Oversigning
Encyclopedia
Oversigning is an unofficial term for the practice of American
college athletic
departments signing recruits to a National Letter of Intent
(NLI) that may exceed the maximum number of athletic scholarships
permitted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA). The NCAA limits the total number of scholarship that may be awarded as well as the number of scholarships awarded in a given year. Those limits differ by sport and the division in which that sport participates. Most conferences have additional rules governing signing NLI.
NCAA rule 15.5.6.1 limits FBS football programs to a total number of scholarships to 85 "counters" annually and 25 scholarships for "initial counters." Counters (NCAA Rule 15.02.3) are individuals who are receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport, initial counters (NCAA Rule 15.02.3.1) are individuals who are receiving countable financial aid in a sport for the first time. Rule 13.9.2.3 limits schools to signing 28 NLI from initial signing day
through May 31st.
Oversigning can occur in two ways. First, if a school signs a number of NLI that may bring their total number of counters above the NCAA limit of 85. Second would be to sign more than 25 NLI during the period between National Signing Day and May 31st.
Oversigning occurs in other sports but has received the most attention from media
members and fans, in regard to Division I FBS college football
.
NCAA rules permit oversigning up to 28 NLI, though some college football fans view oversigning as unethical, arguing that it requires schools and coaches to be dishonest with young adult and adolescent recruits.
in 2011, Florida State University
was oversigned by several players. During his Signing Day press conference, head coach Jimbo Fisher
said he expected several recruits to not be academically qualified to play in 2011 though Fisher did not give the specific number by which he had oversigned.
profiled former University of Miami
defensive lineman Stephen Wesley, who was told - in July 2010, just weeks before his senior season was to begin - that his scholarship would not be renewed. Miami and then-head coach Randy Shannon
did not give an explanation for Wesley's dismissal from the team, but many believed (as Outside the Lines noted) Wesley was cut from the team to make room for Seantrel Henderson
, who announced he would attend Miami just weeks before Wesley's dismissal.
found itself with a roster of 18 players—five more than the NCAA limit of 13 scholarship players for that sport. In the 2010–11 season
, the Cardinals had a 15-man roster, but two of these players were walk-ons, placing them within NCAA limits. Three scholarship players departed after the season, but coach Rick Pitino
had initially signed a four-player freshman class, resulting in 14 scholarship players plus the two returning walk-ons. Then, coaching changes gave Pitino the opportunity to bring in a freshman who had originally committed to Tennessee
and a transfer from George Mason
. Both were signed, resulting in 16 scholarship players.
The situation was resolved when three returning scholarship players agreed to become walk-ons for the 2011–12 season. All had originally come to Louisville as walk-ons, but had earned scholarships. What made this situation especially unusual is that two of the three were seniors who were expected to start in the coming season. One of the senior walk-ons, Kyle Kuric
, was the Cardinals' only returning double-figure scorer. The other senior walk-on, Chris Smith, was the Cardinals' third-leading returning scorer. Both were financially able to absorb being walk-ons—Kuric's parents are a neurosurgeon and a nurse practicioner, and Smith is the younger brother of former NBA player J. R. Smith, who had paid his brother's way at U of L when he had to sit out the 2009–10 season as a transfer.
(SEC) have frequently been accused of oversigning. Florida
, Georgia
, and Vanderbilt
are usually noted as exceptions within the SEC due to their having signed the fewest total recruits among SEC teams over the past decade. Georgia head coach Mark Richt
has condemned the process, saying "I don't want to oversign, then tell one of the kids we've already got, 'You've got no value to us' and toss him aside. I'm not going to do that."
On February 1, 2011, Sports Illustrated
published a letter from the president of the University of Florida
, Bernie Machen
, in which Machen condemned oversigning-related practices - including grayshirting and the excessive use of medical disqualifications - as "morally reprehensible" and "repugnant."
2009, the SEC passed a rule restricting its football teams to accepting no more than 28 National Letters of Intent
each year. This move was widely viewed as a direct response to the University of Mississippi
and its head coach, Houston Nutt
, having promised 37 scholarships to new recruits for the 2009 season
. Thus the rule is now commonly referred to as "The Houston Nutt Rule."
