Bo Pelini: Eliminate Signing Day

[Thanks_Tom RR]

I get your point, but that is making Bo's point. Bo has to do the same as every other school or he will fall behind.

I don't disagree, but his statement implied that "some of the people don't even know these kids". Well Nebraska is one of the WORST offenders when it comes to a huge number of offers. Do they somehow know them better than every other school with less offers? And it takes about 4 posts before someone starts bashing the SEC. Well newsflash, Nebraska would be one of the worst in the SEC as well. Here's some notable B1G teams, along with the entire SEC as of the time of his statement.

Illinois - 242

Wisconsin - 234

Nebraska - 205

Ohio State - 188

Penn State - 130

MSU - 123

Michigan - 100

Northwestern - 98

Iowa - 89

Tennesee - 268

Kentucky - 247

Miss St - 238

Alabama - 198

Florida - 198

Ole Miss 195

Arkansas - 147

Auburn - 147

South Carolina - 144

Georgia - 133

LSU - 132

Missouri - 124

A&M - 98

Vanderbilt - 95

This got me thinking, and I could be way off base here, but if Pelini got his way, wouldn't it be very counterproductive to his own program?
It would appear, at least on its surface that it would directly benefit the schools that take whomever they want, and the ones that completely dedicate themselves to it, like your Franklin types.

Here is my (possibly, Ok very likely wrong) thinking.

Say there is a 100 or so top recruits. I could see the 15 or so lucky enough to get a Bama offer take it, leaving the rest to your Ohio St's Florida St's, USC's, pick an "elite" school. Maybe Nebraska gets some of their targets, maybe they don't

So then the next tier goes through, and obviously the big schools who nailed down their top 100 can only get 2 or so more, and everyone else fills in. Sure there may be an Ameer in there who gets overlooked because of size or something, but It seems to me like this all but will guarantee that the rich in recruiting will get richer.

Bo would have to target and heavily recruit his players diligently for an entire year before the first offers came out to make an impression. This would be a good thing, but I don't think its a thing he wants to do.

Or I'm way off base here and just talking out loud.

Bo is trying to slow down the recruiting process by making an offer mean something since a recruit could sign as soon as an offer is made. We won't see 200+ offers per team being made or offers going out to 8th, 9th, 10th, or, to an extend, 11th graders because if a team offers, the kid commits and is a bust because of insufficient time to evaluate, then that team is punished. It could also slow down recruiting in the senior year because recruits would not likely commit until they visit, so a team won't want to throw out offers unless there was a mutual level of commitment.
Since getting recruits to campus is both a hurdle and a major selling point for Nebraska, slowing down the recruiting process would allow these recruits more time to take officials and would help Nebraska, and other teams that put in the leg work to evaluate on a national stage because they are not in recruiting hot beds.

 

[True2tRA]

With the constant changes in college football and life, whether it be a kid changing his mind, a program making a coaching change, an assistant deciding to take a different position elsewhere, etc., a kid would almost be foolish to sign a binding letter to a school sooner than he had to. You can talk the "commit to the school, not the coach" gibberish, but get real. What kind of an idiot commits to a school without considering the coaching staff as a huge factor in their decision. After all, it is the coaches that go around the country and do the recruiting. We've heard many times recently a lot of these kids don't know a damn thing about Nebraska before they came here. That initial contact and relationship with that coach is a vital part to even getting them to come see the facilities.

I don't think Bo's idea is a terrible one, but I would still expect the smarter kids to sit back and weigh their options a bit. Why rush the process?

 

[Count 'Bility]

And also for a guy like Bo and his staff as being nationally reknown for being great evaluators (it really seems at times that Bo and staff are just scout bitches for the SEC), it would be a plus. We can find the guys and sign em too.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Nebraska has to make a ridiculous amount of offers in order to match the status quo of current recruiting practices. There's definitely a separation between the ideal and necessity. I don't know if that would benefit or harm Nebraska's recruiting. All in all, I'm willing to bet that it would have a negligible effect on recruiting because at the end of the day it comes down to when the kid is ready to commit.

