Sure, we were all a little outraged at the news that Hawaii offered a fifth-grader. Now I see that Illinois has pitched a scholly at a 10-year old “youth football star”. Damn, when’s this craziness going to stop?
Oh, wait.
At this rate, I figure we’re no more than two years away from Nick Saban hiring support staff to do genetic testing on fetuses still in the womb.
Filed under Recruiting
If you had to pick a school that generated the most players on a list of the NFL’s top 100, you’d pick Alabama, correct?
Well, you’d be half right.
… The NFL’s Top 100 Players of 2017 features 20 former SEC players, not including former TAMU stars Von Miller and Michael Bennett.
Alabama and Georgia not only led all SEC teams, but they led all of college football, too. Of course, Alabama won several championships with the following players included, and Georgia, well, didn’t. But that’s why Kirby Smart now roams the sidelines at Georgia to help change that.
This is why I have a hard time feeling sorrowful over Mark Richt’s departure. Georgia never had a problem signing elite talent. It had a problem maintaining roster depth. As to that, we all know where the buck stopped.
Just like we know where it stops now.
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting
Interesting lede, to say the least…
As its coaches work to build a national brand, it’s no surprise to see the Georgia Bulldogs taking shots at landing top prospects from the West Coast.
Building a national brand? Has anyone told Stewart Mandel?
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting
I have no idea what this means, but it sounds like fun.
The NCAA has rules against “camp blocking”?
Filed under Coach O Needs Another Red Bull, Recruiting, The NCAA
I’ll be curious to see if this has any legs.
What is being called the first-ever legally binding contract between a college prospect and his school will be unveiled Wednesday at the NBPA Top 100 Camp at the University of Virginia.
The College Athletic Protection Agreement would make negotiable such items as medical treatment/insurance beyond an athlete’s eligibility and an automatic release from a scholarship should a player want to transfer.
The agreement states that the protections and benefits secured by such a contract would be “worth over $100,000 beyond a minimum scholarships without breaking NCAA rules.”
“We think this will change things,” said Ramogi Huma, executive director of the National College Players Association. “This will be a good place to start. It opens Pandora’s Box.”
Huma’s nonprofit organization has advocated for players’ rights and is behind development of the contract. He says the NCPA has thoroughly vetted the document with legal and NCAA experts.
Assuming for the sake of argument the agreement is enforceable, the question becomes what coach would be willing to risk signing one. There’s a lot to swallow, loss of control-wise.
Still, you’d have to think some five-star recruit might be worth it.
Nevius, a former NCAA associate director of enforcement, has been advising the NCPA on the viability of the contract.
“This has a chance to be successful if you find a coach or a school who is interested in bringing in a top prospect,” Nevius said. “… At that point, you might see some movement … Depending on stature of the athlete, it could have a big impact on its first use.”
Whether that would open the floodgates or not is hard to determine. I thought Roquan Smith’s decision not to sign an NLI would have an impact, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case to date.
What might be most valuable about Huma’s agreement is the education it would provide to recruits and their families as to what the schools actually offer, even if the schools they’re looking at won’t sign one.
“I think the biggest impact of the document could be it educates athletes and families about benefits to them that are not uniformly provided,” said Tim Nevius, a former NCAA enforcement official. “The ultimate benefit could be education, even if no one utilizes the document.”
When you are prohibited from retaining a representative to help negotiate through the process, any honest help you can get ought to be a positive. Maybe this turns out to be a case where doing it for the kids starts with the kids themselves.
Filed under Recruiting
Man, the effort that’s gone into stuffing Texas’ attempt to participate in a satellite camp in the state of Louisiana is something to behold.
You think Kirby’s a little jealous?
Filed under Recruiting
This year’s Georgia class is certainly something worth getting excited about, but when you read this David Wunderlich piece comparing the talent of Alabama, FSU and Ohio State, you realize Kirby Smart still has a long way to go.
I mean, this is friggin’ impressive/depressing, depending on your point of view.
Looking more at the top end, I counted how many players each team had rated at 0.9400 and above. That will tell me how many players the programs have in the 5-star and top half of the 4-star range. Alabama wins, of course, with 45 such guys — more than half of its 84 scholarship players. Ohio State has 35, and Florida State has 28. These truly are three of the most talented teams in the country, yet Alabama outpaces the other two with startling ease in some ways. [Emphasis added.]
This goes to show how much Saban and Urban Meyer are sitting on top of the game right now. Florida State is a consensus College Football Playoff contender and the expected champion of what was arguably the game’s best conference last year. It has a roster that nearly every other FBS program would gladly trade for its own. Yet Alabama and Ohio State have noticeable talent advantages over it.
When you recall what David had to say about Georgia’s roster, in comparison, it’s hard to avoid the depressing option. You could make the argument that Alabama’s second team is talented enough on its own to make a run to win the SEC East.
Kirby’s got to keep grinding, that’s all.
