The Bodda Getta

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dpwspringer said...

IMO, the whole mess with the recruiting/signing process is a reflection of a lack of leadership at the conference/NCAA level. I don't think it would take that much tweaking of the existing rules/procedures to make it more reasonable for everyone involved. As it is it is like some cutthroat operation from the wild west finished off with something resembling the Oklahoma land rush on the first day/hours a National Letter of Intent can be signed where people get trampled.

Like you I don't understand all these public, non-binding verbal commitments. Too many people want them to mean different things at different times. This creates unnecessary frustrations, ill feelings, and frankly screws some folks over. They are not an early signing period and they are way too early to effectively be one anyway.

The rules/procedures have an early signing period at an appropriate time that is not being properly utilized in the National Letter of Intent program. The NLI process in suppose to be utilized over a period of time, not just the first day. This year the regular NLI signing period for fall enrollees is from Febuary 6th through April 1st, which is about a seven week period. At that time the kids have played their final high school football,the kids have nearly completed their course work, and the colleges have likely made any coaching changes they are going to make for the coming season. If they would limit the number of NLIs each school could give each week they could avoid the 'Oklahoma land rush' syndrome and put some needed sanity into the process.

And while I am on my soap box I will say that the number of scholarships available, counting promised ones with NLIs, and expected to soon be available for each school should be available to the public and updated the day it changes so the recruits know what that situation is before they commit or waste their time dealing with a situation that doesn't fit their criteria. There needs to be some truth in recruiting to avoid some of the situations that have occurred.

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PhillipMarshall said...

It's not really about college athletics. It's a contract. Auburn has to pay him through 2014 unless he gets another job, in which it has to pay him the difference in salary. Virginia Tech just took advantage of the situation.

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dpwspringer said...

I agree with all of that. But you can pass a rule that schools cannot solicit non-binding verbal commitments, publicly acknowledge them, or participate in the keeping score of who is verbally committed to whom outside of the NLI process. Let them operate within the early signing period as per the NLI process and maybe even modify the NLI process so schools can only give so many NLIs per week during that early signing period to do away with the NSD rush.

Let me ask this, just what is the purpose of the regular signing period for NLIs that extends from Feb 6th to April 1st... isn't that THE early signing period? Why not adjust the rules so it is what it is suppose to be and quit acting like these non-binding verbal agreements are suppose to mean whatever someone wants them to mean each time they deal with it?

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PhillipMarshall said...

Schools already can't acknowledge verbal commitments. There's just no way to regulate whether someone publicly announces what he is going to do or whether a school asks him to tell them what he's going to do. The NCAA doesn't see commitments as a problem because they neither acknowledge them nor care about them in any way at all. They don't care if a player commits to a different school every day.

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AURet1SG said...

I like D Walker's comment about "telling the coaches like a man". Good character trait and a nice addition to our Auburn team. WDE Dominic.