KP, Nope, that is how schools get away with signing classes of 30 kids. When they do things like that, they are counting on one of two things. Attrition due to grades, crime or general transfer (the latter is where a LOT of kids are given the option to either spend one more year doing nothing before not having their scholarship renewed.. OR the staff will 'assist' them in finding an optimal transfer location. I'd like to clarify now, that by 'assist' that means they place a phone call to the Terry Bowden's of the world.) The second angle they are counting on is being able to greyshirt kids if they don't lose enough players to attrition. I suppose there's really 3 options because the 3rd option is to simply not offer the kid a scholarship at all, which has happened but is usually the most extreme cases. The kids would rather greyshirt than face the humiliation of being unwanted. Sadly, when the 3rd option happens it is almost always the local kid who just wanted to play for that school. It's never the 5 star guys. Why? Because you can **** on the local kids but not the high end guys. The whole thing is just despicable, but it's the reality of the game at this time under the current structure. Like I said, the LOI binds the kid to the school absolutely. It does not bind the school to the kid. There's always an 'out' for the school. There isn't an 'out' for the kid that doesn't cost him something. That's unfair contract law, which is precisely what this is. They don't like to use those terms because once you get into the term contract law, you're opening a big ugly can of worms the NCAA would be wise to avoid. Terry, You are correct. You and I aren't far apart, if at all, on this issue. With the EV and Thomas situation, they are the extreme 5 star situations that garner attention. No one cares about the 3 star kid. The issue comes when the high end guys can attempt to exploit the egregious and unfair practice of this contract law, to play the public sympathy card and use that as their only leverage to try and get out of their obligation. I actually hold way more sympathy for Thomas than I do EV. (And it's got nothing to do with the Irish) I think these are both clear cut cases of tampering. With EV, I think it's tampering flat out. His grandma may be sick, but she was sick before. Grandmas get sick. I don't buy that this is a 'new' consideration. With Thomas, I really believe that the kid was unsure about where to go but his mother wants him to go to Florida State. I think once it became clear in that situation there was blood in the water, Kiffin moved in and tried to lure him away to USC. That being said, I do see a difference between the 2. The way I see it, Thomas is 'getting screwed' a bit by the system although I think tampering did take place there after the situation arose. With EV, I don't think he's getting screwed at all. In fact, I think both of these kids are lucky the NCAA doesn't request the family's phone records. I do see the schools as victims partially in all of this. I say only partially because they know full damned well what these other coaches are doing but won't call a duck a duck. They have all the power in the world to tighten up the LOI to make it truly fair and they have the ability to clamp down on coaches who are tampering. They don't though, because they benefit from it all in the end. The drama sells.
Oh, one more thing... Guaranteed 4/5 year scholarships. This will force the school's hand to place a greater investment in the enrichment of the child. Yes there's free tuition and board. There's even free food to an extent. There are 'tutor programs' to help the athletes, but it's not there like it seems we all think it is. For a variety of reasons, a lot of these kids aren't ready for college when they step foot on campus. Hell, a lot of freshman aren't, but these guys have this tremendous added burden of having to perform both in the classroom and especially on the athletic stage. It can be a lot to juggle. A lot of these programs have these resources there for the kids, but don't take the time to really hold their hand and walk them through it all. These kids need to be taught how to be students in a lot of cases. That should be priority number one for these institutions. Right now, it's not. I understand we can say 'well hey, these are big boys and they can get busy swimming or they can get cast off the island.' I get that, I really do. At the same time, that's a very corporate approach to what is suppose to be an academic endeavor. If one wants to take that cold corporate world approach toward the enrichment of the kids, that's fine. Just don't be surprised when the kids take that cold corporate world approach to the man behind that curtain that is the NCAA...(Ed O'Bannon case). My point in all of my inane ramblings about these situations isn't that I'm this bleeding heart, blow up the system guy. I quite like the system, but I think it can be improved. My point is that the NCAA and their member institutions need to take a cold, long hard look at the man in the mirror before deciding 'What in the hell are we doing here, exactly?' Because right now, I'm not sure they do know. I know I have no idea what they are doing besides counting dollars. They have the ability, and always have, to tighten this up and right the ship. They are perilously close to losing it all though. They need to refocus their mission statement and the execution of it asap.. by asap, I mean yesterday. The cold corporate 'real world' approach is fine, but it's a 2 way street and it's one they stand absolutely zero chance of winning in a court of law. They need to be mindful of that.
On the lighter side.. One of the things I've enjoyed about living in SEC land is just how absurd it all is. It's wonderful, but it's absurd at the same time. As I'm sure you've heard by now, Alabama will have a waterfall in their locker room soon.. This article parodies what will surely be the latest arms race in the SEC.. Good stuff here.. http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2013/6/18/4441824/the-sec-water-feature-war-has-just-begun
Sometimes, guys go onto better things after football. http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2013/06/former_alabama_rb_glen_coffee.html
everybody at North Carolina should be fired... everybody http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/08/2948647/former-unc-african-studies-chairman.html
:shock: Wow. That's the same crap that went on at USC and other evil empires for a long time. All the "good people" in charge were looking the other way, while players were taking classes in African Studies, Swahili Language, and Ballroom Dancing. At Penn State, all the good people looked the other way while children were raped for forty years. I don't trust the good people in football any more...
Spencer is sharpening his blade getting ready for the NCAA's beheading.. this is a pretty good warmup... The NCAA has a negative credit rating... great :-/ http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2013/6/25/4460574/you-should-not-lend-the-ncaa-money