On September 24th, 2010 2010, theWall Street Journal
published an article suggesting the University of Alabama
and its head coach, Nick Saban
, had encouraging some under-performing players to quit the team for medical reasons in order to gain a competitive edge.
Former Alabama linebacker Chuck Kirschman said "I'm still kind of bitter," and Coach Saban encouraged him to accept the scholarship because of a back problem that Kirschman believes he could have played through. Kirschman said the school offered in the summer of 2009 to pay for his graduate degree in business, an offer he accepted, and that he still gets some of the same perks as players. Kirschman completed his MBA in Finance.
Charles Hoke, a former Alabama offensive lineman, took a medical scholarship in 2008 because of a shoulder problem, said the choice was left entirely up to him and was based on the many conversations he had with the team's doctors and trainers over the course of his junior year.
Jeramie Griffin tore an anterior cruciate ligament
in his knee in August of 2009. He said, "I came back in the spring and I was OK." Griffin said that he was surprised football staff told him he had failed a physical. Griffin said, Saban asked him what he wanted to do besides playing football, and that Saban floated the possibility of a medical scholarship and asked if Griffin was interested in student coaching. Griffin said he doesn't contest the results of the physical and said it was "basically my decision" to forgo the rest of his playing career.
Doug Walker, the school's associate athletic director for media relations, said "Decisions about medical disqualifications for student-athletes are made by medical professionals and adhere to the parameters outlined by the NCAA…and the Southeastern Conference
."
On September 29th 2010 Coach Saban responded to questions about the Wall Street Journal Article, "We don't make the decision about medicals. I have nothing to do with that. Those are medical decisions made by our medical staff. I think we have one of the finest medical staffs in the country. I don't have any question about the fact every player we have given a medical to, it's been because of the medical opinion of the medical staff," Saban said. "Those guys should not continue to play football because it would put their future in tremendous risk. Those decisions are always made in the best interest of the player. Whether the player agrees with that or not, I can't control. I don't make the decision. They don't make the decision as players. That's why we have a medical staff."
On November 25, 2010, the Journal reported that several former Alabama players claim Saban and Alabama lied about their reasons for leaving the school. On August 5th, 2009 Saban in a press conference Saban made a statement included was a reference to four players Price Hall, Brandon Fanney, Alonzo Lawrence and Jermaine Preyear. "These guys all did something. It doesn't make them bad people.…These guys didn't do what they were supposed to do here, whether it was for academic reasons or whatever. They're not going to be part of the program." The players told The Wall Street Journal they committed no such violations and that Alabama and Saban had only claimed as much so as to protect the image of their program in the eyes of future recruits.
Prince Hall, a starter and All-American as freshman, had been suspended for the 3rd time during the Spring according to published reports, the last being categorized as indefinite. Brandon Fanney, a 14 game starter from the previous season, had been suspended for rules violations during the Spring.
Preyear, who decided to transfer six months after enrolling during the Spring, said he chose to leave over concerns about playing time. "I don't know any rules I could have broken."
Alonzo Lawrence reasons for transfer were unclear, but according to his high school coach his problems at Alabama "wasn't anything major," and tied it to things like being late to team meetings. Lawrence transferred to Southern Miss before moving on to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
On April 15th 2008, Saban was asked by reporter Ian Rapoport how he was going to handle the numbers and when does he you start to worry about it? Saban replied "I'm not worried about them. It'll all work out. I mean, the whole thing has a solution to every issue. You don't put yourself in a position where you don't know what's coming." Rapoport respond, "So you're not going to tell us?" to which Saban replied "We know how it has to be managed, and it will be managed. It's none of your business. Aiight? And don't give me this stuff about the fans' need to know, because they don't need to know. Don't even ask. Aiight?"
journalist Kevin Scarbinsky revealed a few days after Saban's press conference that in numerous requests by the newspaper for the scholarship numbers of public universities in Alabama, the University of Alabama has been the only one to completely redact the numbers for every sport in which it participates.
(LSU) and head coach Les Miles
were also the subjects of numerous oversigning allegations. In August, with his program at the scholarship limit for the year, Miles asked two recruits, Elliot Porter and Cameron Fordham, to wait until January 2011 to receive their previously promised scholarships. (This practice is known as "grayshirting.") Fordham chose to stay with the team, but Porter decided to leave the school. A third player, Houston Bates, had previously been asked to grayshirt and decided not to attend LSU, instead signing with Illinois
. In December, ESPN's
Outside the Lines
broadcast a report in which former LSU quarterback Chris Garrett claimed LSU and Les Miles lied about the circumstances surrounding the school's decision not to renew Garrett's scholarship and Garrett's subsequent departure from LSU.