Regarding "gray shirting": I wonder how many recruits who gray shirt have promises that they'll have "help" in paying their tuition in lieu of a scholarship. Speculative and based on nothing more than my resentment of anything SEC.

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

It's true the sec profits the most from NSD surprises. But this move would just trade one problem for a host of new ones. You'd soon have 16 year olds being pressured to sign early and the sec can turn up the heat hotter than anyone.

 

[Count 'Bility]

It's true the sec profits the most from NSD surprises. But this move would just trade one problem for a host of new ones. You'd soon have 16 year olds being pressured to sign early and the sec can turn up the heat hotter than anyone.

But with 2-3 years left of development inm not sure schools would take so many chances. Plus throw in the mentality aspect. Will some kids work hard enough to develop their full potential knowing theyre already committed to a bama or ohio st? Some complacency would set in i think. Now all these offers are just thrown around with no repercussions. If they develop great make a hard push. If not? Pull the offer for someone who did.

 

[Landlord]

It's true the sec profits the most from NSD surprises. But this move would just trade one problem for a host of new ones. You'd soon have 16 year olds being pressured to sign early and the sec can turn up the heat hotter than anyone.

Yeah I don't think schools would be stupid enough to make offering sophomores/juniors a common practice.

 

[Saunders]

It's true the sec profits the most from NSD surprises. But this move would just trade one problem for a host of new ones. You'd soon have 16 year olds being pressured to sign early and the sec can turn up the heat hotter than anyone.

Yeah I don't think schools would be stupid enough to make offering sophomores/juniors a common practice.

There's a couple things that could drastically flip this on it's head, for the good.

Schools can only extend scholarship offers only after completion of junior year.

Schools can pay for visits upon completion of junior year.

Recruits can sign immediately upon receiving an offer.

Contract is void if there's coaching change.

 

[Landlord]

It's true the sec profits the most from NSD surprises. But this move would just trade one problem for a host of new ones. You'd soon have 16 year olds being pressured to sign early and the sec can turn up the heat hotter than anyone.

Yeah I don't think schools would be stupid enough to make offering sophomores/juniors a common practice.

There's a couple things that could drastically flip this on it's head, for the good.

Schools can only extend scholarship offers only after completion of junior year.

Schools can pay for visits upon completion of junior year.

Recruits can sign immediately upon receiving an offer.

Contract is void if there's coaching change.

That first one would also, in addition to slowing down the process, foster a better relationship where coaches recruiting kids prior to their junior year (being unable to offer) need to invest in actual relationships I think too.

 

[wildman]

With the constant changes in college football and life, whether it be a kid changing his mind, a program making a coaching change, an assistant deciding to take a different position elsewhere, etc., a kid would almost be foolish to sign a binding letter to a school sooner than he had to. You can talk the "commit to the school, not the coach" gibberish, but get real. What kind of an idiot commits to a school without considering the coaching staff as a huge factor in their decision. After all, it is the coaches that go around the country and do the recruiting. We've heard many times recently a lot of these kids don't know a damn thing about Nebraska before they came here. That initial contact and relationship with that coach is a vital part to even getting them to come see the facilities.

I don't think Bo's idea is a terrible one, but I would still expect the smarter kids to sit back and weigh their options a bit. Why rush the process?

I don't think Bo is trying to rush the process. It's more instead of Schools offering 200+ scholarships to fill 20 spots on their roster. Plus the kids having offers from 7+ schools to go to. It'd make it kids getting 1-3 offers and schools offering to 30 kids.

So It would slow it down as coaches would do more evaluation before offering. Plus the kids wouldn't be contacted as much and there for could concentrate more on school and the team they are currently on. Plus the coaches of schools wouldn't be wasting their time contacting a kid that they want trying to get them to decommit. They would just move onto the next target on their list.

