Brief Q&A: Oversigning and Reasonable Solutions

First off, what is oversigning?

Oversigning is when a coach signs more prospects than they have available scholarships for.  The NCAA has a hard cap on the number of scholarship players teams can sign every year (25) and the number of overall scholarship players a team can have on at any given time (85).  Coaches who oversign sign players in recruiting periods which circumvent the 25 signee rule and give scholarships to more than 85 players.  To reach NCAA standards, the schools either sign players who they don't think will be academically eligible and send them off to JUCO where they can be picked up later, or take away scholarships from players on the team through medical hardship waivers or other avenues. 

Why is oversigning bad?

Oversigning is the equivalent of cutting players from the team to make room for better players.  While this may not seem so unreasonable on face value, the ramifications for the students are horrible.  Imagine being on scholarship to go to college for physics and your professor telling you that you are losing your scholarship to some new transfer student.  You can no longer afford to stay in school and are forced to drop out with nothing but a few credit hours to show for your time.  For kids who play football, this can be devastating to their futures.

A while back I talked about the reasons why athletes should not be paid.  In that article, I mentioned that student-athletes are given special protections which keeps them stable, and that paying athletes like professionals would tip the scale against the colleges who are forced to protect the rights of all athletes and simultaneously pay them without being guaranteed their rights as an employer to fire unsuccessful employees and to maximize the value of their dollar.  This is the opposite of that.  In oversigning, schools are allowed to treat athletes like employees without paying them, effectively making them indentured servants who can be used and discarded at the whim of their masters.  It is ineffective to say that the students still get an education as compensation in this scenario since they can be released before they ever receive their degree and never be compensated for their time.

This is particularly difficult on student athletes and especially less wealthy kids who may not have the educational background to succeed without the help of the athletic tutors.  Taking that away denies their chance at an education.  While one maycertainly an argument to be made that many college students who receive academic scholarships don't necessarily have their scholarships renewed from year to year, it is a non sequitor.  Universities are centers for learning, those who lose their academic scholarships normally due so because of a failure to live up to their academic commitments or fall into legal trouble.  From the standpoint of the college president, there should be a major difference between failing to make grades and failing to make a tackle.  It is a murky issue but the bottom line is this: institutions of higher learning should not allow football to determine how they go about their mission of educating.  By allowing oversigning, institutions are openly admitting that athletic performance is more important than education.

What should be done?

Originally there were no athletic scholarships for players.  This is only an issue because college football became such big business that schools decided they needed to give their players something for bringing in all that money to the University (that should sound very familiar).  It is unreasonable to go back to that model now, but there are some things we can look back to.  The four year scholarship, which guaranteed a player four years of college upon signing his letter of intent, should be one thing that is looked at for the future.  Players should be guaranteed four years at an institution in order to guarantee that they receive the value of their education.  Scholarships should then be renewable for a fifth year if necessary. 

Second, the 85 rule has to be enforced year round.  Student athletes should be made aware of their rights with a scholarship including their right not to transfer if they so choose.  No more bullying kids to leave in order to open up space on the roster.  This should coincide with better policing of the medical hardship waiver which has been also been abused to stretch the scholarship limit.  There needs to be a hard and fast rule on this issue and it schools should be required to document the movements of their players and their scholarship status publicly.

Third, there needs to be an elimination of the 25 signing per year limit.  It is counterproductive because it means that, for programs that follow the rules, they will be operating with a short roster on years when more than 25 players graduate.  Schools should be allowed to sign as many players as they need without without surpassing the limit.  Also, there should be  a discussion on the 85 scholarship limit and perhaps expanding it to 90 or 95 players.  This will be difficult because of the Title IX implications but it needs to at least be discussed as a possibility since the current roster limit makes signing players trickier for coaches.

Exploring the Big Ten through Youtube

Note: This excersize is geared towards an examination of each of the Big Ten teams in honor of Nebraska joining the Big Ten. These videos represent traditions of the conference and are meant to provide a window into each of the different schools.
INDIANA
The Old Oaken Bucket is played yearly between Indiana and Purdue.  Each year, the chain attached to that bucket adds a link, a P for the Boilers or an I for the Hoosiers depending on the victor of the game. 


It is called "The Greatest TV Timeout In All Of Sports".  At the under 8minute timeout in the second half, the Indiana band plays the William Tell Overture as the cheerleaders run the court with all manner of flags, making pyramids and generally rousing the crowd.  This is followed by the fight song "Indiana Our Indiana" which is sung at full throat by the entire crowd at Assembly Hall.

Predictions: Big East

The College Football Preview Show picks are back again this week with the Big East. This week we will be going team by team and explaining our selections, which is the format we will use henceforth since we aren’t selecting multiple conferences at a time.


1. Neal: South Florida Lars: West Virginia

For the second year in a row I have the Bulls as surprise picks to win the Big East. Skip Holtz is a phenomenal coach and I think this team will be light years ahead of where they were last season. BJ Daniels showed marked improvement as a passer in the new offensive scheme by the end of last year and I think the South Florida offense breaks out this year on the way to their first Big East Championship. Lars believes West Virginia will be the victor based on the success of Dana Holgorsen’s spread offense and the high level of talent in Morgantown. The Mountaineers were statistically the best squad in the conference last season and will be a tough matchup for everyone on their schedule.

