A Commitment To Nick Saban Is An Iron-Clad, One Way Street

I loved Doug’s list. Other than the obvious Saban omission, Gary Danielson and Drew Sharp (Big Ten Finebaum type) were the only glaring omissions to me. 

Nick Satan’s view on commitments must be news to Michigan State, LSU, and the Miami Dolphins.

I don’t even know who Houston Nutt is, and he’s already one of my favorite people.

I would say that saban landed at a place that fits him well. His ego and arrogance has been with out merit until he came to bama. He is a arrogant little man who has walked over the alabama media’s scared little sport writers He is a piece of work how he treats these parents kids after the recruiting process. But its starting to get attention his recruiting methods and how he would treat your child like trash after he gets them on campus if they dont light up the score board , axe them and recruit new victims.

Welcome to the Minor Leagues for the NFL—it’s not the NCAA anymore thanks mainly to its the timid enforcement behavior over the past 10 years or so,
 
The  Big conferences—-SEC mainly and a few other players like USC and FSU (students not taking any courses and athletes who should not have even been admitted to college because they lack basic educational skills like reading and writing above remedial levels).

College coaches can recruit/draft as many players as they can sign and then go through a "cutting" process like the NFL does with its pre-season camps. For the NFL—they have to have to cut down to just 58 players for ‘college’, they can stop at 85 players being kept.

Small wonder that the SEC has been a dominant force for BCS and National Championship games—they draft/recruit more players than any other programs and cut the extras as they go along.

USC ’s success appears to have been based on special treatment for players and NFL agents (just like the real NFL) having access to the program and even an extra ex-NFL coach on their staff on occasion too.

While everyone else has to play poker with a deck of 52 cards—these guys bring a deck of 118 cards and trim it down to 52 with a lot of extra Aces in the deck.

No wonder they are so hard to beat for the pot of money on the table each year—it’s a real stacked deck we’re playing against here.

The NCAA just enforced its 12 vacated game penalty for FSU—maybe the Feb 21st ruling will actually have some bite to it for USC.

All of this enforcement is long overdue.

The lines between the NFL and it’s Minor League teams has been getting blurrier by the passing season.

Why have rules if no one enforces them and those who flaunt them never get punished or get token penalties unless you’re New Mexico State or some other hapless program.

Like a lot of so-called journalists, you write in half-truths to try and make your point and leave out the details that give weight to the other side of the argument. First, your numbers are correct as far as signees go, but you omit the fact that there are over 15 players from those years that are counted twice. These are the JUCO guys and the grayshirts that are in the numbers when they initially sign and when they sign again. This year alone there were 4 players that were counted previously; three grayshirts and 1 JUCO. There would have been another but he didn’t graduate JC.
Secondly, you think big time college football isn’t a minor league for the NFL, then you are extremely naive. Players of today string coaches, fans, and media along and talk about things like "soft verbal", "top 5 list", "silent commitment", and "committed but still looking". These are not innocent little flowers and they know that a scholarship is a year-to-year renewal. They also know that they not only have to make the grade, but must perform at a high level in order to keep said scholarship. **** right players get cut, just like in any other sport where someone else is picking up the tab.
Next,why do you have to oversign?Many players,especially in the South are so borderline as far as academics, the coaches truly don’t know if they are going to make it or not. Would you rather everyone sign 25 on the nose, then lose 5 guys to academics and only bring in 20 players? The NCAA rule is 25 initial grants-in-aid and Coach Saban, or any other coach, has never brought in any more than that. Houston Nutt went crazy with 37, but he also only brought in 25 because most of the overage went to JC and he has a better shot at signing them again in 2 years because he is the one that placed them at the JC.
Lastly,as for Lawrence and Matchett go, the former quickly realized he wasn’t better than what Alabama already had and wasn’t going to see the field anytime soon and he transferred, the latter had health issues and was going to be behind a few guys named Ingram, Richardson, Upchurch, and Lacey.
In summation, this isn’t "left wing everyone gets to play and get a trophy football". If you like that kind of sports, go and take little Braxton over to the park and rec and have a 5th place celebration parade.
 

If Nick is so big on commitment, then why does his staff continue to recruit students that have given verbals to other schools? 

yep. Saban can be pretty cutthroat when it comes to how he manages his roster. it’s not uncommon for them to be around 5 players over the scholarship
limit a month before the start of the season. that’s when the annual
articles about Alabama working towards the 85-man limit start coming
out again and the surprise medical schollies and transfers start 
flowing. if you’re not contributing at a high enough level you’re going to get cut. it’s just how it is. Saban runs it like a corporation and new recruits sign up for it every year so confident in their abilities that they think it can’t happen to them.

it’s not as bad as the signee numbers indicate because they purposely take sure academic casualties to boost their class ranking but unlike bamadan asserts, JUCOs and grayshirts do not count twice. the 25 man scholarship limit is not a defense against claims of oversigning because four years of 25 player classes is 100 players. the number swells even higher when you take into account redshirts. it’s pretty telling that Alabama’s become the first team to ever had to back count early enrollees across multiple classes to be able give out scholarships for the players they sign.

Let’s look at the numbers…
http://www.oversigning.com/

Other than Troy University—-all of the other top "recruiting virtually without limits" schools are in the SEC.

