“What have you done to the early signing period?”

A couple of fallout matters from the LSU recruiting sanctions that occurred as a result of an offensive lineman changing his commitment after signing a financial aid agreement.

First, Miles and his staff had an inkling that there might be issues with contact.

FAAs are only meant for those planning to enroll early. His decommitment and commitment to Alabama came more than a month later.

“LSU knew there was a very good chance Matt wouldn’t enroll early,” the family member said.

LSU’s staff treated Womack like a regular prospect in the first few weeks after he signed the FAA. Coaches played it safe, not risking illegal contact. After all, what if the lineman decided against enrolling early or decommitted?

“For the longest, they were only talking to him through Twitter, which was something they could do legally without the FAA,” the source said. “Somewhere in the process, I guess they felt like they needed to turn up the heat, and that’s when they started texting and calling and stuff like that.”

Miles’ visit came a few days later as the Tigers worked to convince Womack to enroll early, as he originally had planned. He declined, and LSU’s compliance called the Womacks shortly after the visit, telling them that “all contact was cut off” between the staff and Womack.

The horse was already out of the barn by then, of course.  But that goes to show that this wasn’t some huge surprise coming out of the confusion of interpreting a new NCAA rule.  The implication of that seems pretty clear to me – there was an intention by the NCAA to put the brakes on FAA-only deals.

In any case, nobody can say they weren’t warned now.  Which leads to another concern…

Southeastern Louisiana coach Ron Roberts, a 25-year coaching veteran, called the ruling “pretty ridiculous” and said the sanctions are likely to deter coaches from signing prospects to financial aid agreements.

“What have you done to the early signing period?” he said, a question directed at the game’s governing body, the NCAA.

An official early signing period for football is expected to be approved by conference commissioners this spring and will be instituted this fall for a two-year trial period. The 72-hour window in mid-December would allow prospects to sign a binding National Letter of Intent.

The early period would not do away with the financial aid agreement. Early enrollees will still be able to sign FAAs on Aug. 1 of their senior years, granting the school or schools to which they sign unlimited contact until their enrollment.

Pete Boone, the former Ole Miss athletic director, said there should be no early signing date in football at all.

“It’s pretty clear that if you do sign somebody in August and if they’re not going to show up, then you know you’re taking a risk at that now,” he said of the FAA. “Kids nowadays … the problem is there shouldn’t be an early signing date.”

This one I’m not sure I’m getting.  I presume the early signing period will involve NLIs.  If that’s the case, other schools can’t contact the kid and he would lose a year of eligibility if he chose to renege afterwards.  Am I missing something?

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Welp, this hasn’t ended well.

A recruit’s decision not to enroll at LSU after signing a financial aid agreement has the football program in some hot water.

LSU is banned from signing early enrollee recruits to financial aid agreements for the next two years, and the program will be stripped of 10 percent of its recruiting evaluation days in 2015, according to public records obtained by The Advocate.

The penalties, handed down by the Southeastern Conference and reported by the school Feb. 3, stem from a violation that occurred this fall involving an unnamed recruit.

The recruit signed a financial aid agreement with LSU intending to enroll early in January, but he decided not to enroll at the school. That makes at least some of LSU’s unlimited contact with the prospect illegal.

That’s per our good friends at the NCAA.

A financial aid agreement doesn’t bind the player to that particular school like a National Letter of Intent does, but it affords coaches of that school unlimited contact with the signee — contact that would normally be considered against NCAA rules.

The NCAA modified the financial aid agreement (FAA) in April. It continued to allowed schools “relaxed recruiting rules” for prospects who signed an financial aid agreement, but it also warned schools that they could be penalized for recruiting violations if that prospect did not eventually enroll in that school.

Les can’t say he wasn’t warned, either.

David Womack, Matt Womack’s father, told The Clarion-Ledger in the fall that LSU coaches were not planning to contact his son on an unlimited basis because Matt wasn’t completely firm on enrolling early or on his commitment to LSU.

“LSU is not using (the FAA) because if Matt was to change his mind they would have to report it,” David Womack told The Clarion-Ledger.

Makes you wonder if Georgia has thought about that in the case of Roquan Smith, no?

Take a chance: early 2016 all-name candidate

It turns out there’s a kid in the next recruiting class named Chauncey Gardner and he’s interested in Georgia (he has an offer).

If he winds up in Athens, I’d like to watch.

Wednesday morning buffet

Let me light the chafing dishes… ah, there.

• Hell is other people, Corch.
• Looks like we’ve got another Year of the SEC Running Back coming up.
• You think Georgia underachieved?  Check out what Bruce Feldman had to say about Miami.
• Eight new defensive coordinators in the SEC this season.  I guess I lost count.
• Mark Richt isn’t digging the prospect of an early signing period.
• Hey, it turns out the WWL can take steps when a broadcaster shows his ass in public.
• Part of me thinks Jim Harbaugh’s a little over the top with this.  But there’s another part of me that kinda knows how he feels.
• How much did losing a head coach or offense/defense coordinator effect a team’s recruiting ranking and class this year?

The problem with “Recruiting rankings matter”…

… is that if you take the concept far enough, Alabama would never lose another SEC Championship game.

Or any conference game, for that matter.

Tuesday morning buffet

A little snow, a little buffet…

• You’d think the one place where they wouldn’t have to dumb down the defense would be Vanderbilt.
• Bill Connelly does all the heavy lifting on Georgia Southern, a Dawg opponent this season, so that you don’t (okay, so I don’t) have to.
• Michigan’s policy for student football tickets now includes need-based discounts.
• “That was an incredible testament to Bobby Petrino.”  Oy.
• What’s in a name:  dual-threat quarterback vs. pocket passer.
• Thomas Brown likes Brian Schottenheimer’s open-mindedness with his assistant coaches.
• Hey, Snapchat and recruiting.  What could go wrong?
• Auburn’s explanation of the two players and the service dog incident?  They may have been dumbasses, but there was no malicious intent.  Hey, it’s Auburn; I can buy that.

Thanks, Delany.

Never underestimate the ability of college coaches to innovate based on new developments.

Freshman ineligibility has only been a topic of conversation for a few days now, but Ohio State head coach Thad Matta is already tired of answering questions about the topic.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Matta said Saturday. “All of our coaches are dealing with it.”

Reports surfaced earlier this week that the Big Ten was looking into the idea of making freshmen ineligible to compete in football and men’s basketball. It’s a far-fetched idea, really, but it appears there’s some serious discussion going on.

Matta, however, said he doesn’t believe freshmen will ever be ruled ineligible to play. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t already been asked about it recently on the recruiting trail.

“I tell you what, I’m dealing with more issues on that in recruiting. We’re getting crushed in this thing,” he said. “It’s not going to happen, but why they linked the Big Ten to it I don’t know. I’ve been dealing with that the last couple days trying to explain if it does happen, which it’s not going to, but if it does it’s not just the Big Ten it will be across college basketball.”

Now, if somebody would start dropping that topic on the football recruiting trail, we might just see Corch’s head explode.