 

[papersun87]

they couldn't have made "yes" red? ESPN HATES US

(also, this is cool.)

 

[Count 'Bility]

they couldn't have made "yes" red? ESPN HATES US

(also, this is cool.)

No kiddin. Bama's red too. #mystery

 

[kchusker_chris]

I don't think Bo is trying to rush the process. It's more instead of Schools offering 200+ scholarships to fill 20 spots on their roster. Plus the kids having offers from 7+ schools to go to. It'd make it kids getting 1-3 offers and schools offering to 30 kids.

So It would slow it down as coaches would do more evaluation before offering. Plus the kids wouldn't be contacted as much and there for could concentrate more on school and the team they are currently on. Plus the coaches of schools wouldn't be wasting their time contacting a kid that they want trying to get them to decommit. They would just move onto the next target on their list.

You don't think the top 100 recruits would still have 50+ offers? And when they don't sign with your school, you don't think the next batch would have 45+, and the next batch 40+? It doesn't make a bit of difference for the guys at the top of your board. Everyone wants them, for good reason. The only thing it changes is the 3* you offer in June as a plan B, can take the spot of the 5* you know you are going to have to work on until February. Then when the 5* doesn't sign, there won't be that 3* to come back to because he grabbed a spot somewhere else as quickly as possible because his options are much more limited. I actually think it might drag things out even longer...since a school can't offer the lower guy as early if they want to make a play on a superstar that is planning on waiting to make a decision. Then you'll have a batch of 3* guys waiting around hoping for an offer based on how the cards fall.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I don't think Bo is trying to rush the process. It's more instead of Schools offering 200+ scholarships to fill 20 spots on their roster. Plus the kids having offers from 7+ schools to go to. It'd make it kids getting 1-3 offers and schools offering to 30 kids.

So It would slow it down as coaches would do more evaluation before offering. Plus the kids wouldn't be contacted as much and there for could concentrate more on school and the team they are currently on. Plus the coaches of schools wouldn't be wasting their time contacting a kid that they want trying to get them to decommit. They would just move onto the next target on their list.

You don't think the top 100 recruits would still have 50+ offers? And when they don't sign with your school, you don't think the next batch would have 45+, and the next batch 40+? It doesn't make a bit of difference for the guys at the top of your board. Everyone wants them, for good reason. The only thing it changes is the 3* you offer in June as a plan B, can take the spot of the 5* you know you are going to have to work on until February. Then when the 5* doesn't sign, there won't be that 3* to come back to because he grabbed a spot somewhere else as quickly as possible because his options are much more limited. I actually think it might drag things out even longer...since a school can't offer the lower guy as early if they want to make a play on a superstar that is planning on waiting to make a decision. Then you'll have a batch of 3* guys waiting around hoping for an offer based on how the cards fall.

I think that's what he's getting at though. Pretty sure no one will argue that the top players that play in bright enough light to be known as a top player is still going to get X amount of offers.

But it's the random lower tier players that are offered as glorified backup plans. Either way, I still see it as having a positive effect and will put pressure on coaches to put more into their own evaluations and needs.

 

[kchusker_chris]

But it's the random lower tier players that are offered as glorified backup plans. Either way, I still see it as having a positive effect and will put pressure on coaches to put more into their own evaluations and needs.

And I think since Nebraska isn't historically able to pull in those 4* and 5* guys at a high number, we're going to end up with A LOT more of those 3* guys because we can't risk going after a guy that is going to drag things out.

Now, like you said - we'll have to evaluate them much more...so maybe we'll have a higher number of 3* players that make an impact - but overall I think our talent level would drop some. This would create an even bigger divide between the haves of recruiting, and the have nots. Ohio State, Florida, Michigan, Penn State, LSU, Nortre Damn, Alabama, USC, etc...they're going to be able to wait. We won't.