No wonder they seem to have the such a powerhouse conference for the BCS rankings when you sign 240+ LOI’s in just four years—-your going to have a lot of extra players to develope and lots to "cut"’ from the squad to keep the old assembly line running way over capacity.
 
You don’t have to "over-sign" in this outlandish fashion—-alll you need to do is be more selective and intelligent in who you recruit and sign.

These distorted numbers show a "let’s round up as many as we can" mentality versus having a few extra recruits to cover admissions or academic problems.

This is great for the coaches—-and bad for lots of college atheletes who are a part of a farm system that discards kids as new kids come along.

LOI—what is that worth? It’s more like a Lotto Ticket that may pay off depending on who else gets over-recruited into your school’s football program.
Maybe you’ll get a four year degree at the end of it—-it’s pretty far from being a promise—it’s more of a roll of the dice to see who survives 4-5 years at these schools on scholarship.

But you better honor your commitment as a HS Senior—-even if we as coaches probably won’t honor it the moment a better player comes along and we need some 85 man scholarship room.

Hey—it’s just like the NFL operates—-only kids get to experience the whole business/commodity thing four years earlier than a pro player does—what a great educational experience to have.

thejoyofsobe,
Yes, JUCOs and grayshirts are counted twice in those overall numbers that Mr. Cook listed. They are counted in the overall signees when they first sign and are counted again when they re-sign. For example, this year Anthony Orr, Petey Smith, Darius McKellar, and Brandon Lewis were counted in the 29 number, but 3 of those grayshirts were counted in last year’s 27 number and Brandon Lewis (JUCO) was counted in the total number 2 years ago. If you sign 28 players and 3 grayshirt, then you have those same 3 added to your total the next year that back-count. This is why Auburn was able to oversign past the SEC mandated 28. It’s all semantics and fodder for bloggers who don’t know what they are talking about.

bamadan,

no they aren’t counted twice. grayshirts definitely only sign one LOI. the only way you’d get a JUCO transfer counted twice is if he signed with Alabama out of high school during Cook’s four year window and then signed a JUCO LOI later. Brandon Lewis is the only player to have done that for Alabama. so instead of 113 signees, it’s 112 unique signees.

thejoyofsobe,
You are missing the point entirely. I didn’t say they signed twice, I said they counted on the overall numbers twice. 3 of the 29 this year were 3 of the 27 from last year. Look it up. They are counted in the media numbers but aren’t brought in as a reality. Auburn "signed" 32, which looks like it breaks the SEC rule, but in reality some of those players count for last year.

You don’t mean that Nick would do ANYTHING that hints of impropriety… shame on you!!   NOW you know what we Auburn fans/grads have to put up with, much less Coach Chizik and Company.  The improbable countless "bumps", fishing trips, laptops, etc.  The bammers claim Auburn is afraid of their worshipped coach – nothing could be further from the truth – Auburn is afraid of rampant, unpoliced recruitng escapades, the like of which took place during the bear bryant days.

decentpostings,

There is no way, no how, any Auburn fan can say anthing about any alleged recruiting violations. Your program is second all-time in probations behind SMU.

If Terry Bowden ever writes a tell-all book, it will embarrass the university to its core. He already stated he had to stop a pay-for-play system instituted under Dye.

Why don’t you all just man up and admit that you have been and always will be the redheaded stepchild in Alabama. You are the "other" program and will always be. Half the country thinks you are located in Georgia for pete’s sake.

No matter how many games you win, Auburn is the equivalent of Oklahoma State, Michigan State, UCLA, Texas A & M, and Washington State. You will have your moments and make the occassional run, but you will always be the "other" team. Deal with it and stop obsessing over your rival just like those other teams do.

Oh, and one more thing. Any program with Trooper Taylor on its staff isn’t very far away from getting looked at by the NCAA. He has already been suspended by the AU administration for his recruiting tactics (which was quietly covered up).

I don’t know how many times he has to say it, Saban will NOT be recruiting too many players to Alabama!

If nothing else he has always been a man of his word

Players should have to honor thier committment as long as the university will allow all athletes to transfer without penalty when a coach takes another job. 

Now that sound fair.

"I think a commitment is a commitment"…  Did HE really just say that?!

Maybe he should have "honored" his commitment to previous teams.  Then, it would’nt sound so idiotic to hear him utter any sentence with the word "commitment" in it.

Haters got to hate!

Nick wants the best 85 kids possible on scholarship — what a surprise.  It’s within the rules, and the kids who don’t make the cut get the university’s help to make other arrangements.  Where, exactly, is the inhumanity?

Grades, training program, practice habits….  Some kids don’t make the transition to college football at that elite level.  Finding them a program that’s a better fit seems like the best thing for everyone involved.  Playing at Eastern Washington or Troy suits some kids better than being a practice player at a national power.

If you want to find coaches that are failing their committment to their kids, take a look at graduation rates and graduation rate trends.  There’s your sign.

It’s all about hate/jealosy and sports magizines using that to sell, nothing else. People, fans of any other school are jeolous and hate. This year its Bama, Last year it was Florida, and in the past USC, Texas and on and on. The mags know this and thats how it all works, we just fall right into it. What is written/printed doesnt have to be fair or true, not any more, it cant be painted in a color that suits.  The more controversial a Ss called journalists is the more famous. And any jeolous/hating fan will jump on any tid-bit and run like the wind. Smiling like the fool that he is. Myself included.