Well, well, well. Color me surprised by this news.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive has prepared legislation that involves the practice of over-signing – a hot-button issue this year around the league. And Slive has a view on it, and hopes the legislation passes.
Slive won’t tip his hand as to the specifics, but it sounds more wide-ranging than not.
… The package, as Slive described it, involves not only over-signing, but all issues relating to what he called “roster management.”
“In other words, it’s more than just the question of over-signing or grayshirting,” Slive said. “It’s a question of over-signing, grayshirting, early admissions, summer school admission. We’ve put together what we call a bit of a package to address these issues, that will give our people a chance to think about these issues in a more global fashion. So then it will be an important discussion item in Destin.”
“Discussion item” is a pretty clear indication that what he intends to pitch is simply a starting point, and not a final vote on rules changes, but it’s still more than I expected from him. I imagine the pushback from certain quarters will be ferocious.
Get The Picture 
Hot damn. I’m proud of Slive for understanding proactive “roster management” based on a player’s productivity is a problem. As we know, that’s a much bigger issue than what goes on in February. That’s a start.
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I guess Richt knew what h
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Stupid hitting wrong button, messin’ up otherwise brilliant comment. I guess Richt knew something was up on that front.
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Hard to take Slime serious given how he stuck his head in the sand last year with The aU. We desperately need leadership, and it is pretty pbvious he isn’t ever going to provide that. The very use of the term “discussion point” shows how timid he is. A leader would have said “we aren’t leaving Destin without a fix for this issue before next recruiting season.” There is simply no defense for this abuse. None. But then, what else has he, and the NCAA, allowed to happen to CFB? You get what you tolerate and this country has become pretty oblivious to allow the bad behavior all around us. It’s all about the “me” thang.
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Maybe Mike needs to add some gravitas to his presentation. Like by stealing some lines from Debbie almost does Dallas and tell ’em in Destin that we can’t let this ‘roster management’ elephant with Nick on it in the room thing make tSEC a super-massive blue hole because we all know what that looks like
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/05/debbie_georgatos_does_not_want.php
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I said months ago that UF and UGA were not going to suffer on the field because of the lack of ethics of a few. I think this gets done. There are more who are queasy about this than want to embrace it and more still who know that the benefits to bama are greater than they can gain by adopting the practice. Ole miss can go through 120 guys every four years like bama, but bama’s 120 will still kick their asses. It’s better for everyone, but Bama and maybe USC to put an end to it. Further, if UF walks away unhappy whose to say that they wouldn’t feel more comfortable in the ACC? UK and Vandy wouldn’t see that as a bad home either. Again, I think this gets done.
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Dam Derek, you were doing okay till you made that statement about UF moving to the ACC. That’s freaking hilarious right there. UK and Vandy, fine, but UF, D,JD. Thank you for the laugh.
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Well, if the league does nothing and UF sits and takes it then your right. If the league establishes a level playing field then it won’t be an issue. I do not see UF just sitting back and letting the league pass them by in football. Implicit in uf’s unhappiness about this issue is the idea that they will explore other options if not satisfied with how it addressed. You don’t Take a position, have the opponents say “well what if we tell you to eat shit?” and then respond with “uh, take it I guess.”. Whether UF wants to move, threatens to move, or if others think they might consider moving, it has an effect on the debate, period. No one wants the gravy train to end so that Saban can beat them on the recruiting trail And the field and so that SOS can patch over south carolinas poor school system. That is why something gets done even if saban doesnt like it.
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If UF goes then UGA ought to go too. Personally I would much rather the clean programs in the SEC got together and threw out the cheats. There really are only about 3. Don’t think for a minute a clean SEC couldn’t get top-flight teams from other conferences to join if there were vacancies. There would be a line around the block.
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I doubt very seriously this is such an important issue that could make Florida even consider leaving the SEC. Florida is extremely proud to be part of the SEC in all sports, but especially football. There might have been a time in history when Florida legitimately felt it was the SEC’s redheaded step child, at least a little bit. But now Florida is THE flagship SEC sports program and sits in the top two for academic programs.
Florida fans take a great deal of pleasure in winning the SEC All Sports trophy most years. UGA seems to be about the only program that can compete with Florida for that trophy.
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A “discussion item” , it’ll be about five years before anything is done about this.
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The good Senator writes;
“I imagine the pushback from certain quarters will be ferocious.”
Mr Sec has a pretty good write-up about that very thing;
http://www.mrsec.com/2011/05/drawing-the-battle-lines-in-the-secs-upcoming-oversigning-fight/
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