school or else sit out a year. I had a low opinion of Saban anyway but it just got even lower. What a scumbag!
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Got ya jferg. Thanks for the clarification.
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Georgia has several guys that won’t ever contribute meaningful playing time due to injury. It seems like Alabama just pulls the trigger on the medical hardship faster than Georgia does. I don’t have a problem with this as long as Alabama doesn’t just toss the kid to the side. I don’t hear about a lot of transfers from Alabama… or Auburn, for that matter… so this may just be an example of good scholly management.
But 25 players over the limit over the course of a four year period does reek of rule bending. That’s a half dozen per year that don’t end up on the roster for some reason. Since it’s Alabama, I’ll just go ahead and believe they are doing something underhanded… whether they actually are or not.
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