Now that the furor over National Signing Day has subsided, a whiny chorus is being heard concerning certain practices that they have decided are unethical. The lead voices in this chorus belong to Kevin Scarbinsky and John Solomon of the Birmingham News.
To give us the proper context, NCAA rules allow 85 scholarship football players during the season, and schools are allowed to bring in up to 25 new players as part of each signing class. To further complicate things, the rules allow that when a player enrolls in school in January ad opposed to enrolling in the fall, he can be counted towards the preceding year's class or the new class as the school desires and numbers permit.
To define some terms:
Oversigning is the practice of signing more players than the 85 limit allows, based on the number of scholarship players you have with eligibility remaining. The 85 limit, per the rule, has to be complied with when fall practice begins.
Gray shirting is the practice of giving a scholarship to a player effective the following January rather than for the fall following the year he signs.
Medical hardships are scholarships given to players who, based on medical determinations, can no longer perform at the level that is required to play at the level the school competes at.
John Solomon started the frenzy with an article that piggybacked on the University of Florida's statement of his feelings about the ethics of gray shirting and oversigning. He mentioned the thought that many signees had no idea that there would not know that they had no scholarship for the fall until school was about to start, and were left high and dry. He mentioned Coach Saban's name, and although he did not directly accuse Coach Saban of this practice, the innuendo was there.
My comment is that yes, under Coach Saban, Alabama practices gray shirting, though they are far from the only school that does this. I have not seen any report from any Alabama player who was "gray shirted" that he was unaware of this possibility when he accepted the gray shirt. The most recent publicized example of this is with Gadsden receiver Darryl Collins. Collins had a gray shirt offer before him from Bama, and an immediated scholarship offer from Kentucky, among others. He and his family made the decision that they felt was in their best interests. Everyone was aware of what the offers were well ahead of the time to make the final decision. Until it is proven otherwise to me, I will categorically state:
Alabama does not gray shirt at the last minute.
Solomon also talked about how coaches pruned their rosters to get within the 85 player limit. He mentioned injured players and underperforming players being run off in order to make way for the new signees. Addressing injured players first, yes Alabama has given medical hardship scholarships to several players in Saban's time at Alabama. In every case, though, the team's medical staff has certified that becvause of injury the player could no longer play at the level, or could no longer play at all. Yet these players are not put out in the cold. Indeed, their educational expenses are paid for. The only difference is that they are no longer on the team. If someone knows of a case that was done otherwise, bring on the specifics.
The idea of it being wrong to be over the 85 limit during the sport's off season was also raised. Solomon made a point of describing the Big 10 rule, where the 85 limit is adhered to from signing day forward. Think what you will of the Big 10 practice, that is not the NCAA rule, nor is it the SEC rule. Does that give the SEC an advantage? Perhaps, but it is a small one. The SEC school has more leeway to sign the good player who is marginal academically than the Big 10 school does. If the rule is changed to 85 year around, than some of these players would not be signed, and they would be disadvantaged. The SEC schools are complying with the rules as they exist, not as some wish that they existed.
If the media wants to get riled up over being over the allowed limit, they should look at D-1 basketball. There the scholarship limit is 13, and it is not difficult to examine a roster and figure out who these guys are.Using Alabama as my first example, we have twelve players currently on scholarship. There are three seniors, so after this season we will be four scholarships under the thirteen limit. We have four players who signed an LOI in November, putting us at the limit for next year. If we sign any new players in the late signing period we will have to make a corresponding "roster adjustment" to be under the limit for next season. I can guarantee that there are a couple of players we are still pursuing for next season that we would sign in a falsh if they wanted to come.
Across the state in Auburn their roster has twelve scholarship players who will have eligibility remaining after this season, and three who have signed an LOI for next year, so something already has to give. One has already left school and one was recently arrested, so problem solved for the moment. Still, Barbee stated in a recent interview words to the effect that he would sign more players in the late period, and there were players on their roster now who would not be back next season. If it is wrong for Nick Saban to be over his limit, it is also wrong for Tony Barbee or Anthony Grant. Of course Nick Saban is very high profile and the two basketball coaches are not.
Kevin Scarbinsky attacked Coach Saban for his lack of transparency concerning how he manages the roster to get to 85 (or less) players. While it is true that Coach Saban does not diagram out exactly what the plan is to get to the 85 limit or not, he is not accountable to the Birmingham News, John Solomon or Kevin Scarbinsky for this number, but to his bosses at the U of A, the SEC office, and the NCAA. As he mentioned, the reporters in question don't know just how many of our players are on scholarship.
