The right rev nutt however has only 18 players left from his 37 man ‘Nutt rule’ class, and from his 22 man ’10 class 13 remain. That’s what happens when you take recruits from your rival by telling them they’ll start as freshmen. He even told Brassell (wr south panola) who was committed to MSU, that he would play both ways at Tsun next year. Class.

I believe we make it very clear — we even state in the piece — that we're trying to give you a big picture snapshot of the lay of the land on this upcoming debate.

If I wanted to — or had time to — put together a piece detailing all of the subtle differences between oversigning, grayshirting, doing so legitimately, doing so dishonestly, it would fill a book.

If you want to buy a book on the subject, feel free. But if you want an idea of how the league's schools might feel heading into this debate, the post above is the best one you're going to find.

Thanks for reading,
John

For starters, you can't make judgments about how a school will "vote" based purely on number of players they've signed. For example, Auburn may have signed more players than any SEC school between 2002 and 2010, but that doesn't tell you anything unless you know what kind of attrition they had (e.g., in the Tony Franklin and Tommy Tuberville coaching transitions), where spots opened up because players left early, how many players they signed with the mutual understanding they wouldn't be able to make grades and would have to go to juco, etc. The numbers also really don't tell you anything at all about whether a school is employing deception or unfair practices. That's what "investigative journalists" are supposed to be for…

Getting to the bigger picture, couching this debate as "Pro-Oversigning vs. Anti-Oversigning" is a bit like describing someone as being "Pro-Gun" or "Anti-Gun." You can think guns are great and everyone should own one, you can think they're terrible and should all be banned, but most people fall somewhere in the middle — maybe you dislike guns but believe the 2nd Amendment protects the right to own them, you like guns for hunting but believe certain weapons ought to be banned, you support some kind of background check or waiting period policy, etc. The point is, the way this oversigning debate often gets portrayed badly misses the complexities of the issue, and your post similarly conveys little information about what actually is going to be addressed down in Destin and what each school will likely advocate for.

I get that you're a blogger, so I'm not singling you out for distorting the picture, because obviously you're not alone in this and the mainstream media really deserve most of the criticism for making it a yes/no, black/white issue. I do think the way this issue gets portrayed points to a broader tendency in sports journalism to oversimplify subject matter, which I think is a disservice to sports fans because, for better or worse, the way it's presented shapes public opinion.

But, never let the facts get in the way of an opportunity to blame the media for something.

John

Whoever decided that a kid with no chance to qualify was being wronged by being given the ability to sign a college scholarship did not know much what they were talking about.

I am a Carolina fan, and USC has never been in a posiiton where it could not enroll all the qualified and accepted into the University players in its class.

The fact remains that If Mauldin had remained committed to South Carolina and then went on to qualify, he would be enrolling this summer with the rest of his class. Of course, the odds of his qualifying are not particularly high and South Carolina had a plan for him at prep school when he didn't qualify.

In his case the rule limiting the new rule limiting the number of LOIs resulted in his choosing another situation that will probably be less advantageous to him. It forced the schools to pick which likely non-qualifiers that they allow to sign and which ones they would not. I do not really see the point in the rule.

Houston Nutt's ballyhooed class — didn't all the qualified players enroll in school? I'm not really sure what was so bad about signing no chance qualifiers to LOIs.