Predictions: Non-AQ and Independents

Here are mine and Lars’ predictions for the non-AQ conferences and independents from the College Football Preview. My predictions are in blue while Lars’ predictions are in red.

MAC West

Western Michigan Northern Illinois*

Toledo Toledo

Northern Illinois Western Michigan

Central Michigan Central Michigan

Eastern Michigan Ball State

Ball State Eastern Michigan

MAC East

Miami (OH)* Ohio

Ohio Temple

Temple Miami (OH)

Bowling Green Kent State

Kent State Buffalo

Buffalo Bowling Green

Akron Akron

The MAC is top heavy in both of its’ divisions this year. Lars is more confident that NIU can recover after losing a star RB and head coach in the same year but I am more hesitant. Western Michigan has an established coach and a bevy of returning starters and I like them to win their division. I take Lars’ tact with my choice of Miami (OH) despite the fact they also lost a head coach. The Red Hawks though have a ton of starters returning and I think they will make a second run to the conference title under former Michigan State OC Don Treadwell.

Sun Belt

Florida International* Troy*

Troy Florida International

Arkansas State Louisiana Monroe

Louisiana Monroe Middle Tennessee State

North Texas Arkansas State

Western Kentucky North Texas

Middle Tennessee State Florida Atlantic

Florida Atlantic Western Kentucky

Louisiana Louisiana

Lars and I disagree again here on who will come out as the conference champion. Lars makes the safer pick here with Troy who has won a share of the last five conference titles but I think FIU will make a repeat run this year under Mario Cristobal. The really bold prediction here is Western Kentucky jumping up to the middle of the conference despite only winning their first game against FBS competition last season. I think the Hilltoppers have momentum and could pass MTSU, FAU, and Louisiana while they are rebuilding this year.

WAC

Hawaii* Hawaii*

Nevada Nevada

Louisiana Tech Fresno State

Fresno State Louisiana Tech

Utah State Idaho

San Jose State San Jose State

Idaho Utah State

New Mexico State New Mexico State

If you listen on the podcast or live last Monday, you heard me announce my frustration that Lars stole my upset pick here. Great minds do think alike I suppose. Hawaii is flying a little under the radar this year but Lars and I both believe this will be another great year for the Warriors. We flip flopped Idaho and Utah State, but the WAC will have quite bit of parity this season with many veteran teams returning and normal powers like Fresno State in rebuilding mode. Predicting anything past Nevada is very difficult so don’t be surprised if this gets jumbled quite a bit during the year.

Conference USA West

Houston Houston*

Tulsa Tulsa

Rice Southern Methodist

Southern Methodist Rice

Tulane Tulane

UTEP UTEP

East

Southern Miss* East Carolina

Central Florida Southern Miss

East Carolina Central Florida

Marshall Alabama Birmingham

Alabama Birmingham Marshall

Memphis Memphis

The return of Case Keenum to Houston has Lars thinking that the Cougars will win the Conference USA Title this season and we both agree that they are easily the class of the Western division. However, I think Southern Miss will grab the East and come out victorious with superior defense, though it could just as easily be Central Florida, who won the conference and beat Georgia in their bowl game last season and also return a slew of talented players.

Mountain West Conference

Boise State* Boise State*

Texas Christian Air Force

Air Force Texas Christian

Colorado State Colorado State

Wyoming San Diego State

San Diego State Wyoming

UNLV New Mexico

New Mexico UNLV

Both of us think Chris Peterson and Kellen Moore are headed for another conference title and the most likely choice for a BCS buster. We talked up Air Force on the show and Lars even picked the Falcons to jump TCU in the standings. However, I am a firm believer in Gary Patterson’s defense, and even with a little rebuilding year I think the Frogs will still be an incredibly difficult team to beat. The one other note is Lars’ (and Phil Steele’s) bold prediction that Mike Locksley’s New Mexico squad will escape the basement of the WAC. Despite all of the high profile transfers the program has had, I still am not convinced the Lobos will find success under the former Illinois Offensive Coordinator.

Independents

Notre Dame Notre Dame

Navy BYU

Army Navy

BYU Army

As former KRUI host Mike Rabon would say, “Bold strategy Cotton”. I don’t necessarily think Army will field a better team this year than BYU, but the schedules are not even comparable in difficulty. BYU will have to travel to five Ole Miss, Texas, Oregon State, and TCU (played in Arlington) as well as host UCF and Utah. With so many tough teams right out of the gate I have a hard time seeing the Cougars get bowl eligible while the Black Knights have a decent shot with their cushy slate of opponents. We both agree that Notre Dame is the class of the independents but you will have to listen to the podcast to see if we think the Irish are headed back to the BCS.

On NCAA Rules and Paying Athletes

There has been much talk recently, mostly in response to the meltdown at Ohio State, about whether or not the NCAA should start compensating athletes monetarily for their time playing sports.  You can find some good pieces supporting the initiative here and here,

I am not in the camp which supports paying players.  I give Jim Delaney more support than anyone not in his immediate family, but I will fight him to the death over his idea to increase compensation to players.  There are a few reasons to this:

1) It is not practical
2) It is not moral
3) They do not deserve it