Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

One of the hot topic at this week's Southeastern Conference spring meetings of coaches and athletic directors at Sandestin, Fla., is the "oversigning" controversy affecting football. The SEC attempted to curb some of the national bad press by instituting a 28-maximum football signing class per recruiting season after Houston Nutt inked 37 players for Ole Miss in 2008. Still, the way the SEC operates compared with the Big Ten has drawn criticism, including some from within the conference.

Nutt, interviewed by the conference Tuesday morning in Sandestin from its Internet streaming interview room, confessed to the role of "poster boy" for oversigning, but at the same time said he wouldn't have a problem with legislation that even did away with the 28-maximum signing limit. No matter the number of Feb. 2 signees, an NCAA school cannot enroll more than 25 scholarship athletes per year and can maintain a maximum of 85 total scholarship players in the program.

The Big Ten, for example, combats "oversigning" by allowing a more palatable number of over-signs: Football programs in February may only sign three more players than the total number of scholarships they will have available based on losses from its senior class. To put that in terms concerning Arkansas, the Razorbacks had 16 scholarship seniors on last year's roster, plus junior Ryan Mallett announced before the Feb. 2 national signing date that he would not be returning for his senior season. With 17 open spots for scholarships, the Razorbacks by Big Ten rules would have only been able to sign 20 athletes (high school or junior college) on Feb. 2, rather than the SEC-allowed 28.

Arkansas also signed 28 last Feb. 2, but only 21 players actually enrolled in August, so Arkansas signed four more players in December that "counted back" to the previous signing class. Will let the SEC figure out whether that's following the intent of the 28-signee rule.

The problem with "oversigning," according to the critics, is that programs release athletes from scholarship to sign better players behind them. Arkansas saw five players quit and one player give up football for medical reasons recently, which conveniently lets the Hog football program hit the 85-scholarship limit for the program when incoming players are counted.

Ole Miss, despite Nutt's penchant for "oversigning" starting with his 2008 signing class, will only have 76 players on scholarship in September, including the incoming recruits from last February. Many of the players included in his class of 37 were not academically eligible for Ole Miss and had to attend prep school or junior college out of high school, with the expectation that Ole Miss would re-recruit them when they established eligibility.

The other issue with "oversigning" is that come August, one of the signees may find out that the scholarship promised in Feb. 2 isn't there. Maybe not enough older players left, there isn't a spot now, and that incoming freshman is asked to "grayshirt" - pay his own way in the fall and wait until the next spring semester for a scholarship to come open. In most cases we're familiar with, players know in February that they are signing but with the knowledge they will "grayshirt."

Scholarship players aren't just shown the depth chart and advised to seek a lesser program; some tire of the grind or become disenchanted with the university or the coaching staff and leave on their own volition, and others suffer injuries that cut their careers short. That is why the Big Ten allows three additional signees over the number of scholarships available.

For those keeping count with Arkansas, the Hogs have 21 scholarship seniors on the 2011 roster.

For more on "oversigning," check out this website blog that condemns the practice. But also consider the Big Ten bias and the fact that the SEC has handled the Big Ten with regularity in the BCS title games, and every SEC team had beaten Ohio State in a bowl game until the Buckeyes escaped Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl 31-25 on Jan. 4.

BASKETBALL CONCERNS: The SEC East basketball coaches aren't happy with the way the SEC Tournament is seeded. For two meetings now, a move has been afoot to do away with divisions for SEC basketball -- it seems to work fine for the Big 12, the ACC and the Big East to have football divisions while having one humongous league in basketball and seed their basketball tournament by the way all teams fall in the standings.

In the SEC of late, an 8-8 West winner can end up with a No. 1 seed and a bye to Friday while a 10-6 fifth place finisher in the East has to play four games and has a tougher road to the final.