Scholarship guarantees, early signing would curb oversigning
An early signing period would've prevented Justin Taylor's disappearing scholarship. (AP photo)
One week after leading Alabama to its second BCS title in three seasons, Nick Saban reaffirmed that his commitment to winning isn’t necessarily rooted in a commitment to doing things the right way.
Saban informed Justin Taylor, a North Atlanta High School running back, that he was yanking his scholarship offer from 11 months ago. Eleven months ago. Never mind that Taylor was the seventh oral commitment for Alabama’s 2012 class. Nor that he was a good kid, a terrific player and hadn’t once screamed, “War Eagle!” This is the ugly side of college football that coaches hide between the disingenuous, “Don’t worry, momma, I’ll take care of your boy,” speeches.
The substance of a coach’s word morphs from oak to oatmeal when he finds a faster, stronger player.
This is a form of “oversigning” (or in this case overcommitting) in recruiting, a reprehensible practice we’ve banged on several times before. A coach will accept more commitments than he actually has scholarships to give out. His objective: To fix the scholarship numbers by coercing perceived underachieving athletes to transfer or accept medical hardships, thereby creating space to bring in better players. It’s the quickest route for a coach to lessen his own mistakes or shortcomings.
Forget that whole concept of commitment, four-year scholarships and the mission of college athletics. That went out with 8-millimeter film.
Saban and LSU’s Les Miles are two of the biggest abusers of oversigning. Saban and Les Miles also just faced each other for the BCS title. That’s not a coincidence, coaching talents notwithstanding.
With increasing attention being paid to this topic in the past two years, the NCAA and SEC (where some of the biggest abusers thrive) have attempted to curb the problem by lowering scholarship limits. But that isn’t nearly enough. Lowering the cap doesn’t prevent coaches from bending ethical borders to reach that cap. Case in point: Justin Taylor.
Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich believes, “For the vast majority of coaches, this is not an issue. Ninety percent of coaches abide by the rules and do things the right way.”
I agree. The problem is that the other 10 percent generally are the ones competing for championships.
The NCAA last week announced tougher sanctions against repeated rules-breakers (good), but it did little to close the loopholes on the oversigning issue. Here are a few things that would help:
• 1.) A coach can’t sign more players than he has slots available. If a committed player then fails to qualify academically, gets arrested or the like, that’s on the coach. Go sign somebody else. Every coach would be on equal ground.
• 2.) Scholarships are guaranteed for four or five years. Currently, it’s a series of one-year renewables.
• 3.) Football should have an early signing period, like basketball. If Taylor had signed his national letter of intent in February, it would be a binding agreement. Neither he nor Saban could pull a U-turn.
• 4.) The NCAA should form an impartial panel to oversee any athlete-coach disputes where there’s even the remote possibility of a player being coerced into leaving or becoming a medical hardship. Currently, disputes are settled by committees on the individual campuses.
Seriously, is there a panel in Tuscaloosa that’s going to side against Saban or in Baton Rouge that would go against Miles?
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, among those who has spoken out against oversigning, said: “I think if there were a body that was not a part of the institution, certainly there would be a more consistent ruling or outcome there.”
He said “there are pros and cons” to an early signing period, but that it also might help, noting it works in basketball, volleyball and soccer.
Of course, football coaches are against early signing. They like having the flexibility to renege on commitments and playing with numbers. They’re going to be against any rule that adds clarity to an issue and eliminates the gray, eliminates their ability to manipulate a situation and get an edge.
As McGarity said, “If a coach makes a mistake in recruiting, that’s not the student-athlete’s fault.”
If college coaches want that freedom, let’s call this what it is: pro sports. Sign players, cut them, trade them — and pay them. But if we’re trying to maintain some illusion that this is still amateur athletics, some safeguards are needed because coaches aren’t going to police themselves.
Previous columns on oversigning
• SEC didn’t go nearly far enough with oversigning
• NCAA has lost sight of its mission by allowing oversigning
• A word about oversigning (and revisiting Saban’s dance)
By Jeff Schultz
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491 comments Add your comment
Always Selma!
January 20th, 2012
5:10 pm
As long as we keep winning national titles, who cares about doing the right thing. Winning championships is the only right thing.
