What does it say when stories like this one don’t generate much outrage over the fact that the kid may not have even known what he was signing, but instead have a compliance officer at a rival school tipping his cap to Saban’s ingenuity?
I guess we know what the next big thing in SEC recruiting circles is now.
Get The Picture 
So basically, you sign this magic piece of paper which isn’t considered signing a LOI but it can magically stop every other SEC school from recruiting you? Funky.
LikeLike
Little Nicky must have several job descriptions for all those analysts. “All I want is a fair advantage.”
LikeLike
It would be interesting if he had decided to stick with Ole Miss. Would Bama have pressed the issue? It seems if he did not understand what he was signing (ambiguous contracts are interpreted in favor of the unsophisticated party, especially when the more sophisticated party drew up the contract) there was no “meeting of the minds” and thus no enforceable contract.
LikeLike
What does it say when a kid is following his dream?
“I signed with Alabama coming out of high school and it was where I wanted to go from the start. I had a heart-to-heart to talk with my mother when I committed to Ole Miss. Then, we had another heart-to-heart talk and I told her this is my dream and I want to live out my life to the fullest and go with Alabama,” said Hill.
LikeLike
When the rich get richer, sometimes their extra-staff prescience is not appreciated by many have-nots nor by the ring of jealous onlookers that stands nearby with hands in pockets, mouth agape and collective naivete exposed. The lawyer group representing the Catholic Church in “Legal Eagles” comes to our minds. And the aftertaste ain’t good.
LikeLike
Which SEC Compliance Officer thought it was such a good idea? And just because Atkins hasn’t finished his classwork yet, does it prevent him and Floyd from signing that doc even though they are delaying enrollment at UGA (unless , of course, they aren’t going to enroll this year) ?
LikeLike
Agree. Seems to me that for all intents and purposes the sec considers the document a LOI. Sure, there are people who think saban was being real smart, but this stuff has gotten real tiresome. Just go with an early signing period and drop all this bs.
And somebody needs to slap bama back into line. If its not consultants, then its backdoor recruiting like this, or oversigning, or medical redshirts, etc., etc. I have no respect for a program that believes rules are meant to be stretched, dodged, circumvented, adjusted, etc. If the sec told bama that Hill was no longer eligible as a recruit, not Ole Miss, they’d stop pulling this kind of shit.
LikeLike
Isn’t UGA gonna sign about 40 players this year?
I can understand your low opinion of the Tide, but none of what you mentioned above is illegal, immoral or unethical.
LikeLike
Is this story stinging your consience a bit? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I am sure your momma has told you that many times.
LikeLike
She also said just because you don’t doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. 🙂
LikeLike
Trying to compare what will be a large class for GA this year to Bama’s annual (very) large classes is ignorant, sorry, but it is. We are not oversigning, we are signing to our NCAA imposed limit. We do not oversign each year and look for reasons to “create” scholarships. GA may lose players due to various reasons: transfer, injury, grades, or behavior – not to greyshirting or other creative reasons that Alabama has done such a wonderful job at perfecting. And if you think all the other SEC schools engage in the same behavior and tactics as Bama, and to their level, then you are incredibly biased and dogmatic.
LikeLike
It is oversigning, I don’t care if anybody else does it and I am biased and dogmatic.
LikeLike
If everyone in the class has a scholarship, how is it oversigning, BD?
LikeLike
Exactly. 🙂
LikeLike
you are correct, bama will oversign *again*. UGA will not.
LikeLike
UGA is expected to sign 35 players this year. Bama is expected to sign 25 this year. That will bring the previous 4 year signees at each school to:
UGA – 96
UA – 94
Interestingly enough, LSU’s 4 year total is expected to be at 98.
Add to that, during this period of time, UA will have had 10 players leave EARLY in order to become eligible for the NFL draft.
But let’s not let facts get in the way of your crying.
LikeLike
And don’t let the facts of greyshirting get in the way of your stats.
LikeLike
If it is a gentlemans agreement between SEC schools, and not an NCAA document, then how would it stand up in court?
LikeLike
It wouldn’t stand up even in kangaroo court. bsms would back off before it even got to that point. question is who would pursue it?
LikeLike
excuse me, Bama not bsms.
LikeLike
What exactly is oversigning? The definition kept shifting at the site that popularized the name. Eventually, it came to mean, “anything that Saban does, but it doesn’t count if the exact same thing happens at a B1G school, because that’s different.”
Saban will bring in more players than he has scholarships available – because some kids leave early, some kids don’t go to class, and some kids end up on medical. But the notion that Saban throws kids off the team for failing to develop doesn’t really hold water when you look at their roster. I see plenty of scholarship players in the junior and senior classes who never played a meaningful down. If the assumptions behind the popular oversigning debates hold any water, those players should have been gone a long time ago.
Georgia is signing a massive class this year to make up for a scholarship gap. The notion that any other approach is necessarily unethical seems like nonsense to me.
LikeLike
Look at the number of medical hardship scholarships used by Alabama.
LikeLike
Would you like to talk to my neighbor’s kid who lost his scholarship at Mars Hill because he injured his knee? Not lost his spot on the team – lost his scholarship.
Of all the nonsense to come out of this debate, the stuff about medical hardships seems the dumbest to me. Most schools just send kids packing.
LikeLike