, coached by Steve Spurrier
, oversigned by several players. Both Oversigning.com and Rivals.com
estimated South Carolina oversigned by 6 players when it signed 32 players in its 2011 class. Additionally, on the day before National Signing Day, South Carolina rescinded offers to two other recruits that had verbally committed to signing with the school. One of the recruits, Lorenzo Mauldin, had been committed to the school for months but learned he would not receive a scholarship offer when South Carolina faxed a notice of the rescinded offer to his high school on the day before Signing Day. Walter Banks, the coach of Jordan Montgomery, the other recruit whose scholarship offer was pulled the day before National Signing Day, told The Wall Street Journal, "I told [South Carolina coaches] this was foul. I didn't have a clue until 18 hours before signing day, and if they say anything else, they're lying." Banks also told The State that South Carolina coaches are "no longer welcome" at his high school (South Lake High School
in Groveland, Florida
) saying, "I cannot look a kid and their parent in the face and say you can trust what a University of South Carolina coach says." Spurrier admitted to The Wall Street Journal that "what we probably could've done earlier in the recruiting is tell them that this could happen." He later added, "I think on [Feb. 1] we alerted both of them, talked to them and said ‘Hey, I’m sorry. This is where we are. We got all these other commitments.’ We didn’t like doing this.” In late March 2011, Mauldin signed with Louisville
saying that he came to believe that South Carolina coaches really didn't want him to qualify anyway.
prohibits its members from signing more than three players above the 85-scholarship limit. Perhaps most significantly, the SEC did not outlaw grayshirting.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
college athletic
College athletics
College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
departments signing recruits to a National Letter of Intent
National Letter of Intent
The National Letter of Intent is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating NCAA colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manages the daily operations of the NLI program while the Collegiate Commissioners Association provides...
(NLI) that may exceed the maximum number of athletic scholarships
Athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport...
permitted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
(NCAA). The NCAA limits the total number of scholarship that may be awarded as well as the number of scholarships awarded in a given year. Those limits differ by sport and the division in which that sport participates. Most conferences have additional rules governing signing NLI.
NCAA rule 15.5.6.1 limits FBS football programs to a total number of scholarships to 85 "counters" annually and 25 scholarships for "initial counters." Counters (NCAA Rule 15.02.3) are individuals who are receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport, initial counters (NCAA Rule 15.02.3.1) are individuals who are receiving countable financial aid in a sport for the first time. Rule 13.9.2.3 limits schools to signing 28 NLI from initial signing day
National Signing Day
National Signing Day most commonly refers to a day in February, usually on the first Wednesday of that month, which is the first day that a high school senior can sign a binding National Letter of Intent for college football with a school that is a member of the NCAA, the main governing body for...
through May 31st.
Oversigning can occur in two ways. First, if a school signs a number of NLI that may bring their total number of counters above the NCAA limit of 85. Second would be to sign more than 25 NLI during the period between National Signing Day and May 31st.
Oversigning occurs in other sports but has received the most attention from media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
members and fans, in regard to Division I FBS college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
.
NCAA rules permit oversigning up to 28 NLI, though some college football fans view oversigning as unethical, arguing that it requires schools and coaches to be dishonest with young adult and adolescent recruits.
Florida State
After National Signing DayNational Signing Day
National Signing Day most commonly refers to a day in February, usually on the first Wednesday of that month, which is the first day that a high school senior can sign a binding National Letter of Intent for college football with a school that is a member of the NCAA, the main governing body for...
in 2011, Florida State University
Florida State Seminoles football
The Florida State Seminoles football team represents Florida State University in college football. The Florida State Seminoles compete in NCAA Division I-FBS and are members of the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference...
was oversigned by several players. During his Signing Day press conference, head coach Jimbo Fisher
Jimbo Fisher
John James "Jimbo" Fisher is an American college football coach and former player. He is currently head coach at Florida State University....
said he expected several recruits to not be academically qualified to play in 2011 though Fisher did not give the specific number by which he had oversigned.