ROLL DAMN TIDE!
bamaguy
January 20th, 2012
5:12 pm
Change the rules if they are bad and Saban and Miles will follow them. And they will still be holding crystal footballs over their heads while Mark RIcht and the UGA fans watch on television.
I support the early signing, but UGA fans better be careful what they pray for. Saban and Suprrier and other driven coaches will be cleaning up on Georgia talent while Richt is taking a break or gone on a mission trip.
Dawgs for Life
January 20th, 2012
5:17 pm
I agree Jeff, Georgia and Georgia Tech should not have to get better, we need to pass rules that slow down the schools where coaches actually take their job serious and win. “its not fair”, “they don’t play by the rules”, “they cheat”: this blog is dominated by pre-schoolers who whine. In life as well as college football, there are people who excel at what they do and others who are okay with being average or a little better. Too bad the locals got the average or a little better staffs. Keep on stealing them players from Conf USA or Sun Belt! and keep NC State from stealing them too! and whine some more!!!!!
Jefferson Davis Hogg
January 20th, 2012
5:25 pm
Yep Dawgs for Life, coaching is a huge part of it….we all know this. But with that being said, let us all recruit by the same rules then, if the coach fails it’s all on him..
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
5:29 pm
I hope Always Selma! is being facetious.
Wet Willie...keep on smiling
January 20th, 2012
5:42 pm
More UGA football news at CryMeARiver.com…..LOL at you pitiful folks. What was 1980 or 81…Hell even GA Tech and BYU have a trophy since then. Nick doesn’t sign friends of good players to a scholly like the preacher man or have the missing man formations. Suck it UGA.
Wet Willie...keep on smiling
January 20th, 2012
5:44 pm
Perhaps you UGA folks can start passing out free housing applications with season tickets..
Selma my ash! Atlanta=Harlem South.
Paul in NH
January 20th, 2012
5:52 pm
Excellent column Jeff – you nailed it.
Unfortunately the NCAA seems to be far more concerned about how much money schools can generate from their professional entertainment arms than the wellbeing of the students.
Score Check
January 20th, 2012
5:55 pm
You could expand your list of changes from 4 to 100 and Coach Satan would still find a loophole somewhere-somehow.
Coach Satan = Scum
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
5:59 pm
He’d still get good players, Score Check, but his margin for error would decrease significantly and, I’d bet, he wouldn’t win quite so much.
Dont’a Hightower was a lot easier to replace when he hurt his knee a few years ago because he recruited a gazillion players to take his spot. If he hadn’t signed 113 players over the past four years, he would would have felt that a lot more.
Big Crimson 75
January 20th, 2012
6:02 pm
Justin Taylor a victim — now thats funny.
Another worthless attempt to pacify Puppy fans for their teams continued under-achieving!!
The other idiotic columnist for this one paper town paper gives us reason why Ga will be good & why they will not be good next season — nothing in there about over-signing/under-signing.
Built in excuses — UGA is the best at that!!
You know, the only program at UGA that wins championships consistently are the gym girls. Now you wanna talk about the devil — Mrs. Yolcum!!! Think about it.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:05 pm
Unreal, Big Crimson. Justin Taylor was offered a scholarship, accepted it, and had given no reason to doubt his commitment. And in return for his commitment, Saban kicked him to the curb.
I hope recruits read what Bama fans think of them.
bucket
January 20th, 2012
6:07 pm
@ George Stein – Great point!!! That’s the part of this problem that everyone is missing. Nick Saban and Les Miles and others are good coaches, but IMO they are not alot better than most of their peers, they just have more players on the roster than most coaches. And yes, I know, everyone has a 85 scholarship player limit, but when you have signed more studs than everyone else, then when you start getting toward the end of that 85 man roster you still are talking 3 and 4 star players and not true walk-ons. Because UGA and GTech are committed to not over-signing and sticking by their commitments, they are down in overrall numbers of stud players.
Big Crimson 75
January 20th, 2012
6:07 pm
Is over-signing the reason we clocked y’alls tail during the UGA funeral a few years back?
You just can’t stand being out-classed by Alabama. Not sure why? You always have been.
Big Crimson 75
January 20th, 2012
6:09 pm
I love it!!!
Puppy fans looking to GT for sympathy!
