It’s not negative recruiting if it’s true.

Check out the quick thinking that’s held up Roquan Smith’s signing on the dotted line with UCLA:

What’s the latest? “It’s crazy today. We just got the news on Coach Ulbrich getting the offer from the Atlanta Falcons. Roquan just holding his UCLA papers to see what Coach Ulbrich is going to do. We’re just sitting tight right now.”

Take me through what happened? “A lot had to do with that we had a long ceremony. I don’t know if you saw all the people. He was taking a lot of pictures, and then he did a bunch of media interviews. It took a while to do all of that, and the UCLA coaches were calling to ask about the paper. At that time, the news was breaking about Coach Ulbrich and the Falcons. We’re holding onto the papers to see what Coach Ulbrich is going to do. We’re mulling over the options.”

How did Roquan find out about the report on Ulbrich and the Falcons? “He found out from the UGA coaches about it. It was real smart by them. They called him and said ‘Check this ASAP.”

Nicely played, gentlemen.

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UPDATE:  There’s a little more from Smith here.  The kid sounds genuinely torn between the two schools.

UGASports.com: With things still in flux, talk a little about the relationship you’ve been able to form with both of those coaching staffs. Coach Pruitt and the Georgia staff came on very strong, as did Coach Mora and his staff. What relationship were you able to form? How did it play out?

Smith: I actually formed a bond with UCLA staff during my tenth grade year, and then, at Georgia, when Pruitt and those guys offered me. (Georgia) didn’t offer me until about two or three days before Pruitt got there, because Grantham didn’t want me up there. Now, they’ve been on me pretty hard for that time. I still don’t know right now. I’m just going to think about it.

At least we know he’ll never wind up at Louisville.

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“If I need to add a guy or two to the staff, I’ll do it.”

So, Steve Spurrier did.

Even on signing day, troll gotta troll.

Mark Bradley uses the day to remind us of TENSION in Athens.

Greg McGarity has to be asking himself a certain musical question about why he did that Q & A with Bradley in the first place.

Seemed like a good idea at the time, eh, Greg?

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UPDATE:  Meanwhile from this afternoon, this is what peace in our time sounds like.

Richt thanked Greg McGarity and Jere Morehead by name, among others.

— Seth Emerson (@SethEmerson) February 4, 2015

“They knew where the evidence was going.”

Believe it or not:

Compromise is not surrender, said Everett Johnson Jr., a Washington lawyer who represented the N.C.A.A.

Okay, that’s not what you’d normally expect to hear from that august body, but this sure is.

Early on, said Matthew Haverstick, a Philadelphia lawyer who represented Mr. Corman in the lawsuit, the senator would have settled for “table scraps” and split control of the $60 million with the N.C.A.A.

Instead, the N.C.A.A. appeared arrogant and unwilling to compromise, said Mr. Haverstick, who added that he was told by one of the governing body’s lawyers: “We’re as important to the national economy as Walmart and Coca-Cola.”

Now there’s the arrogance we’ve grown to know and love.  Throw in a dash of overplaying your hand…

In April 2014, the N.C.A.A. received an apparent setback when the case expanded from oversight of the $60 million fine to an examination of the validity of the consent decree.

At the time, the N.C.A.A. was challenging — unsuccessfully — the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s Endowment Act. In its legal arguments, the N.C.A.A. brought up the consent decree, saying it had been a good-faith, bargained contract with Penn State to correct violations of the governing body’s constitution and bylaws.

That was a tactical error and left the N.C.A.A. vulnerable, Mr. Corman and Mr. Haverstick said.

“If the N.C.A.A. hadn’t made allegations it didn’t have to make about the consent decree, none of this would have happened,” Mr. Haverstick said of the eventual settlement. “The case would have been purely about the Endowment Act and the $60 million.”

Instead, in a ruling made in April 2014, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania questioned the legitimacy of the consent decree.

… watch the discovery flood gates open as a result and that’s how you get to the surrender, er… compromise stage.