Miami
In a December 2010 feature on oversigning, ESPN's Outside the LinesOutside the Lines
Outside the Lines, or also referred to as OTL, is an American television program on ESPN that looks "outside the lines" and examines critical issues in American sports on and off the field of play....
profiled former University of Miami
Miami Hurricanes football
The Miami Hurricanes football program competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference of the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for the University of Miami. The program began in 1926 and has won five AP national championships...
defensive lineman Stephen Wesley, who was told - in July 2010, just weeks before his senior season was to begin - that his scholarship would not be renewed. Miami and then-head coach Randy Shannon
Randy Shannon
Randy Lennard Shannon is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Miami from 2007 to 2010. Shannon played football at Miami and then with the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL....
did not give an explanation for Wesley's dismissal from the team, but many believed (as Outside the Lines noted) Wesley was cut from the team to make room for Seantrel Henderson
Seantrel Henderson
Seantrel Henderson is an American football offensive tackle for the University of Miami. He attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School and originally signed a letter of intent to play college football at the University of Southern California, but was released from his commitment in July 2010 and...
, who announced he would attend Miami just weeks before Wesley's dismissal.
Big East Conference
In the 2011 offseason, the University of Louisville men's basketball teamLouisville Cardinals men's basketball
The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team is the 18th winningest college basketball team in NCAA Division I history and has the 10th best winning percentage in college basketball history. Currently coached by Rick Pitino, the Cardinals of the University of Louisville have been to 37 NCAA...
found itself with a roster of 18 players—five more than the NCAA limit of 13 scholarship players for that sport. In the 2010–11 season
2010–11 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team
The 2010–11 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the college basketball season of 2010–2011. The team's head coach was Rick Pitino, who was in his tenth season. The season was the school's first in the newly constructed KFC Yum! Center and they...
, the Cardinals had a 15-man roster, but two of these players were walk-ons, placing them within NCAA limits. Three scholarship players departed after the season, but coach Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino is an American basketball coach. Since 2001, he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has also served as head coach at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996...
had initially signed a four-player freshman class, resulting in 14 scholarship players plus the two returning walk-ons. Then, coaching changes gave Pitino the opportunity to bring in a freshman who had originally committed to Tennessee
Tennessee Volunteers basketball
The Tennessee Volunteers basketball team represents the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee in NCAA men's basketball competition. The Volunteers currently compete in the Southeastern Conference...
and a transfer from George Mason
George Mason Patriots men's basketball
The George Mason Patriots men's basketball team represents George Mason University and competes in the Colonial Athletic Association of NCAA Division I...
. Both were signed, resulting in 16 scholarship players.
The situation was resolved when three returning scholarship players agreed to become walk-ons for the 2011–12 season. All had originally come to Louisville as walk-ons, but had earned scholarships. What made this situation especially unusual is that two of the three were seniors who were expected to start in the coming season. One of the senior walk-ons, Kyle Kuric
Kyle Kuric
Kyle Kuric is an American college basketball player for the 2011-12 University of Louisville men's basketball team. Kuric grew up in Evansville, Indiana and graduated from Memorial High School in 2008...
, was the Cardinals' only returning double-figure scorer. The other senior walk-on, Chris Smith, was the Cardinals' third-leading returning scorer. Both were financially able to absorb being walk-ons—Kuric's parents are a neurosurgeon and a nurse practicioner, and Smith is the younger brother of former NBA player J. R. Smith, who had paid his brother's way at U of L when he had to sit out the 2009–10 season as a transfer.
Ohio State
In an article posted June 25th, 2011 by ABC news, James Jackson, former Ohio State wide receiver, says he lost his scholarship due to oversigning. "They had an oversigning issue," Jackson said. "They had to free up a few scholarships, and coach (Jim) Tressel told me I probably wouldn't play and maybe Ohio State wasn't the place for me." Ohio State denies that Jackson was forced to transfer. "Our policy is as James Jackson stated: As long as a student-athlete maintains his/her academic standing, behaves appropriately and handles his/her responsibilities, he or she will retain their scholarship. We have no proof of any conversation between he and former head coach Jim Tressel,"Southeastern Conference
Several universities within the Southeastern ConferenceSoutheastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
(SEC) have frequently been accused of oversigning. Florida
Florida Gators football
The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the sport of American football. The Florida Gators compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference...
