Now, we all know that the SEC has a different interpretation than most conferences do when it comes to National Letter of Intents. While most of the conferences comply with the intent of NCAA rules and do not give out more NLOIs than they have scholarships for – the SEC is the football equivalent of a major US airline – each year they overbook their football scholarships.
50% of the Lemming Top 10 classes were SEC schools. While the NCAA states that you cannot give more than 25 new scholarships in any given year, of the 5 SEC teams in the Top 10, only Georgia gave out 25 NLOIs or less and that was just barely below, at 23.
Florida topped the list and had 28 NLOIs. 3 more than the scholarships that they are able to legally give out. Let’s see, 3 scholarships. Would they still have the Number 1 class if Jerimy Finch was told Florida was out of scholarships and he stayed committed to Indiana? How about if they didn’t recruit Justin Trattou because they didn’t have room and he stayed with a commitment to Notre Dame. What would the rankings be if Major Wright had come to Ohio State because Florida was already at their 25 limit? Just 3 scholarships would have made a big difference.
But why stop at just 3 over the numbers? Number 2 Tennessee sure didn’t as they received 32 signed NLOIs. Number 6 South Carolina brought in 31 NLOIs. But they didn’t even lead the SEC! Mississippi State has 34 signed LOIs in their possession. Now, Lemming has ranked Mississippi State as the 33rd best recruiting class in the nation. This must mean that Mississippi State is able to attract a LOT of really mediocre players. My hat is off to Mississippi State.
But look that the numbers – just these THREE SEC schools have overbooked 22 scholarships. 22 scholarships?? That is the MOST NLOIs received by ANY Big 10 school this year. Iowa and Minnesota each signed 22 players. These 3 SEC schools OVERBOOKED 22 scholarships. And we wonder why 50% of the Top 10 are SEC schools?
Ten SEC teams ranked in the Top 50 recruiting classes. These ten teams averaged 27.6 NLOI per team. They AVERAGED more NLOI than the NCAA says you could give out scholarships! All 11 teams of the Big 10 were ranked in the Top 50. The Big 10 averaged 19.36 NLOI per team. That’s right….the SEC averaged over 8 NLOI – per team - more than the Big 10.
How would the NCAA, vaunted for its dedication to fairness, politically correct mascots and keeping football playoff free, allow such a travesty out in front of God and everybody else? Well, Tech lets us in on another dirty little secret:
The National Letter of Intent program is NOT administered by the NCAA.
I’ll wait until you read that again. The National Letter of Intent program was not started by or run by the NCAA – the NCAA has NOTHING to do with it!
No, the National Letter of Intent Program is run by The Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA). Started in 1964 with seven conferences and eight independent institutions, the program now includes 55 leagues with more than 500 participating institutions.
Want to know the OTHER dirty little secret? The Southeastern Conference is the conference that abuses the program to their benefit. Would you like to complain about it? Well, here is what the NLOI Program website states:
"Please note that the NLI program is not an NCAA national office administered program. It is administered through the Southeastern Conference (SEC) office. Specific questions regarding its application should be directed to the SEC office at (205) 458-3013."
Yep, the conference that gives out more NLOI than they can fill is also the conference that runs the entire program!! Say it with me now, “sweeeeet”.
Luckily, we are neither cynical nor sarcastic here at Bucknuts. Otherwise, we would have a field day with information like that…