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:09 pm
Jeff – you forgot to mention that the kid blew his knee out and didn’t play at all last year. Might have been a factor. Tough for the kid. Life’s tough all the way around. He should go somewhere else. Maybe UGA could use him. Crowell hasn’t worked out too well.
Big Crimson 75
January 20th, 2012
6:12 pm
We are doing the kid a favor // If he came to Bama, he’d sit for 2 years(get the best coaching of his life) then transfer somewhere for playing time.
Big Crimson 75
January 20th, 2012
6:14 pm
If UGA fans are so concerned for the kid, then demand your loser Coach sign him!
I’m out losers.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:15 pm
It’s been a long time since my school has played your semi-pro team, Big Crimson.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand how you think it’s OK to screw a kid that can’t even vote yet. I can only offer my sympathies that your life is so sad that victories on a football field are worth screwing kids.
ILOVEUGA
January 20th, 2012
6:16 pm
GENO – UGA!!!!
bucket
January 20th, 2012
6:16 pm
@ Tim – that’s the game you play when you are “beating everyone to offering” early scholarships. They looked that kid in the eye and told him he should commit so that he could gurantee himself a spot in the next class. I guess you are ok with coaches looking 16-18 year old guys in the eye and lying to them. That says alot more about you than whether UGA has performed well on the football field. Ask Sterling Bailey what CMR does when you get hurt in your senior year after he has offered you a scholarship and it has been accepted by a teenager. There’s a bigger game we are all playing than the game of football.
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:18 pm
@ bucket – crybaby.
clint
January 20th, 2012
6:20 pm
For the record Bama only signed 22 last year so by the rules they can sign 28 this year. If you’re going to complain about something at least know the rules.
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:22 pm
@ bucket – also, i like uga. my kids go there. my point was, they appear to need a running back as crowell is hurt all the time or (more likely) on the outs with the coaching staff.
bucket
January 20th, 2012
6:22 pm
@ Tim – boy aren’t anonymous blogs wonderful. You can sit behind a computer and say things about people that you wouldn’t have the courage to say to their face.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:23 pm
Uh, they had 73 on scholarship at the end of last season, clint. Try again!
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:23 pm
@ bucket – that’s right. keep crying. you sound like a girl.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:25 pm
Apparently, wanting to protect kids instead of millionaire coaches that don’t want responsibility makes you a crybaby, bucket.
bearandcrimson
January 20th, 2012
6:25 pm
Tim – I’m sure they will take your idea under advisement – wow..
Jefferson Davis Hogg
January 20th, 2012
6:25 pm
Big Crimson……UGA and many other schools might be “out-recruited”, by Bammer, and by shady means at that, but no person from the state of Georgia has ever been “out-classed” by anyone from Abalamer….enough said
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:25 pm
You sound like an a$$hole, Tim. Congratulations.
bearandcrimson
January 20th, 2012
6:26 pm
Amen, George.
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:27 pm
@ george – the sun is down. shouldn’t you be offline for the sabbath?
bucket
January 20th, 2012
6:27 pm
@ George Stein – thanks, but I am not worried about internet blowhards like Tim, which coincidently is my real name! The only time guys like him are brave is when he can hide behind a keyboard and call people names or when someone is passed out drunk and he can have his way with them.
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:28 pm
@ bucket – you’re cracking me up. is your heart beating rapidly? don’t code out on us now.
Tossed Salad
January 20th, 2012
6:30 pm
Got news for you, Bama4Life. This ain’t about Richt or UGA. The Dawgs could win the next 5 MNCs and it wouldn’t change the fact that your coach is a scumbag p.o.s. with zero integrity. Justin Taylor didn’t deserve this. Nor did any of the kids before him who had the rug pulled out from underneath them by Saint Nick.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:31 pm
Classy, Tim. I’m Catholic, thank you. Any other Jew jokes you’d like to share for the rest of us?
Agreed, bucket.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:31 pm
Bingo, Tossed Salad.
Right
January 20th, 2012
6:32 pm
Yet again …. the AJC and it’s followers crying how their beloved dogs or bugs didn’t win it all…
Nick Saban is paid to win and win championships. Bending rules or finding loop holes is his job. He didn’t break rules, otherwise you could punish him.
This is the same story told 100 X over in the last year. I don’t think not taking a kid is messing with his future. Many kids have athletics to get out of their current, low income, situation and this provides the opporunity to better themselves.