, Georgia
Georgia Bulldogs football
The Georgia Bulldogs football team represents the University of Georgia in football. The Bulldogs are a member of the Southeastern Conference and are frequently a top-25 team. The University of Georgia has had a football team since 1892 and has an all-time record of 738–398–54...
, and Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt Commodores football
The Vanderbilt Commodores football program is a college football team that represents Vanderbilt University. The team currently competes in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Southeastern Conference...
are usually noted as exceptions within the SEC due to their having signed the fewest total recruits among SEC teams over the past decade. Georgia head coach Mark Richt
Mark Richt
Mark Richt is the head coach of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team. His previous affiliations include fourteen years at Florida State University, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and one year as offensive coordinator at East Carolina University.-Early...
has condemned the process, saying "I don't want to oversign, then tell one of the kids we've already got, 'You've got no value to us' and toss him aside. I'm not going to do that."
On February 1, 2011, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
published a letter from the president of the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, Bernie Machen
Bernie Machen
James Bernard "Bernie" Machen is an American university professor and administrator. Machen is a native of Mississippi, and earned multiple academic degrees before becoming a university administrator and president...
, in which Machen condemned oversigning-related practices - including grayshirting and the excessive use of medical disqualifications - as "morally reprehensible" and "repugnant."
Houston Nutt Rule
In MayMay
May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days.May is a month of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and spring in the Northern Hemisphere...
2009, the SEC passed a rule restricting its football teams to accepting no more than 28 National Letters of Intent
National Letter of Intent
The National Letter of Intent is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating NCAA colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manages the daily operations of the NLI program while the Collegiate Commissioners Association provides...
each year. This move was widely viewed as a direct response to the University of Mississippi
Ole Miss Rebels football
The football history of the University of Mississippi , includes the formation of the first football team in the state and is 26th on the list of college football's all-time winning programs...
and its head coach, Houston Nutt
Houston Nutt
Houston Dale Nutt, Jr. is an American football coach and former player. Most recently he was the head football coach at the University of Mississippi from 2008 to 2011. Previously, he served as the head coach at Murray State University , Boise State University , and the University of Arkansas...
, having promised 37 scholarships to new recruits for the 2009 season
2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on September 2, 2009, progressed through the regular season and bowl season, and concluded with the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2010, featuring the...
. Thus the rule is now commonly referred to as "The Houston Nutt Rule."
WSJ Medical Scholarship Concerns
On September 24th, 2010 2010, theWall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
published an article suggesting the University of Alabama
Alabama Crimson Tide football
|TeamName = Alabama football |Image = Alabama Crimson Tide Logo.svg |ImageSize = 110 |Helmet = Alabama Football.png |ImageSize2 = 150 |CurrentSeason = 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide football team...
and its head coach, Nick Saban
Nick Saban
Nicholas Lou "Nick" Saban is the head coach of the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide football team. Saban has previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins and three other NCAA universities: LSU, Michigan State and Toledo...
, had encouraging some under-performing players to quit the team for medical reasons in order to gain a competitive edge.
Former Alabama linebacker Chuck Kirschman said "I'm still kind of bitter," and Coach Saban encouraged him to accept the scholarship because of a back problem that Kirschman believes he could have played through. Kirschman said the school offered in the summer of 2009 to pay for his graduate degree in business, an offer he accepted, and that he still gets some of the same perks as players. Kirschman completed his MBA in Finance.
Charles Hoke, a former Alabama offensive lineman, took a medical scholarship in 2008 because of a shoulder problem, said the choice was left entirely up to him and was based on the many conversations he had with the team's doctors and trainers over the course of his junior year.
Jeramie Griffin tore an anterior cruciate ligament
Anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. In the quadruped stifle , based on its anatomical position, it is referred to as the cranial cruciate ligament.The ACL originates from deep within the notch of the distal femur...
in his knee in August of 2009. He said, "I came back in the spring and I was OK." Griffin said that he was surprised football staff told him he had failed a physical. Griffin said, Saban asked him what he wanted to do besides playing football, and that Saban floated the possibility of a medical scholarship and asked if Griffin was interested in student coaching. Griffin said he doesn't contest the results of the physical and said it was "basically my decision" to forgo the rest of his playing career.
