I, too, have become less concerned with the oversigning issue at least in Alabama's case - and the rest of the SEC (West) with their new regulations. While it used to be that a program signed them all and worked them out by fall, the new regulation that all who signed will be counted as scholarship players whether they enroll in the fall or not plus the limitation of fifty players over a rolling two year period is an improvement. It is also a regulation that the ACC and Big 12 do not have, although less strict than B1G regs.
We can count on Alabama to sign twenty-five recruits every year. Programs can become out of scholarship balance like Georgia, Arkansas, Ole Miss and A&M last year as well as Tennessee this year will have blooms of recruits in some years, but, for the most part, many of those programs have seen decreased numbers with new coaches coming on board. At Alabama Saban runs a tight ship with an overall significant decrease in embarrassing incidents to the program.
At ND we may have around the 23 number of recruits for the 2015 class, which would be the third year in a row. This may well be a stabilizing number to shoot for annually, since we had an attrition rate of fifteen players over the last four classes. So the difference between Alabama's yearly 25 and our 23 is palatable to me.
Alabama is now making sure players clear with academics, mostly before signing, and will take chances on only a few special cases. Alabama may also offer a couple of in-state recruits a year in their last five. Some have legacies with Alabama football and well as having Bama as a dream school.
Unless there is a significant problem or the player wants to transfer, Bama's scholarships are effectively good for the first two years. Those who cannot qualify go to prep school or JUCO nowadays. Their problem with their success is making room for them to enter a future class, though in a few cases they may wish they had not. Darius Paige is the lone medical scholarship (back) in the last four classes that I can recall. ND has had four (Roberson, Nichols, Spond, and Carrico). I can only recall one (Darius McKellar, class of 2009) who was offered a med scholarship and transferred and played football elsewhere.
But oversigning can be an issue elsewhere as well as in isolated cases and where it has no regulations or total disregard for a student athlete's academic future. The issue shouts for more uniform regulations among all conferences with University Presidents taking a firm stance with active oversight. If any one issue needs correcting, it would be how much is sacrificed by a university for success on the football field over everything else.
We can count on Alabama to sign twenty-five recruits every year. Programs can become out of scholarship balance like Georgia, Arkansas, Ole Miss and A&M last year as well as Tennessee this year will have blooms of recruits in some years, but, for the most part, many of those programs have seen decreased numbers with new coaches coming on board. At Alabama Saban runs a tight ship with an overall significant decrease in embarrassing incidents to the program.
At ND we may have around the 23 number of recruits for the 2015 class, which would be the third year in a row. This may well be a stabilizing number to shoot for annually, since we had an attrition rate of fifteen players over the last four classes. So the difference between Alabama's yearly 25 and our 23 is palatable to me.
Alabama is now making sure players clear with academics, mostly before signing, and will take chances on only a few special cases. Alabama may also offer a couple of in-state recruits a year in their last five. Some have legacies with Alabama football and well as having Bama as a dream school.
Unless there is a significant problem or the player wants to transfer, Bama's scholarships are effectively good for the first two years. Those who cannot qualify go to prep school or JUCO nowadays. Their problem with their success is making room for them to enter a future class, though in a few cases they may wish they had not. Darius Paige is the lone medical scholarship (back) in the last four classes that I can recall. ND has had four (Roberson, Nichols, Spond, and Carrico). I can only recall one (Darius McKellar, class of 2009) who was offered a med scholarship and transferred and played football elsewhere.
But oversigning can be an issue elsewhere as well as in isolated cases and where it has no regulations or total disregard for a student athlete's academic future. The issue shouts for more uniform regulations among all conferences with University Presidents taking a firm stance with active oversight. If any one issue needs correcting, it would be how much is sacrificed by a university for success on the football field over everything else.
