Can We Sign 37 Football Recruits Like ODU?

[GoApps70]

Said in an ODU article that they are signing 37 football recruits this year the same as they did last year.
Thought the maximum was 25.
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/next-ye ... t-recruits

[GoApps70]

"ODU signed seven players on Dec. 18 - four of them junior college linebackers - who will enroll in January. Although the NCAA restricts FBS schools to 25 scholarships per year, ODU is allowed to credit those seven signees to the 2013 recruiting class, Wilder said. And that 2013 class was allowed to be larger than 25 because of the transition to FBS."

So you can exceed 25 if you are in FBS transition?

And how do you credit some players back to 2013 recruiting ...especially if you signed 37 recruits last year.

[firemoose]

Even for the non transitional teams this seems to be a rule that many teams find a way around. If you look just at the current top 10 on 24/7 three of the teams have over 25 commits (Florida State-29, Tennessee-33, Miami-26), in the top 50 there are 9 teams over right now and we're still 22 days from signing day. Teams who are transitional and have to make the 85 limit are allowed to go over the 25 due to that but there seem to be teams every year who get around this particular NCAA rule. I was planning to do a little count myself after signing day to see which of these teams list totals over 25, just for my own curiosity.

[appgrouch]

The other issue is that it doesn't say that they have signed more that 25 scholy players, some of those for the other schools could be walkons.

[mtnjax]

Teams over sign every year. I think the thought behind it is that not all of them will qualify.

37 though? That's ridiculous

[AppStateNation]

This is kind of a complicated question but from my understanding the 25 limit only counts towards individuals getting scholarship aid for the first time so transfers wouldn't count (not sure about JuCos).

One main way to do it is "backcounting" where you can count all or some of your early enrollees as part of last years class if last years class was under 25. Maybe individuals from the last class failed to academically qualify etc.

Another way to do it is "grayshirt" offers where their scholarship doesn't start (or count against the 25) until the following year. Grayshirt offers are also what I like to think of as the backup plan for oversigning.

Which brings us to "oversigning" which is really controversial and the rules vary by conference. For an explanation on that read here: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... as-to-stop

There are probably even more ways to do it but those are the main ones I know about.

[EastHallApp]

You can sign as many as you want. The rule is that you can only enroll 25 per year. The article said they had some attrition from last year's class, which might mean some didn't qualify. Recruits who sign an LOI but don't qualify don't count toward the 25 cap.

Any recruits enrolling in January can be counted toward the previous year's class if there are available scholarships. I'm guessing some of ODU's 37 from last year did that as well, which would further clear space for this year's early enrollees to count toward 2013.

Note that App has publicly stated their desire to sign about 30 this year. Presumably we will be counting some or all of the five January enrollees toward the 2013 class.

[AppStateNation]

Exactly but the conference rules vary though and may not allow a school to sign as many as they want. The Big-10 requires waivers over 25 and I think the SEC does over 28.

[GoApps70]

Wow. Never thought there were so many ways to get around the recruitment
numbers. Interesting.

[EastHallApp]

Another question though is whether it really makes sense to sign that many in a class as opposed to holding a few spots open for next year. A transitional program like App or ODU might be able to attract better prospects in 2015 if they have a decent first season in FBS and start to establish themselves that way.

Most likely an FCS transitional school is going to have relatively few seniors exiting the program next year due to the previous 63 limit. So even though you can sign up to 25 in a class (and maybe more for reasons explored above), you still have to stay under the 85 total limit. Which means if you only have, say 10-12 seniors on your roster, expect to see a bunch of attrition before fall 2015, as most coaches want to be able to sign a full 25 (at least) almost every year.

[hapapp]

Of course, as a startup program, ODU is probably front loaded with a lot of juniors and seniors.