Doug Walker, the school's associate athletic director for media relations, said "Decisions about medical disqualifications for student-athletes are made by medical professionals and adhere to the parameters outlined by the NCAA…and the Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
."
On September 29th 2010 Coach Saban responded to questions about the Wall Street Journal Article, "We don't make the decision about medicals. I have nothing to do with that. Those are medical decisions made by our medical staff. I think we have one of the finest medical staffs in the country. I don't have any question about the fact every player we have given a medical to, it's been because of the medical opinion of the medical staff," Saban said. "Those guys should not continue to play football because it would put their future in tremendous risk. Those decisions are always made in the best interest of the player. Whether the player agrees with that or not, I can't control. I don't make the decision. They don't make the decision as players. That's why we have a medical staff."
WSJ Transfer Concerns
On November 25, 2010, the Journal reported that several former Alabama players claim Saban and Alabama lied about their reasons for leaving the school. On August 5th, 2009 Saban in a press conference Saban made a statement included was a reference to four players Price Hall, Brandon Fanney, Alonzo Lawrence and Jermaine Preyear. "These guys all did something. It doesn't make them bad people.…These guys didn't do what they were supposed to do here, whether it was for academic reasons or whatever. They're not going to be part of the program." The players told The Wall Street Journal they committed no such violations and that Alabama and Saban had only claimed as much so as to protect the image of their program in the eyes of future recruits.
Prince Hall, a starter and All-American as freshman, had been suspended for the 3rd time during the Spring according to published reports, the last being categorized as indefinite. Brandon Fanney, a 14 game starter from the previous season, had been suspended for rules violations during the Spring.
Preyear, who decided to transfer six months after enrolling during the Spring, said he chose to leave over concerns about playing time. "I don't know any rules I could have broken."
Alonzo Lawrence reasons for transfer were unclear, but according to his high school coach his problems at Alabama "wasn't anything major," and tied it to things like being late to team meetings. Lawrence transferred to Southern Miss before moving on to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
Saban's Exchange with another Reporter
On April 15th 2008, Saban was asked by reporter Ian Rapoport how he was going to handle the numbers and when does he you start to worry about it? Saban replied "I'm not worried about them. It'll all work out. I mean, the whole thing has a solution to every issue. You don't put yourself in a position where you don't know what's coming." Rapoport respond, "So you're not going to tell us?" to which Saban replied "We know how it has to be managed, and it will be managed. It's none of your business. Aiight? And don't give me this stuff about the fans' need to know, because they don't need to know. Don't even ask. Aiight?"
2011
In early 2011, after National Signing Day, Saban and the University of Alabama again became the subjects of heavy media criticism after they again appeared to have oversigned. When asked about the appearance of being oversigned during his Signing Day press conference, Saban gave a 431-word response in which he denied being oversigned but refused to clarify the situation by explaining how many scholarship players departed the program after the 2010 season. Further raising questions about Saban and Alabama, Birmingham NewsThe Birmingham News
The Birmingham News is the principal daily newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and the largest newspaper in Alabama. The paper is owned by Advance Publications...
journalist Kevin Scarbinsky revealed a few days after Saban's press conference that in numerous requests by the newspaper for the scholarship numbers of public universities in Alabama, the University of Alabama has been the only one to completely redact the numbers for every sport in which it participates.
LSU and Les Miles
In 2010, Louisiana State UniversityLSU Tigers football
The LSU Tigers football team, also known as the Fighting Tigers or Bayou Bengals, represents Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States in NCAA Division I FBS college football. Current head coach Les Miles has led the team since 2005. Since 1999 when Nick Saban took over as...
(LSU) and head coach Les Miles
Les Miles
Leslie Edwin "Les" Miles, nicknamed "The Mad Hatter", is an American college football coach and the current head coach of the Louisiana State University football team. Prior to holding that position, he was head coach at Oklahoma State...
were also the subjects of numerous oversigning allegations. In August, with his program at the scholarship limit for the year, Miles asked two recruits, Elliot Porter and Cameron Fordham, to wait until January 2011 to receive their previously promised scholarships. (This practice is known as "grayshirting.") Fordham chose to stay with the team, but Porter decided to leave the school. A third player, Houston Bates, had previously been asked to grayshirt and decided not to attend LSU, instead signing with Illinois
Illinois Fighting Illini football
The Illinois Fighting Illini are a major college football program, representing the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. They compete in NCAA Division I-A and the Big Ten Conference.-Current staff:-All-time win/loss/tie record:*563-513-51...
