SEC sets new magic number: 28
By DARRYL MAXIE / dmaxie@ajc.com
The Houston Nutt Rule is what you get when you wave the unlimited scholarship red cape in front of the school-president bull.
That, of course, is not the official name of the new league rule that will preclude conference schools from signing more than 28 players to national letters of intent each year. But Nutt, the Ole Miss coach, is clearly the problem the SEC wanted to solve.
He signed 37 players to letters of intent in February, 12 more than the NCAA allows a school to admit each academic year. Arkansas signed 31 and South Carolina 29, but neither Bobby Petrino nor Steve Spurrier — the respective coaches at those schools — joked that he “could’ve signed 80″ since there was no rule against it.
Nutt, on the other hand, did just that. His strategy was to nakedly curry favor with junior colleges, using the players he absolutely knew had no chance to qualify. They would be shuttled off to junior colleges, helping them become more competitive. In turn, those JUCOs would look favorably on Ole Miss at a later time.
That didn’t sit too well with league presidents whose stance is that “there aren’t other reasons to sign kids,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said.
The SEC rule is similar to one passed by the Big Ten, which also limits schools to 28 LOI per year.
“The presidents and chancellors view the letter-of-intent as a commitment to the institution from a student-athlete that is academically capable of being admitted and contributing athletically,” Slive said.
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14 comments Add your comment
Atlanta Gator
June 1st, 2009
7:40 am
Good. It’s about damn time.
Maddog
June 1st, 2009
8:21 am
How did Saban get left out of this discussion?
UGASlobberknocker
June 1st, 2009
8:33 am
Dont blame Nutt for creative use of existing rules. His JC plan sounded like a good one; especially given the history of difficulty getting Miss kids in school given the poor education system there, especially in rural areas.
I think a better or perhaps complimentary rule would be in order..there should be a limit on how many kids a school can sign who have not yet qualified with a passing SAT score.. Maybe 3 per class.. It would encourage earlier testing and eliminate the guesswork. It would reward those who HAVE made it who otherwise get excluded from a big school offer because a scholarship went to someone who has little chance of qualifying. It wouldnt affect the non qualified player’s future options as they arent locked into the orig signing school anyway. Then someone like Nutt would have to gamble..do I wait on person A to pass, or go with Person B who has passed? Counter argument anyone?
Maddog
June 1st, 2009
8:38 am
Great points, UGASlobberknocker. That being said, I’m still wondering how they kept from mentioning Saban. Just sayin……
Joe Dawg
June 1st, 2009
9:29 am
Slobber, I thought it was brilliant as well. Ole Miss does not recruit like the Ga’s and Fla’s yet so he was just tring to get the ball rolling and took advantage of the system. Nutt didn’t make the rule, he just played by them. …MOST UNDERRATED COACH IN THE SEC by far!
Tidewatch
June 1st, 2009
9:34 am
That’s just what we need…a rule to make us like the Big Ten !!! maybe our teams can play Appalachian State close.
Tide rising
June 1st, 2009
9:43 am
Maddog,
They didn’t mention Saban because he never had much of a problem with over signing. He signed 32 players 2 years ago and that’s when a lot of this criticism started. What a lot of people didn’t know is that Saban knew that 2 of the players were likely looking at baseball careers and ended up playing baseball instead, 3 were academic casualties, and a couple more delayed enrollment till the following year because of high school injuries that required more recovery time and wouldn’t have the player ready for fall camp in the year they signed.
When it was all said and done Saban actually came in a couple schollies under the limit when the players reported in the fall. So if people think Saban was abusing the system clearly he wasn’t. He oversigned specifically because he knew of situations that would reduce the number that could actually report in the fall. Nothing wrong with that. Just goes to show he knows a helluva lot more about what’s going on with his scholarship numbers than reporters or bloggers do.
Maddog
June 1st, 2009
9:59 am
Tide Rising – you make my point. Saban is oversigning knowing full well some of the kids won’t make it (baseball, grades, etc). What would have happened had one of the baseball players decided he wouldn’t be drafted high enough and accepted the scholly, and two of the risky academic signees actually made the grade? Would the limits still have allowed them to get in? I’m not trying to play holier than thou. UGA, as well as others, will test the waters, but I’ve never seen us “sign” 30+ players and us supposedly “knowing” some won’t be on campus.
Reducing to 28 signees should eliminate rampant abuse but there’s never a perfect system. If nothing else, it should help coaches focus on those players who can actually gain admittance.
Bamafan
June 1st, 2009
10:21 am
Just read some bad stuff out of Knoxville, the starting QB Alan Crompton from last year received death threats last year from a couple of idiots and did not say any thing about it till yesterday. That
is bs and hope they have find who sent the emails to the young man!! Every teams have passion fans
me included, but this is crazy!! ROLL TIDE!!
Chris Medeiros
June 1st, 2009
10:27 am
Well All I know is UGA has four kids committed right now. I don’t think we need to worry about over signing…
murfdawg
June 1st, 2009
10:58 am
How about a rule that if you graduate 15 players and have three sign legitimate NFL contracts, you get to sign 18 players. Vandy would have about 20-22 every year and Ark would have about 3. This would keep the academians satisfied, the coaches would have a level playing field, and a premium would be placed on coaching and developing players. Not just developing the young men as players but as quality young men who can make a positive contribution to society. Just a crazy thought for a Monday.
knoxdawg
June 1st, 2009
11:18 am
If you can only admit 25 then 25 should be the limit allowed to sign.
knoxdawg
June 1st, 2009
11:30 am
If you can only admit 25 then you should only be able to sign 25.
Johnny DangerDawg
June 1st, 2009
1:53 pm
Bamafan, thanks for the info.