Readers Respond: Should Oversigning Be Banned?

Defenders of oversigning—a practice in which coaches recruit and sign more players than they can actually have under NCAA rules—say it gives coaches flexibility in rounding out their rosters. They also point out that the practice it not against NCAA rules

Critics say oversigning is a dishonest practice that victimizes and exploits players.

But what do you think? Should oversigning be banned?

Share your thoughts with your fellow fans here. Share Your Opinion

Biglar69

Being a college football fan I have wondered for some time why the SEC has been dominating the national scene as of late. Now I get it! Keep up the work it definitely needs to be changed. It is not right right to treat these kids in this way.

—Guest Larry Ewart

question

Is a school allowed to go over 25 recruits if this still puts them under the 85 player limit

—Guest rick

Asking recruits to leave

Texas has a little different slant. They wait a year or two to see if the player is productive before asking him to leave. To me this is worst than asking the kid to leave before getting settled in. Spending one or two years at the school and then being asked to leave so the Longhorns can sign a high prospect to replace him.

—Guest Vic

great article

Really appreciated the insight provided by this article. As a college educator at a school without a D1 football program, I've never really understood the issue of oversigning like I do now. I applaud the author of the oversigning website for shedding much needed light on this very serious issue. It's hard to believe that the NCAA would not protect vulnerable student-athletes from such practices. And, sadly, I can't help but note the two teams playing in this year's championship game. Let's hope institutional change happens soon. In the meantime, I wonder how certain coaches (Miles, Saban, etc.) can even talk about teaching character when they seemingly have none.

—Guest a fan

Hypocrisy?

The site author is a huge Ohio State fan; he is against the SEC more than he is against oversigning. He is constantly pummeled with logic on his own forum. He recently turned off comments... probably because he didn't want to face the criticism he deserves for defending Ohio State in the wake of the most damning oversigning testimony ever given. Despite James Jackson's unambiguous quotes implicating Tressel and OSU, the site author chooses to defend Ohio State while attacking the SEC for baseless reasons. Read the comments on his site... you'll see his true motives. And you'll see that the real problem is not "oversigning." The real problem is recruits being misled and/or lied to...

—Guest Charlie

Make it disadvantageous to oversign

NCAA should make LOI a 2 way street, enforced with sanctions if the university doesn’t comply. I think there should be 3 choices for every student finding themselves in that situation. I will use 3 fictional students to illustrate each option at U of X. You can sub any school name for U of X. Steve, John, and Peter all signed on to play at U of X. They all found out that they were over signed and were on the short end. Steve signed his LOI at U of X because he wanted to play Football on scholarship. He decided to use option 1. This option would make him eligible for an immediate transfer to any other university without burning any years of eligibility (including any possible red shirt). So he transfers to X Tech (which still has scholarships available) and plays there as a Freshman. John signed his LOI at U of X because he always dreamed of stepping out on the field in the X Stadium. He chose option 2. So he tries out for the team as a regular walk on at U of X and plays for t

—Guest Simple

Concerned Fan

Tim, I became aware of oversigning this past February when a friend of mine who went to Auburn and was telling me how many LOIs that AU were going to get on Nat. signing day. And I became concerned and started going to the Internet and found many, many articles and with lots of info. Most all of the articles were reporting on Alabama and LSU and how they have abused the system. And a few good articles a/b Mark Richt of GA, which, by the way is my favorite football team. My question is: Why hasn't Auburn been mentioned in any wrong doing? They have violated the oversigning system more drastically than any school. For instance: 2006/25; 2007/30; 2008/29; 2009/28 and 2010/32 for a total of 144. Eliminate 2006 and you get a total of 119 which is a 29.75 average over those 4 years. That is 1.50 more than AL over the same 4 years. Also, Auburn is the #1 school in the NCAA in spending on their football program and rumors are rampant that they pay some recruits.

—Guest Windell Parker

Don't lump all SEC teams in

You can't lump all SEC schools into this. Richt and Meyer are not in this boat I know. Florida actually turned one 5 star recruit away last year because they had no more room.

—Guest GoldenDawg

Why does the blog guy need anonymity

Why would some guy who writes a blog about something as innocuous a subject as oversigning need to have anonymity? He's not Salman Rushdie for gosh sakes. Who cares what the guy's name is, but the notion that he needs to protect his name is ludicrous, isn't it? Is he afraid he's going to be exposed as some kind of hack, or does he just have an axe to grind with the schools he's calling out? That's sure what it sounds like.

—Guest Just Curious

SEC has a competitive advantage

I am Bulldog fan. I didn't know about this until I read this article. I am glad Mark Richt doesn't oversign players as described in this article. The other SEC schools needs to clean this mess up! It gives the conference a black eye by finding a loophole in the NCAA rules to get a competitive edge.

—Guest Georgia BullDogs Fan

Oversigning also helps w/ marketability

In the digital age, the media is constantly talking about how schools are doing in the annual recruiting rankings. And don't kid yourself, the perception of how a program is doing is very important. The problem is most of the media pundits are sourcing recruiting sites such as Rivals.com and Scout.com, both of which award schools based on the total number of players they sign (see: e.g., Rivals.com's "Total Points"). Result: the schools that oversign are trumpeted as "winning" the recruiting competition while the schools that develop players over the longer term (and help them graduate with meaningful degrees!) are percieved as losers. This explains why only five schools have finished in the final top 10 in Rivals.com's recruiting class rankings over the past 9 years when signing fewer than 20 players Hmmm 20x4 = 80, and that doesn't include 5th year players! Something's rotten in Denmark.

—Guest Brian

NCAA dirty littlle secret

Recent reports from WSJ docum,ent Saban forcing players to accept medical redshirts to make room for new recruits. ALA has signed 147 players the last 5 years. Ohio state 97. No wonder the SEC is such a great conference. They step on the players to get there.

—Guest Razor