. In December, ESPN's
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
Outside the Lines
Outside the Lines
Outside the Lines, or also referred to as OTL, is an American television program on ESPN that looks "outside the lines" and examines critical issues in American sports on and off the field of play....
broadcast a report in which former LSU quarterback Chris Garrett claimed LSU and Les Miles lied about the circumstances surrounding the school's decision not to renew Garrett's scholarship and Garrett's subsequent departure from LSU.
South Carolina and Steve Spurrier
In 2011, South CarolinaSouth Carolina Gamecocks football
The South Carolina Gamecocks football team represents the University of South Carolina in NCAA Division I college football. The Gamecocks have been a member of the Southeastern Conference since 1992. Steve Spurrier is the current head coach, and the team plays its home games at Williams-Brice...
, coached by Steve Spurrier
Steve Spurrier
Stephen Orr Spurrier is an American college football coach and player. Spurrier is the current head coach of the University of South Carolina's Gamecocks football team. He is also a former professional player and coach...
, oversigned by several players. Both Oversigning.com and Rivals.com
Rivals.com
Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting. The network was started in 1996 and currently employs more than 300 personnel.-Schools:The individual collegiate sites can be found...
estimated South Carolina oversigned by 6 players when it signed 32 players in its 2011 class. Additionally, on the day before National Signing Day, South Carolina rescinded offers to two other recruits that had verbally committed to signing with the school. One of the recruits, Lorenzo Mauldin, had been committed to the school for months but learned he would not receive a scholarship offer when South Carolina faxed a notice of the rescinded offer to his high school on the day before Signing Day. Walter Banks, the coach of Jordan Montgomery, the other recruit whose scholarship offer was pulled the day before National Signing Day, told The Wall Street Journal, "I told [South Carolina coaches] this was foul. I didn't have a clue until 18 hours before signing day, and if they say anything else, they're lying." Banks also told The State that South Carolina coaches are "no longer welcome" at his high school (South Lake High School
South Lake High School
South Lake High School, commonly referred to as South Lake High, is a public high school located in Groveland, Florida. It is one of eight public high schools in the Lake County School District, and is the second-largest high school in the district...
in Groveland, Florida
Groveland, Florida
Groveland is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,360 at the 2000 census. The Census Bureau estimated the population in 2008 to be 7,647...
) saying, "I cannot look a kid and their parent in the face and say you can trust what a University of South Carolina coach says." Spurrier admitted to The Wall Street Journal that "what we probably could've done earlier in the recruiting is tell them that this could happen." He later added, "I think on [Feb. 1] we alerted both of them, talked to them and said ‘Hey, I’m sorry. This is where we are. We got all these other commitments.’ We didn’t like doing this.” In late March 2011, Mauldin signed with Louisville
Louisville Cardinals football
The Louisville Cardinals football team represents the University of Louisville in college football as a member of the Big East Conference. Howard Schnellenberger started the program's rise to relevancy after winning the Miami Hurricanes' first national championship...
saying that he came to believe that South Carolina coaches really didn't want him to qualify anyway.
2011 rule change
In June 2011, the SEC presidents and chancellors unanimously passed a new conference rule that on its face prohibits teams from signing more than 25 players—the per-season limit for new scholarship players at FBS schools—to letters of intent per season. This overruled a unanimous vote by the league's coaches days earlier calling for the previous limit of 28 to be retained. However, it was noted that the new rule, although apparently strict, had obvious loopholes. For example, "back-counting"—counting players who enter at the start of one school year against the prior year's allotment under certain circumstances—is still allowed. Also, a school can sign 25 players even if that would put it over the NCAA limit of 85 total scholarship players in the coming season. By contrast, the Big TenBig Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
prohibits its members from signing more than three players above the 85-scholarship limit. Perhaps most significantly, the SEC did not outlaw grayshirting.