Grey Shirting and Oversigning... Is it right?

The idea of manipulating a roster in college football has been a long standing tradition going back to the 1950s and even earlier. 

In the past, many teams could manipulate rosters by signing freshman classes of 50+ players and basically having them compete for spots on the actual roster. This was beneficial to the programs in two ways: 1. By signing so many players, team A is keeping teams B, C, and D from signing any of those players and keeping the best talent for single teams. 2. The competition of 50+ players competing for 25 or fewer spots on the team allowed the coaching staffs to evaluate players close up to decide whether single players are a good fit for the program. By using the oversigning practice for those two goals, some of the better coaches of the time period were able to keep their teams at the top of college football for years at a time.

In August of 1992, a new rule took effect in college football with the goal of keeping universities from signing large classes for the express intent of keeping that talent from going to other schools.

NCAA Bylaw 15.5.6.1 limits FBS football programs to a total number of scholarships to 85 "counters" annually including 25 scholarships for "initial counters." Counters (NCAA Bylaw 15.02.3) are individuals who are receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport, initial counters (NCAA Bylaw 15.02.3.1) are individuals who are receiving countable financial aid in a sport for the first time. Bylaw 13.9.2.3 limits schools to signing 28 NLI from initial signing day through May 31.

This NCAA Bylaw gave the understanding to schools that no more than 85 scholarship players could be on the team and no more than 25 could be signed in a single recruiting class. This was the first piece of NCAA legislation made to curb the epidemic of oversigning.

In a similar manner to PED users in major professional sports, universities began to look at ways to skirt the rule and not officially break the rule in the book but break the spirit of the rule.

The term "grey shirting" has become a vogue term in major college football. You may be asking, what is grey shirting and how does it affect my college team? Grey shirting is the practice of a player signing a letter of intent to play for a college but does not report for the fall semester. The player reports for the spring semester and still retains his full eligibility as he would if starting in the fall.

There are many reasons for a school to grey shirt a player but nearly all of them revolve around the idea of oversigning a recruiting class.

1. A player will not qualify academically. If the coaching staff knows going into the process that a player will likely not qualify to play on the FBS level academically for his freshman year, the school will have him sign with the school on national signing day and then oversign to replace him for the fall while working to set the player up with a junior college that will work to get him academically eligible to end up at the school in one or two years.
2. A player is injured and the school wants to see how well he recovers from the injury. This is where things tend to get murky with schools basically keeping a player from going to another school with no given intent to let the player on the team when the spring semester rolls around. If the school does not think the player is any longer good enough or healed enough to be a contributor to the program, they will just tell the player after he signs that they have no intent of having him on the team.
3. A coach knows a scholarship will be open after the season but not until the spring semester. This practice ends up happening with schools that see many departures due to transfers, players going pro, and naturally players just leaving the program in general. This is normally something that has been mentioned previously with the player and there is an understanding between the player and the university that this is the best way to go.
4. A school gets a better recruit at the last minute. If a running back commits early in the process to a school and is the running back of choice for months and months and suddenly at the end of the signing period, a better player comes along and signs his letter of intent, the coaching staff may try to grey shirt the first player while having the better player sit out a semester. Usually this happens right before signing day and causes the highest amount of drama between coaches and players. Players feel like the coach abandoned them after the player pledged his services previously. The most common scenario ends up with the player choosing another college completely.
5. Coaches trying to purposely circumvent the rules. When a coach brings in a large recruiting class that has all players academically make the cut, there has to be someone that loses out in the end. Many times a fringe player will be unceremoniously cut from the team with the press release saying he left the team for personal issues. This frees up a scholarship for the oversigned incoming player. Other times the incoming player may enroll in summer courses and work out with the team before the team decides later on that "it isn't a good fit" and they tell him he will not be with the program in the fall. This could result in a grey shirt or the player leaving the program entirely.

The question becomes with the practice of grey shirting and oversigning, is it right?

As shown in the reasons for grey shirting, there are some very good reasons that schools oversign and grey shirt such as the academic reasons and sometimes the medical reasons. If the school can help to get the player academically straightened up and only lose one or maybe two years of eligibility while the player is still able to play on the junior college level, it is a win-win for everyone. After the time at the JUCO, the player and school can then decide if they want to continue the relationship started with the original LOI. Many times this is not the case and the player signs elsewhere after a stint at the JUCO that the original school set up. Neither the player or the school was hurt by this arrangement and no hard feelings in the end.

The medical situation can work for both sides if everyone is up front and honest from the beginning. A school may want the player but not want to lose his redshirt status with him coming in injured. If the school and player agree, then the player comes in with freshman eligibility in the spring and is normally fully healed in the fall of his new freshman season. Then the player and school are in a win-win scenario and both benefit. The part where the medical grey shirt falls apart are the instances where a team tells a player a week or two before signing day that their plan is to grey shirt the player. The player then disagrees with the coach considering the time of the conversation and normally decides to go a separate way. This is usually a bad scenario for the player and bad press for the school. According to a y column by al.com’s Mike Herndon. Philon, a defensive lineman from Prichard, Ala., injured his knee toward the end of his senior season. On signing day, Philon put on an Alabama baseball cap at an emotional ceremony [see video below] but ended up signing hours later with Arkansas – a school he never visited. Philon’s coach told al.com “He had the world snatched up from under him.” Philon was apparently no longer needed after Alabama upgraded at the position with defensive linemen Dalvin Tomlinson and Korren Kirven.[1]

Former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt was notorious for his signing classes with Arkansas. The NCAA allows 25 scholarship freshmen to report in the fall, but Nutt found a way around that. He'd sign well over 25, and then figure out which losers to cut loose. Two years ago he signed 37 recruits, binging on high school kids like a drunk binges on beer, and that was enough. The SEC passed what is known in coaching circles as "The Houston Nutt Rule," limiting its schools to 28 signees. That's a start, but it's still not good enough. Bad men like Les Miles and Nick Saban will binge by signing those 28 players, then purge the excess.[2]

I write this as a jumping off point for discussion rather than an all encompassing post about grey shirting and oversigning and recruiting in general. What are your thoughts about grey shirting?

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[1] http://blogs.ajc.com/recruiting/2012/02/05/dalvin-tomlinson-speaks-out-on-alabama-grayshirt-scandal/

[2] http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/13727507/bad-guys-utilize-oversigning-and-it-has-to-stop