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Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704444604576172954187357370.html

3/1/11
SEC Coaches Defend 'Oversigning'
As Critics Blast the Practice, Spurrier, Nutt and Petrino Say It's Necessary—and Helpful.

Coaches at some of the nation's top college football programs continue to sign more incoming players than they can accommodate on their rosters.

And despite increasing criticism of the practice, which is known as "oversigning," three coaches from the hotly competitive Southeastern Conference are defending it.

South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, whose 2011 recruiting class is considered one of the nation's finest, ended up with three more players than NCAA rules will allow him to add to his final roster in the fall. In a rare move, Spurrier was forced to tell two recruits who'd committed to play for South Carolina that there wouldn't be room for them in this fall's class.

Spurrier said oversigning is "helpful" because so many of the players in the state come from underprivileged backgrounds and may not qualify academically. He said the Big Ten, which has curbed oversigning for decades, is making a mistake by doing so. "I think that really hurts them a lot," Spurrier said. "They end up giving scholarships to a lot of walk-ons."

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, who signed 31 recruits in 2009 and is a few players over the 85-player NCAA limit at the moment, said oversigning is fine if coaches are forthright about it. "I don't see it as a bad thing unless you're being dishonest or waiting until the last minute, which eliminates their visit opportunities with other schools," he said.

Houston Nutt, Mississippi's coach, signed 31 players in 2008, 37 in 2009, 25 last year and 28 last month. He said oversigning is sometimes "necessary," mainly to plug holes. This year, he said, two cornerbacks—Jermaine Whitehead and Floyd Raven—defected at the last minute. "Now I'm sitting here without two corners. You just can't have this perfect world of, 'We're gonna sign 22 this year.'"

How college-football teams manage their allotted number of players is a serious competitive issue in the sport. The 120 schools in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision, the sport's highest echelon, are limited to 85 scholarship athletes each. No more than 25 new signees are allowed to join a team in the fall. Because injuries are common, teams do whatever they can to make sure those spots are filled by the best athletes.

Coaches love oversigning because it gives them more talent to choose from, keeps it out of the hands of competitors and allows them to replace players who quit, fail to qualify academically or violate team rules. If a spot opens up from this sort of attrition, they have a highly sought-after recruit to fill it.

But in some cases, the team doesn't lose enough players through attrition to account for all the extras it signed, so the coach needs to get rid of some people. Rather than cut them outright—which would cost them their scholarships and create ill will among future recruits—teams force some to "grayshirt," or delay their enrollment for a semester. Others are asked to take a "medical scholarship" which allows them to keep their scholarship so long as they agree they are too injured to continue playing for the team. Some are strongly encouraged to transfer.

Critics say the rule is unfair to players—some of whom unwittingly arrive on campus facing the chopping block. In a letter prepared for publication on SI.com, University of Florida president Bernie Machen slammed such roster maneuvering as "reprehensible," "disgusting," and "nefarious."

In interviews conducted in the weeks since last month's signing day, when top high-school seniors make their college commitments, dozens of signees headed to some of the nation's most chronically oversigned schools were either unconcerned, or unaware, that these schools may have to cut some players to balance their lopsided books.

Defensive tackle Uriah Grant of Miramar, Fla., committed to play for Nutt in Mississippi last month. Grant said the extra bodies, and the extra competition, "doesn't bother me—I actually embrace it. I know I'm gonna be a starter."

Offensive tackle Jonah Austin of New Orleans, who signed at LSU, said he wasn't aware that LSU is about 11 players over budget—and that it's not something he's thought much about. Cornerback Senquez Golson of Pascagoula, Miss., who chose Mississippi over Florida State, said that at the risk of sounding "cocky" he's not worried about being "run off" by coaches. "I don't think I'll be one of those players," he said.

Brent Calloway, a four-star-rated linebacker from Russellville, Ala., who signed with Alabama this month after considering its archrival, Auburn, said the numbers didn't factor into his decision. "I knew they were signing quite a few players," says Calloway, but "I'm not afraid of the competition."

"It's a bit unfortunate that some people that come here will be denied," said quarterback Martay Mattox of Athens, Ga., who also signed with South Carolina. "They told me I could play pretty early if I came in and did what I was supposed to do."

Linebacker Marcquis Roberts, who has committed to Spurrier's Gamecocks, said he's generally concerned about oversigning because "it kills a lot of young kids' dreams," but when he asked the Gamecock coaches about the numbers, "they explained it to me and didn't beat around the bush. They'll tell you if you're not likely to get on the field," he said.

Parents have their own calculus. Odell Beckham, a former LSU running back, said he doesn't see oversigning, or "stacking," affecting his son, Odell Jr., even though he will be competing to play wide receiver at LSU against about five upperclassmen, plus at least one of his own classmates. Beckham says there's a "very good" chance that his son will get to play as a true freshman, based on both what coaches and recruiting sites have said."You look at rosters, you look at the depth on the charts, you look to see if your son will be able to compete without it being x-number too many." In the end, though, Beckham said, "if they're adamant about going to that school, they're gonna go anyway."

Mississippi's Nutt said he got a "real bad rap" for signing 37 incoming players in 2009—12 more than the rules permit. He said he knew at least six of those players would be going to junior college first and two would be going first to a military academy. He said he's always been "very upfront" and has never told a player at the last minute "oh by the way you don't have a scholarship."

Petrino, the Arkansas coach, said he tries to follow a formula. He signs 19 players he knows are "academically gonna make it without being a load on our academic support staff," six guys who may or may not qualify, and three to four players who have "absolutely no chance" of qualifying. (He signs the last group so that "they feel a commitment to us," and stashes them in junior college for a few years.) Petrino said he makes sure borderline cases are aware of what they need to do in order to qualify, as well as their odds of making the fall roster. "They understand that hey, we're gonna oversign, so if it's late in the summer and they haven't qualified yet, you might have to grayshirt," he said.

Sometimes, however, the math simply goes awry. This year, Spurrier said that so many recruits chose South Carolina that they wound up with two more players than they could take under conference rules. The team told Jordan Montgomery, a linebacker from Groveland, Fla. and Lorenzo Mauldin, a defensive end from Atlanta, that there wasn't room for them in this year's class.

Montgomery's high school coach, Walter Banks, said, "I told them this was foul. I didn't have a clue until 18 hours before signing day, and if they say anything else, they're lying."

Spurrier said he selected those two players because they had the furthest to go to qualify academically. Both players could still be in South Carolina's class next year. "What we probably could've done earlier in the recruiting is tell them that this could happen," he said. "But then again, we didn't know it was going to come up. It's a ticklish situation."