🏈 Scarbinsky: Alabama's don't-tell policy hurts Saban's oversigning defense

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Despite outside criticism, Tide staff lands another top-rated class.

Read More Here...

 

[TerryP]

So Nick Saban used a portion of his signing day press conference to defend himself on the issues of oversigning and grayshirting. Interesting.

Is he so misunderstood that he felt the need to tell his side of the story? Or was this the perfect example that the best defense is to go on the attack?

Oversigning has become as much a part of Saban's persona as talking with his hands. He's not the only one who does it. He's just more famous for it than any other college coach in the country.

I know. The well-meaning but ineffective SEC rule capping signing classes at 28, which has gone national, is known as the Houston Nutt rule. But Nutt doesn't use his extra signees to help win championships.

Saban does.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of Saban's oversigning soliloquy involved him telling us that we don't know what we're talking about. Literally.

"Nobody really knows how many guys we had on scholarship last year, but we didn't have 85," he said. "I can tell you that."

Allow me to translate. According to Saban, those of us on the outside of the Alabama program can't criticize him for oversigning because we don't know the exact number of players he has on scholarship from year to year.

Funny thing about that. Why don't we know? Alabama won't tell us, even though we ask every year.

Birmingham News colleague Jon Solomon requests a copy of the annual NCAA revenue and expense report from every Division I athletics department in the state. One of the categories on that report is number of student-athletes on scholarship in each varsity sport.
Every Division I public school in this state provides us a copy of those reports. Only Alabama blacks out the scholarship numbers for every sport.

We know from the latest form that Alabama reported spending $3,041,356 on football scholarships for the 2009-10 academic year. We don't know how many players Alabama reported having on scholarship that year.

The News has asked Alabama several times to explain why it withholds information we believe is a public record. The heart of the explanation, from university spokesperson Deborah Lane: "Federal privacy laws prevent the University from providing the media with personally identifiable information related to its students."

Excuse me, but what? The NCAA form doesn't include the names of players on scholarship. Just the numbers. Besides, if Alabama considers it a potential privacy violation to release the number of football players on scholarship, why does the school announce the names of its signees every year?

Alabama's argument is inconsistent with its own practice.

Saban took issue with the numbers used by the media, but his school refuses to provide the actual numbers that could - if they're on his side - undercut the argument from critics of his roster management.

Why does Alabama refuse to provide information that every other Division I public school in this state provides? Why doesn't Saban himself step up and share the numbers that other coaches volunteer?

On Signing Day, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald provided this information: "We have 85 scholarships, we had 17 to give and we're at 85 right now."

See? Is that so hard? Fitzgerald was open about his numbers even though Northwestern is a private school not bound by the same federal privacy laws as public schools.

The SEC may have left the Big Ten behind on the field - oversigning does work - but the Big Ten long ago took the high road when it comes to making Signing Day something to celebrate, not investigate.

If a Big Ten school oversigns, it has to explain to the conference office how it will have a scholarship available when those extra signees hit campus. Banking on a certain number of players to create their own exit strategies before fall camp doesn't cut it.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said he encourages parents of recruits to "go back and look at the numbers that schools sign. I do think it's telling."

That's a problem for Saban in trying to defend his signing practices. When it comes to the most basic information on the subject, Alabama's not telling.

There's not much incentive to change. As much as he dislikes recruiting rankings, Saban can point to another number as bottom-line justification. According to Rivals, he just signed, or oversigned, the No. 1 class in the country once again.

 

[TerryP]

SOB should have gotten the job he applied for...covering food.

Wonder if he's wearing his ascot today?

 

[joeman546]

.I transfered from Juco to Athens State University not tolong ago. The process had me jumping through many hoops as I registered for certain services. Im not exactly sure if policy is regulated more strictly in Alabama, butim wlling to bet it is for the most part. Regardless, its pretty easy to figure out, certain athletes not being skilled enough is right but only half true. I am sure thisw staff properly scouts players, so not being skilled enugh probably goes into work ethic.

I think of oversigning as a fallback method when someone has a poor work ethic. People would think theyd learn, but the one thing that you can count on in this world is human stupidity.

 

['65 Cobra]

Few "journalists" wear their bias on their sleeves as much as Scarbonehead and that's putting it mildly. He is filth. Nowhere in his article does he mention that Auburn signed even more than Bama as did Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Ole Miss and some of them even exceeded the SEC 28 limit - no mention of that. LSU signed just as many as Bama - no mention of that either. And outside the SEC; FSU, Ohio State, Clemson, USC, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Ok State, and Virginia signed more than Bama. And that's just within Scout's top 25!

