CONGRATS TO BAMA!! They have a great team and what they have done in the last 4 yeras is amazing! That said, it is important to understand that they (and others in the SEC - Aggy included) have the benefit of oversigning and removing the non-producers from their roster. Over the last 4-5 years, Bama has signed: Y1 - 2008 - 32 Y2 - 2009 - 28 (60) Y3 - 2010 - 26 (86) Y4 - 2011 - 23 (109)* Y5 - 2012 - 26 (135) During this time, Texas has signed: Y1 - 2008 - 20 Y2 - 2009 - 20 (40) Y3 - 2010 - 25 (65) Y4 - 2011 - 22 (87)* Y5 - 2012 - 28 (115) SOOOO, in four years Bama essentially has a benefit of signing AN EXTRA class of 22 or so and populating their depth chart and roster from a larger pool. Aggy has started doing the exact same thing. It is the SEC way.
does it surprise you that a coach would have a decent amount of attrition in their first year? get rid of that first class and bama has signed an average of 25.75 per class. texas has signed an average of 23.75. that's not that big of a difference.
The NCAA needs to address this issue. Say to make it legal and enforced that if a player has verbaled and the college backs out because they want other better players say a $30,000 payout to the player.
Scholarships are 1 year contracts which the Univ decides to renew. So players who are not good enough to see the field, have injuries or bad attitudes sometimes decide to move on with a little encouragement from the program. No program that I know of flat out decides not to renew x amount of players schollies, as that would be a recruiting nightmare to sell / explain to prospective recruits and their parents.
Instead of hoping the NCAA "does something" (which will just result in more bureaucracy and nonsense from an arbitrary organization), we should just start signing more. Play the game the way the big boys are playing it. Don't whine about it.
didnt mean to juke the stats. let's look at oklahoma state then 2008: 29 2009: 26 2010: 27 2011: 27 2012: 24 average of 26.6 (total of 133) would you say osu is guilty of oversigning?
I think part of Mack's philosophy has been to not over sign as to not piss off the HS coaches. They are in many ways the entry key to the players. If you consistently boot players from the team just because another better perceived player comes along (remember this new frosh has not hit the field), there is certainly potential to piss off their former coaches. Maybe Mack's just a nice guy, or maybe he thinks this is the way to run his business. I don't think he'll change whether it's good of bad.
do those numbers reflect grayshirts? i honestly don't know. don't they actually sign more than that which you've posted but designate a number of them to gray/medical shirts? then they evaluate them for a year and decide whether they are good enough and if so, offer and if not, send them packing? i thought one of the huge advantages to oversigning at alabama specifically though i'm sure others do it, is the ability to scout players on campus. if this is the case, that is a monster advantage. it seems like it has something to do with that. i think they're maybe bringing more players on campus than whatt you've posted and then working the numbers later (buy time with grayshirt, por ejemplo).
There are basically 2 rules: 1) 25/yr 2) Max of 85 at the start of Aug practice. The 25/yr is not the problem. Graduation, early entries that count on the previous yr's class, etc. By oversigning more than the 85 max limit a program has from Feb (LOI day) to Aug (first day of practice) to thin out the heard. That means they can go thru spring practice trying to earn a spot and the coaches can get rid of those injured w/"medical releases" (a favorite move of Saban's). I saw a stat from a couple of yrs ago that Alabama had twice as many "medical releases" as the next highest SEC program. They can also use this time to grease the skids for transfers (many to the Sunbelt Conf) after the players are told they are not going to play. All of this is "legal" per NCAA rules. They only way it will change is if the NCAA passes a rule that says you can never have more than 85 signed scholarship players at any time during the year. Otherwise it is just begging to be abused and the SEC abuses it w/impunity.
milehighsports.com/2013/01/03/sec-football-teams-have-a-built-in-edge/ Saban's run is similar to Dr. Tom's with Nebraska in the mid-90s. Dr. Tom, if you remember, had established a 'competitive edge' with partial-qualifiers. Back then, the other 11 Big 12 members determined that 'competitive edge' was a euphemism for flat out cheating, and stopped it. Dr. Tom up and quit. The last place you'll see that type of self-regulation is the SEC. Hook 'em
The last comment about A&M's class makes me question the validity of the article. A&M is signing 34 this year but that is because they have 9 mid termers that count back to last year and they have enough space on the 85 limit for everyone to have a home. No one is being signed without a spot. This is also the SEC policy now so the days of oversigning are over.
i can pick out at least 7 that wont be on roster for next year, whether that's the NFL, 4th year juniors who will have graduated and move on, or some underclassmen that wont be there either.
Westexas, you're plagiarizing others from other sites and making no attempt to conceal it. Terrible. Saban does nothing wrong. He is far and away a better recruiter than Mack.
i dont mean this in an effort to defend saban, but arent scholarships on a one year renewable basis? therefore doesnt the coach have some say as to whether a player should come back or not? again, thats that legal/ethical line. also, for whatever its worth saban has overused the medical scholly thing allowing players to continue in school at no cost...so at least he's not casting the out into the woods like houston nutt was doing at ole miss. again, not intending this as a defense of saban, just to further the conversation.
