Can someone explain the different ways schools can "get around" scholly limits?

I believe early enrollees are part.

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Can someone explain the different ways schools can "get around" scholly limits?

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to simplify, no. The ncaa and sec don't know. There are more bs loopholes than they know what to do with.

Count back, count forward, blue shirt, grey shirt, blah blah blah. As long as you have 85, you're fine.

Grey shirts, blue shirts and early enrollees is how they get massive classes.

Blue shirts may be the biggest loop hole in the recruiting game right now!

The process of assigning a blueshirt pushes a recruit’s scholarship number to the ensuing class, regardless of when he joined the program. Look at it like this: it’s like a greyshirt, but one where the recruit can actually play during his initial semester. A player is part of the 2014 recruiting cycle, for example, plays during the 2014 season yet counts towards the 2015 recruiting class. That’s a blueshirt in a nutshell.

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Blue shirts may be the biggest loop hole in the recruiting game right now!

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what the hell is a blue shirt? Can you give an example of one? There is a strict 25 scholarship limit for any calendar year, thus that's why early enrollies can be backcounted if there were any unused schollerships in the prior recruiting class due to it is still the same calendar year.

does micha eugene leaving free up a spot. i am guessing it would count toward the 85 total

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does micha eugene leaving free up a spot. i am guessing it would count toward the 85 total

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we still need to be 25 under the 85 limit to bring in the full class. Don't know where we stand in that regard right now. Gonna need a lot more attrition no doubt. Losing Eugene helps in that regard. Need more players 'processed'. It's a nasty business but it has to be done to keep up in the SEC these days.

greyshirts count against the next recruiting classes 25 man limit. It's not like it's just an extra scholarship. Counting back for early enrollies counts against the prior years 25 limit so you have to have had room to do so.

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Grey shirts have to pay for their first year


Thought only first semester. And anyone know the whole deal about essentially being a grey shirt but be on tops until you get the scholly in spring or next fall?

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A grey shirt delays enrolling full time in order to receive a ship in the spring that will count (initial counter wise) against the next class. IF HE ENROLLS in the fall he can only do so part time and he must pay his own way (his money, scholarships...it really doesn't matter for a grey shirt).

The reason for part time is that his eligibility clock will start if he is enrolled full time and he should just be a preferred walkon (at that point scholarship money would matter, but only if he plays).

TOPS is in kind of a grey area for me. I don't know enough about it, but it may not come in under the definition of institutional financial aid because of the way it could be administered. Someone with actual knowledge would have to comment.

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Where does over signing fit into this? I thought the SEC had stopped it, and you couldn't sign more than 25?

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I'll try to explain in the limited amount of time I have right now.

First there are two different concepts now. Signing (NLIs, scholly papers) and initial counters (athletes who receive institutional financial aid within their first two years. Initial counters is really the number that goes with the 85 and it is limited to 25/yr. Signings and initial counters are very similar, but there are some differences and I won't have time to get into it right now.

With ICs you can have 25/yr, but if you have unused one year, you can "carry them" forward into the next class by the number of EEs that you can apply to the previous class. You can apply as many as can fit under the 25 for the previous year constrained by the 85 for the previous year. You can relieve the 85 limit by the number of athletes that graduate by December.

So in this context, oversigning really just means catching up with your allotment. The signing limitation is a little different, but I don't have time right now.

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What was CNS doing that caused controversy?

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I don't know anything about this, so I can't comment.

Continuing on about signings. This rule was originally put in place when OM signed a shite load of non qualifiers (maybe a couple of baseball prospects were included, but the focus was on non qualifiers). They weren't trying to catch up on allotments; they were signing clearly unqualified athletes destined for JC in the hopes establishing a bond they could revisit in a couple of years.

I don't have a problem with it, but the academic types were embarrassed by it and the SEC implemented rules that limited the number of signings to 25/yr, but you could also backcount like with initial counters. The NCAA followed suit and copied the rule.

The problem then becomes one of interpretation. As written, the SEC rule seems to allow you to make up signings for athletes that fail to qualify. For example, say one of the signings just missed qualifying for the fall, but was able to get his act together by spring and you signed him as an EE.

As written, you would essentially be able to reuse the spot that he didn't take when he failed to qualify. The signing wouldn't count against any signing limitation and he would be an initial counter for the previous year, assuming his spot went unfulfilled. The NCAA manual, which has since clarified the rule, pretty much explicitly states this.

The problem is that no one in the SEC has taken advantage of this, to my knowledge, over the past two years. The SEC maybe interprets the rule more restrictively, essentially saying that a signing is a signing and counts regardless of when it occurs. An SEC spokesman was quoted saying this a year or so ago, but it's not clear he was answering the question he was asked since there was no follow-up.

I should say that if your objective is to limit the number of non qualifying signings, this interpretation makes a lot more sense than the other, which is barely a restriction at all if you want to manage it.

Anyway, hopes this makes sense.