It’s Oversigning D-Day; Here’s The Simplified Breakdown

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Today in Destin, Florida, the SEC’s presidents will decide whether their league will take a leadership role in the area of oversigning… or simply tighten up its existing rules.  Either way, the majority of SEC football coaches will likely be upset (either very upset or mildly upset).

After yesterday’s lengthy meetings, the presidents and chancellors gave little indication to the media of which action they might take.  One did, however, make it clear that the SEC would prefer to not be the only league taking action against the practice of oversigning.

South Carolina president Harris Pastides told Gentry Estes of 247Sports.com the following:


“We’d love the SEC to play a lead role on doing the right thing, but we would hope the NCAA would adopt whatever we do.”


And that’s the theme for the day. 

If NCAA president Mark Emmert gives some indication to Mike Slive and the conference that the NCAA will follow suit — as it did on the SEC’s 28-man soft cap a couple of years ago — then it’s likely the SEC will move toward a 25-man cap in today’s vote.  That would be a major shift in policy and, to be honest, a bigger change than Slive or Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone hinted at earlier in the week.

But Emmert attended the SEC’s meetings on Wednesday and told the press that he believed oversigning to be a “local issue.”  He said “not necessarily” when asked specifically if the NCAA would follow the SEC’s lead if it made a major course adjustment.  But just to make it interesting, he also said this: “It’s certainly an issue that’s more important to the SEC right now than other conferences, so if they come out with a good position, it may well be one that could become a national standard.”

We expect Slive did some more chatting with Emmert last evening.

“Most of the discussion (during yesterday’s meeting) was around if we go first and if we do something that is viewed as restrictive and conservative would that be a challenge to the rest of the country and to the other leagues or might we just be left out there as the only league,” Pastides said, ignoring the fact that the Big Ten already has a more restrictive cap on signees.  “Our football advocates would prefer that there be a so-called level playing field.”  (Again, “level playing field” depends on who’s doing the talking.)

“For us the challenge is, ‘Do you go first and hope that they’ll follow?  What if we go first and they don’t follow?  Are we going to go back then to 28?’  Nobody sees that happening.  So we’re either going to forge some new ground or not.”

The best bet — as we’ve said again and again — would be to better police the 28-man cap now in place.  The league’s presidents could do that with a compromise step that would close off some loopholes:


1.  Get tougher on medical redshirt cases

2.  Count all signees as soon as they arrive on campus (rather than in August, which would end the practice of eyeballing prospects and then deciding their fates)

3.  Cease other backcounting measures and make the league’s 28-man cap a hard cap.  (In February, Arkansas and South Carolina signed 32 players under the SEC’s 28-man soft cap.)


In our view, this would be a step in the right direction that would also allow Slive and the SEC more time to sway Emmert and other conference commissioners in the direction of taking bigger anti-oversigning action — as a whole — next year.

The average student does not arrive on campus for summer school only to find out in the fall that there’s really no room for him at that university.  So obviously it’s wrong for any student-athletes to be treated in such a manner.  Aside from a few fire-eating football fans who view their favorite program as a professional team, the vast majority of folks can see that.

The SEC’s presidents certainly see it.  They want to make a statement here.  It’s also clear that they want to stake out the moral high ground on this issue.  Pastides tried yesterday to make it sound as though the SEC is leading the way into a more civilized future when in fact the dreaded Big Ten has already planted its flag in the “restrictive cap” zone long ago.

Heading into this week’s meetings, many cynical members of the press — and we are a cynical bunch — predicted that no changes would be made to the SEC’s oversigning policy because the league’s coaches didn’t want changes made and coaches supposedly run the show.  Just yesterday ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach wrote in a Jim Tressel piece that “the football coach is the most powerful man on campus.”

Maybe not.  At least not in the SEC.  Its coaches don’t want changes.  And they sure don’t want major changes.  If the league’s presidents and chancellors vote to keep the status quo today, then indeed, you’ll be hearing tomorrow how the SEC is ruled by football.  But if those administrators choose to tighten up the existing 28-man cap or move to a far more restrictive 25-man cap, the argument that “football runs the school” will take a pretty heavy blow in the Deep South.

So that’s what’s riding on today’s vote in Destin.  Who has the power in the SEC?  Will the SEC make no tweaks, smart tweaks or major tweaks?  Will the SEC’s moves lead to new national legislation?

The answers come this afternoon.