Hey, remember the day when Mark Richt decried programs handing out offers like candy? That seems so quaint now.
Never in the sport’s history have colleges dispersed so many scholarship offers, frivolously doling out hollow promises with the lure of free tuition. Using the 247Sports recruiting database, Sports Illustrated research shows an accelerating trend at the major college level that hit new, disturbing benchmarks this year. The study, covering the last eight recruiting cycles, produced galling figures within college football’s major conferences: more than 101,000 scholarship offers issued in order to fill about 12,000 available scholarships. For the 2019 cycle alone, the 65 programs in Power 5 conferences made more than 15,000 scholarship offers in order to secure what is expected be about 1,600 signees. That’s an average of about 237 offers per school per year, a 100-offer increase from the average in 2012. In what is believed to be a first for a college program, Louisville hit the 400-offer mark in 2017, and six programs have delivered at least 400 offers this year. One-fifth of Power 5 teams handed out at least 300 offers this cycle, for classes that do not often exceed 25 members. Just seven years ago, no school surpassed the 300-offer mark…
Tennessee and Syracuse each distributed more than 440 offers this cycle, which is believed by industry experts to be a record. The Volunteers lead all major college programs in offers over this eight-year stretch (328 per year), followed by Louisville (323), Kentucky (291), Ole Miss (290) and Illinois (283). Rounding out the top 10 are Mississippi State (278), Nebraska (270), Indiana (268), Syracuse (254) and West Virginia (251).
440 offers. Jesus.
Some schools use offers as marketing ploys, offering players they have no chance to land or aren’t serious about just so their school is linked to the player on internet searches, recruiting web pages and social media. “It’s a huge issue, and it continues to snowball,” Wright says. “People are throwing out hundreds of offers out there, because why not? You’re getting publicity.”
This is so bad that I actually find myself in sympathy with Paul Johnson.
At one point last year, former Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson, now retired, found himself in a meeting with his staff discussing 14- and 15-year-old prospects. He shook his head, looked around the room and, knowing he would soon step down, delivered a message: “I told our guys, ‘Hey, you guys offer all the ninth-graders you want. I don’t care. I won’t be here.’”
There is an obvious way to stop this bullshit, and that is to make all offers binding and allow them to be accepted at any time. Not that that’s gonna happen anytime soon.
Get The Picture 
When you walking down the street, ask every decent looking girl you see if she wants to f**k. You’ll get slapped a lot but you’ll get laid a lot too.
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There is a third option. You might not get slapped or laid, the girl might just say, “You’re gross!” This is Tennessee’s problem.
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Tennessee: Scholarship Sluts
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You’re totally correct, Senator, and I don’t quite understand why the NCAA doesn’t make this change.
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Because they are completely corrupt and ridiculously ineffective at their job.
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Honk if you got offered by Tennessee!
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They’re not old enough to drive.
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Phil says “440 ain’t nuthin’, back in my day halloween was a good time for makin’ offers”……..if it wears urange offer it!
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Making all offers binding and immediate would change college football landscape more than anything. I’d love to see it.
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In the study were there offers to 100000 individual kids or did every school offer to the same set of kids?
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I agree this problem needs to be fixed but your solution seems kinda extreme. it basically gives the schools zero flexibility to adjust their incoming class as things change (transfers, academic ineligibility, injuries, missing out on recruits, etc.).
sorry, not sure what happen with my above post. feel free to delete.
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The thing is, schools don’t divulge which players they make offers to. And only the kids and those close to them know if they have an actual, 100% commitable on-the-spot scholarship offer. Most schools have a real offer out to the top 100 or so players, even if they don’t have a realistic chance, hoping maybe a guy across the country is intrigued enough to visit and consider the offer. But I’d guess at least half of these “offers” teams extend go something like this: We’re interested in offering you a scholarship IF you maintain or improve your grades, come to our camps and be fully evaluated by our staff, continue to develop your game, IF we have room, etc. Then theses kids all love to tweet “ blessed to receive an offer from State U”, and add it to their collection, enhancing their profile. The recruiting services don’t get the offer info from the schools, so they just have to comb these kid’s social media and take their word for it. Most of the mods on the recruiting sites end up with enough inside info to know if the kid had a real offer or not, but the sites still list these non-offers as legitimate. By the time signing day rolls around, the kids with actual offers know where they stand, and which schools will accept their NOI.
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Mark Richt looks pretty good on the show. He is a handsome looking man today. He add a few good points to say. Good job coach we still love you. Or we’ll I do.
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Well I do… not we’ll do.
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See Coach Richt made a funny joke a comment and they all laughed. See he’s not boring and snooze type he can be fun
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