UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 06
Friday, February 6, 2009
Teams mock NCAA signing limits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t know if you noticed but Ole Miss signed 38 players. to national letters-of-intent on Wednesday. “Thirty-eight!” And a year after signing 32 players in its 2008 class, Alabama signed 27 or 28 this year, depending on whom you believe. North Carolina signed 29.
Just to clarify, NCAA rules stipulate that teams are permitted to enroll no more than 25 players in a calendar year and can have no more than 85 players on scholarship at any given time. It’s a fairly important rule designed to keep all the teams on an even playing field.
Nevertheless, the latest trend seems to be to go bonkers with the letters-of-intent on signing day, then worry about how to deal with it later.
There are two basic ways teams get around this rule. One, teams have no intention of admitting the number of players they sign. A significant number are expected to NOT qualify for admission. So the school is merely claiming them now, helping to place them elsewhere and hoping they come back. Two, a big trend lately is for players to “greyshirt.” That is, they pay their own way for a semester or two with the promise of eventually being placed on scholarship. It’s a kind of pay-me-later agreement.
“I know it seems like a high number,” Nutt told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger of the Rebels’ 2009 class. “But it helps Mississippi. It helps out junior colleges… . I’ve got some guys who want to be a part of our program, but probably won’t make it academically. They’ve got a chance to go to a (junior college) and still be a part of our family.”
The trouble with that is, if these kids are so far off from being academic qualifiers, should a team be bothering to sign them? And if they’re not very far off from qualifying, isn’t there the potential for controversy if some of these players meet qualifications before fall camp? What happens then? You either have to tell them they can’t come, tell them they have to pay their own way or you have to boot somebody off your existing roster to make room.
Meanwhile, Georgia signed only 18 players this season (and has offers out to two more unsigned prospects), not all of whom are expected to qualify. And the Bulldogs famously turned away a couple of big-time recruits last season because they didn’t want to go over the limit.
Needless to say, Georgia coach Mark Richt has a different philosophy regarding oversigning.
“I think we do things the way it ought to be done,” Richt said on Wednesday. “We could always get into a situation where we oversign, but there’s no way I could look at a kid and his parents and say, ‘we had some room but now we really don’t.’ I just think you have to be careful. I don’t want to oversign then tell one of the kids we’ve already got ‘you’ve got no value to us’ and toss him aside. I’m not going to do that.”
Whatever you think, it’s a growing trend. According to bleacherreport.com, 33 teams signed more than their allotment of 25 prospects in 2006, 39 in 2007 and 30 in 2008. That was up sharply from previous seasons. I haven’t located this year’s numbers yet but I bet it’s at least that many.
Some links… .
Apparently Georgia defensive tackle Jeff Owens has his own blog now. No fair! …
Guess what! Apparently Bob Knight has dropped to Paul Finebaum the same hints about wanting the Alabama job as he did to our Furman Bisher about wanting the Georgia job. Methinks he just wants a job period… .
Add Lance Thompson’s name to the list of loudmouths now at UT.
Permalink | Comments (137) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