The N.C.A.A. said Mr. Emmert was unavailable for comment.

Man, they didn’t even outsource the “no comment” to Stacey Osburn.  Well played, folks.

Out in the open

Get ready for a whole new front in the recruiting wars to be opened by our friends on the Plains.

In the autonomy session last month, the SEC proposed a rule that would require schools to disclose what they’re including in the full cost of attendance for athletes, including any variances from the school’s average cost, but it was voted down by the other conferences.

“It was really more of a system to make sure everybody stays in line with what the university cost of attendance is and you don’t wake up all the sudden and some institution triples it one day,” Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs said. “Maybe people thought it was too bureaucratic, too much paperwork. Maybe people didn’t quite understand it, but we know if we go through a year of this and there needs to be checks and balances, it wouldn’t surprise me if the other conferences caught up.”

It’s not hard to envision a world coming to fruition in which those checks and balances might be necessary.

Jacobs, for instance, said the average full cost of attendance benefit for Auburn athletes is likely in the neighborhood of $6,000 per year, with an additional $1,500 if they enroll in summer school. That number would rank among the highest in the SEC and perhaps even a couple thousand dollars more per year than some of the regional schools Auburn regularly recruits against.

Will that be an advantage Auburn can point to in a close recruiting battle? You better believe it.

“We think student-athletes are going to choose Auburn because it’s the best place for them to come and get an education and compete, but certainly having a higher number than most in the Southeastern Conference is going to be helpful,” Jacobs said. “Having the lowest number in the SEC could be hurtful. The way we recruit and the quality of student-athlete we want, we hope that number isn’t a deciding factor but human nature says it could be depending on the circumstances.”

“The way we recruit and the quality of student-athlete we want”?  Heh.

Give it a couple of years and a chance for the new tactics to sink in, and we’ll be seeing a race to the top in full cost of attendance.

A penny saved is a penny banked in the reserve fund.

This is classic.  USA Today reports that in the period from 2008-09 to 2012-13 spending on football recruiting by FBS public schools increased by more than the rate at which all operational spending on athletics rose.  Pretty critical area, in other words.

Now, go down to the chart in the middle of the linked article, type “SEC” in the filter box, and you will find there’s only one school in the conference (again, excepting private school Vanderbilt, which doesn’t report) that decreased its spending on football recruiting over that time period.

You only get one guess as to which school.

Maybe McGarity included the recruiting budget as part of the coaching assistants’ salary pool.

Another reason to love Jeremy Pruitt

Sporting News ranks the top ten recruiters in the SEC nation and has this to say about Pruitt, its number two guy:

Why he’s here: Pruitt won 247Sports’ recruiter of the year award in 2012 and 2013 with Alabama and then Florida State, and now he’s piling up the commitments at Georgia. Some of his biggest recruits over the years include Derrick Henry, Jalen Ramsey, T.J. Yeldon and C.J. Mosley. Pruitt’s current list of pledges for 2015 isn’t up to his usual standard, but it still boasts a handful of four-star players.

Shit, if this is an off-year for Pruitt, I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes when he really gets rolling.

By the way, I don’t remember seeing Grantham’s name gracing too many of these kinds of lists.

It’s National Signing Day, bitchez!

Look at it as a whole new opportunity to criticize the program’s shortcomings.  Best of all, if the class doesn’t work out, you can complain about it again in three years.

I don’t know how things are going to shake out in their entirety (Slayton flipped to Auburn last night, in case you didn’t know), but one thing I feel good about is that Mark Richt isn’t going to leave any cards on the table this year.  Going forward, doing a credible job with roster management will undo the biggest flaw of his tenure, in my humble opinion.

Feel free to do your fretting/rejoicing/snarking in the comments.

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UPDATE:  Word.

Remember: Three years from now, there's a chance one of your 2-stars will be an All-American and one of your 5-stars will be at Louisville

— Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) February 4, 2015