Jealousy is all over the place every week in the AJC…. poor UGA can’t seem to win the big one… so what …they have 1 title (1980) and started playing football the same yr as ALABAMA -1891.
Tim
January 20th, 2012
6:32 pm
@ stein – well, there was the one about the volkswagen…
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:36 pm
No one said he broke rules, Right. I think the point we’re trying to make is the he’s unethical and that the rule needs to be changed.
If you think what he did was right, so be it. I don’t and I’d like to see the practice ended because Saban – and other coaches, too – are apparently unwilling or unable to police themselves.
Bill Cooper
January 20th, 2012
6:36 pm
This is the reason Bobby Dodd got out of the SEC. He was committed to providing an education to all the players he signed, regardless of how they performed in college. When the SEC decided to limit scholarships, he knew he couldn’t compete with the coaches that didn’t care about their players. College football used to be about student-athletes. Now it is about coaches and their egos.
Falcon Man..
January 20th, 2012
6:40 pm
Alabama has always been the best at bending the rules…dates back to Bear Bryant…it is their culture at T-town…they are also a very odd fan base…see updyke/teabagger for examples..
bucket
January 20th, 2012
6:41 pm
No jealousy here – the fact of the matter is that CMR’s teams would have played for 2 or 3 MNC’s if he could have gotten a mulligan like Alabama got there this year. You won another MNC Bama. Be happy for your success, but don’t expect everyone to applaud the methods your coach uses to win at all costs. BTW, if my Dawgs ever do win a MNC, I won’t be on the blogs talking trash the next week!
DP
January 20th, 2012
6:42 pm
I disagree with making football scholarships a 4 or 5 year commitment. How does a coach deal with student athletes who aren’t holding up their end of the deal, i.e. not keeping up academically, not putting in the effort to stay in shape, learn the playbook, bad attitude, arrests, etc.?
Take away the 85 scholarship limit. Set a number that can be signed each year, whether it’s 22 or 25 or whatever and keep the scholarships year to year. That way there’s no incentive to run anybody off because the coach doesn’t get another scholarship for a replacement player. No exception to the annual numbers for early NFL entries, major injuries, flunk outs or anything else. The incentive for coaches would be to work as hard as possible to avoid recruiting mistakes and work as hard as possible to develop and keep every kid in the program.
Also, once kids have finished their junior seasons in high school, let them sign with a school anytime they want. If a kid commits verbally but isn’t willing to go ahead and sign a letter of intent the school can decide whether it wants to hold a spot or keep recruiting other players at the position and pull the offer if they sign somebody else. If a school offers a Justin Taylor and he signs the letter of intent and then blows out a knee or a better back comes along, it doesn’t matter because he already has his spot.
Jefferson Davis Hogg
January 20th, 2012
6:42 pm
@Right….Yep, it’s obvious Satan is paid to bend the rules and find loopholes and winning championships…..What we’re taliking here is simple ethics….something you sir apparantly disregard…thats on you and yours…As for me, and even many of the teams I don’t pull for, we’ll do our best the right way and sooner or later, what goes around comes around…even you shoud know that much even with your mental disability…
Columbus
January 20th, 2012
6:43 pm
Great column Schultz. Yes I know. You were due for one.
DP
January 20th, 2012
6:44 pm
Yeah bucket, tell us about the 2 or 3 occasions when Georgia under Richt lost one game in OT to the #1 team, the only team from a major conference that finished undefeated and crushed everybody else it played.
TampaGator
January 20th, 2012
6:45 pm
Meyer had major issues with the recruiting tactics of Saban and Miles while he was at Florida. It is one of the reasons he stated for wanting out of the SEC….as he did not see the heads of state doing anyting about the oversigning issue with either of them….and apparently Saban and Miles are still doing it…..but just differently now……get a commit and then take away the promise when you get better commitments down the road. Not ethical. Not honest. Not right. But, evidently, it is what wins you championships and great teams on a regular basis…..at both LSU and Bama. It needs to STOP….and everyone should play by the same rules….in the SEC….everywhere.
George Stein
January 20th, 2012
6:47 pm
If a player is arrested or doesn’t keep up in the classroom, the scholarship can be taken from him, DP. Otherwise, it’s on the coach to recruit the right people. Period.