So, would be accusers, I ask you to do this: bring specifics or put a cork in it. Innuendo is not journalism.
To give us the proper context, NCAA rules allow 85 scholarship football players during the season, and schools are allowed to bring in up to 25 new players as part of each signing class. To further complicate things, the rules allow that when a player enrolls in school in January ad opposed to enrolling in the fall, he can be counted towards the preceding year's class or the new class as the school desires and numbers permit.
To define some terms:
Oversigning is the practice of signing more players than the 85 limit allows, based on the number of scholarship players you have with eligibility remaining. The 85 limit, per the rule, has to be complied with when fall practice begins.
Gray shirting is the practice of giving a scholarship to a player effective the following January rather than for the fall following the year he signs.
Medical hardships are scholarships given to players who, based on medical determinations, can no longer perform at the level that is required to play at the level the school competes at.
John Solomon started the frenzy with an article that piggybacked on the University of Florida's statement of his feelings about the ethics of gray shirting and oversigning. He mentioned the thought that many signees had no idea that there would not know that they had no scholarship for the fall until school was about to start, and were left high and dry. He mentioned Coach Saban's name, and although he did not directly accuse Coach Saban of this practice, the innuendo was there.
My comment is that yes, under Coach Saban, Alabama practices gray shirting, though they are far from the only school that does this. I have not seen any report from any Alabama player who was "gray shirted" that he was unaware of this possibility when he accepted the gray shirt. The most recent publicized example of this is with Gadsden receiver Darryl Collins. Collins had a gray shirt offer before him from Bama, and an immediated scholarship offer from Kentucky, among others. He and his family made the decision that they felt was in their best interests. Everyone was aware of what the offers were well ahead of the time to make the final decision. Until it is proven otherwise to me, I will categorically state:
Alabama does not gray shirt at the last minute.
Solomon also talked about how coaches pruned their rosters to get within the 85 player limit. He mentioned injured players and underperforming players being run off in order to make way for the new signees. Addressing injured players first, yes Alabama has given medical hardship scholarships to several players in Saban's time at Alabama. In every case, though, the team's medical staff has certified that becvause of injury the player could no longer play at the level, or could no longer play at all. Yet these players are not put out in the cold. Indeed, their educational expenses are paid for. The only difference is that they are no longer on the team. If someone knows of a case that was done otherwise, bring on the specifics.
The idea of it being wrong to be over the 85 limit during the sport's off season was also raised. Solomon made a point of describing the Big 10 rule, where the 85 limit is adhered to from signing day forward. Think what you will of the Big 10 practice, that is not the NCAA rule, nor is it the SEC rule. Does that give the SEC an advantage? Perhaps, but it is a small one. The SEC school has more leeway to sign the good player who is marginal academically than the Big 10 school does. If the rule is changed to 85 year around, than some of these players would not be signed, and they would be disadvantaged. The SEC schools are complying with the rules as they exist, not as some wish that they existed.
If the media wants to get riled up over being over the allowed limit, they should look at D-1 basketball. There the scholarship limit is 13, and it is not difficult to examine a roster and figure out who these guys are.Using Alabama as my first example, we have twelve players currently on scholarship. There are three seniors, so after this season we will be four scholarships under the thirteen limit. We have four players who signed an LOI in November, putting us at the limit for next year. If we sign any new players in the late signing period we will have to make a corresponding "roster adjustment" to be under the limit for next season. I can guarantee that there are a couple of players we are still pursuing for next season that we would sign in a falsh if they wanted to come.
Across the state in Auburn their roster has twelve scholarship players who will have eligibility remaining after this season, and three who have signed an LOI for next year, so something already has to give. One has already left school and one was recently arrested, so problem solved for the moment. Still, Barbee stated in a recent interview words to the effect that he would sign more players in the late period, and there were players on their roster now who would not be back next season. If it is wrong for Nick Saban to be over his limit, it is also wrong for Tony Barbee or Anthony Grant. Of course Nick Saban is very high profile and the two basketball coaches are not.
Kevin Scarbinsky attacked Coach Saban for his lack of transparency concerning how he manages the roster to get to 85 (or less) players. While it is true that Coach Saban does not diagram out exactly what the plan is to get to the 85 limit or not, he is not accountable to the Birmingham News, John Solomon or Kevin Scarbinsky for this number, but to his bosses at the U of A, the SEC office, and the NCAA. As he mentioned, the reporters in question don't know just how many of our players are on scholarship.
So, would be accusers, I ask you to do this: bring specifics or put a cork in it. Innuendo is not journalism.