I know that each school has a different number of graduating seniors and other things effecting head count. But I think that's CNS's whole point. Unless you just totally have it out for Saban and Bama, why not scrutinize all these schools? Because Mr. Scarchizik has no journalistic integrity; just an axe to grind. At least Saban talks about it.

 

[cominatcha]

Scarbinsky= MORON!!!!nuff said:fight:

 

[BamaPride]

Scarbinsky is a joke. Ignore him.

 

[dabaxter]

The guy is not relevant. Why bother acknowledging him?

 

[4th-and-1]

i personally like one point that saban made..

the oversigning, greyshirts, ect.. they give other players opportunities that they would not have otherwise..

people do not tend to look at things this way, but i think it is a very valid point..

 

[Ump]

One the scab omitted is that the barn averages more oversigned players than BAMA since the roster reduction(2002). Wonder if he would have even reported it if he had done he's homework. Probably not ! In fact the barn leads the nation in average since 2002.

 

[TerryP]

One the scab omitted is that the barn averages more oversigned players than BAMA since the roster reduction(2002). Wonder if he would have even reported it if he had done he's homework. Probably not ! In fact the barn leads the nation in average since 2002.

There are five teams that have signed more than Bama in this period. Auburn, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Ole Miss round out the top five with Alabama at number six.

If you look around the nation at this year alone it'll shock you .

Scarbinsky has been quoted as stating the reason he's focused on Saban is because it's more "relevant." Explain that one to me...

 

[shipley00]

Scarbinsky has been quoted as stating the reason he's focused on Saban is because it's more "relevant." Explain that one to me...

Well, in Scabs defense, even after a MNC, 2/3 of non-sec fans can't tell you who AU's coach is, much less the other schools mentioned. Everyone knows who is the coach at Alabama.:smile:

 

[UAgrad93]

Let's all face it! Scab is a walking D!*# with ears and a big mouth!

 

[Swamptick]

Pointless 'journalist' is pointless. Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[ExiledTidefan]

This is how it is when you're on top. Even in a year when Auburn did what I thought was unthinkable: winning the MNC. Still, they get second-fiddle to bama in the headlines because we recruit and sign more consistently than they do. I'm not sure if dirt will ever come back to haunt them over last year's signing class. But eventually they are going to get caught, and then guys like Scarbo can squirm and figure out how quickly to get back on the Saban Train.

DONE WITH MEDIA IN THE STATE OF ALABAMA.

The writers of this state really need something else to write about. How about a 7--1 in-conference Bama basketball team that is shooting it's way into the NCAA's from RPI hell a month ago?

 

[psychojoe]

DONE WITH MEDIA IN THE STATE OF ALABAMA.

The writers of this state really need something else to write about. How about a 7--1 in-conference Bama basketball team that is shooting it's way into the NCAA's from RPI hell a month ago?

We were around 115 in last week's RPI. I am very interested in seeing how far the two W's last week move us up.

 

[musso]

Scarbinsky has been quoted as stating the reason he's focused on Saban is because it's more "relevant." Explain that one to me...

Terry, are you really being sincere? It's one thing if you believe in the legitimacy of Saban's recruiting tactics and wish to refute the merits of Scarbinsky's criticism. It's another thing to act as if you don't think what Saban does is irrelevant, or even less relevant than what coaches at Ark, Miss, Miss St, etc do. Good lord, I don't think the argument can be made that there is a more visible head coach presently than Saban. Until recently Meyer might have challenged Saban on this issue.

 

[TerryP]

it's about traffic musso...and, no better target than?

 

[foshman]

Terry, are you really being sincere? It's one thing if you believe in the legitimacy of Saban's recruiting tactics and wish to refute the merits of Scarbinsky's criticism. It's another thing to act as if you don't think what Saban does is irrelevant, or even less relevant than what coaches at Ark, Miss, Miss St, etc do. Good lord, I don't think the argument can be made that there is a more visible head coach presently than Saban. Until recently Meyer might have challenged Saban on this issue.

I'm not really all that concerned with over signing per say, although it is a slippery slope, but I think Saban created this monster. Outside of Tuscaloosa few people are willing to accept him at his word as it pertains to program and career related topics.

He is the only coach who is unwilling to allow his methods or actions to be scrutinized. In the article Scarbinsky points out that Alabama alone omits infomation that is considered public domain for no good reason. If Saban doesn't want to be constantly questioned then he should open up and deal with the questions forthrightly. That's not Saban's style. It bothered him in the NFL. He can only change it by backing up what he says with proof. Until he does that the media will stay on the story, as they should, because its a story until its proven not to be.

 

[psychojoe]

Saban is accountable to his employer (U of A), to the SEC and to the NCAA.He is not accountable to Solomon or Scarbinski.