Questions

[AR Husker Fan]

I must confess that my knowledge of recruiting rules in general is woeful. So I would like to appeal to the members of the Board for some insight.

1. How many scholarships did NU have to give this recruiting season?
    
   
2. Most schools seem to "over-recruit", always expecting one to three of the recruits to not make it to campus...usually due to academics. From reading some of the posts, it appears the Big Twelve has some kind of higher admission standard. Is that correct? Any details?
    
   
3. If there is higher standard, does it prohibit going after partial qualifiers, or offering to kids that haven't yet qualified?
   

While I have to say that Callahan's folks did better than I would have expected, I'm curious as to why the class is relatively small. Was it due to being unable to get the kinds of kids they wanted? Was it due to a limitation on the number of scholarships? Just curious. Thanks.

[HuskerBob]

to my knowledge each school has 25 schollies to give.

Im not sure about the other questions I'll let some other peeps address those.

 

and dont think that just b/c we havent used all our 'ships doesnt mean we wont. signing day isnt a deadline, just a starting point. we will prolly land 3-5 new kids before spring ball.

 

good question tho. Im wondering the same things.

[CalHusker]

As far as the size of the class, it is consistent with recent, previous years:

2003-19, 2002-18, 2001-18. 2000 was a bit higher with 21. A couple of the guys that got away such as Hatchett would have had to make up a class or two; in other words they would have had to work a little harder and they were not willing to do that. They took the easy way out. Yes it appears some of the smaller schools i.e. Toledo are in conferences that have less stringent academic requirements. Here is something else that is interesting, go look at the recruit lists from the past on Huskerpedia and see how many names don't stand out as top players. It seems out of every class (with a couple of exceptions) only a hand full of the scholarship recipients were big name players. Interesting!

[AR Husker Fan]

As far as the size of the class, it is consistent with recent, previous years:

2003-19, 2002-18, 2001-18. 2000 was a bit higher with 21.

 

***SNIP***

That's very interesting. Hadn't realized that. So, that brings me to another point. Does NU recruits routinely make it academically? Do they not sign kids who are a risk to not make it to campus? The reason I ask is that for many schools, it is not uncommon to sign more than the limit (whatever the school's limit is for that year). And, then, to have a few not make it to campus (for whatever reason).

 

Could this, in past years, be a result of the walk-on program? NU holds back a couple of scholarships each year to award to walk-ons who distinguish themselves?

 

Inquiring minds want to know.

[RedCountry]

Hey ARHF. I found a real insightful article that answers your questions #2 & 3 real well. This isnt my work, so if the owner wants it removed just let me know. Real interesting stuff tho, so thanx to whoever wrote it:

 

Osborne and Byrne knew exactly the ramifications of Texas’ demands when the Big 12 was formed. And make no mistake, Texas’ motivation was indeed to destroy Nebraska. From their point of view, Nebraska had an unfair advantage, due to our perfect use of the academically unqualified student athlete, and our walk-on program. Well, the 85 scholarship limit effectively killed our walk-on program (which is why Callahan is doing the right thing by reducing it’s size), and Texas effectively killed our awesome system of using the athlete that today is labeled “unqualified”.

 

Both Osborne and Byrne argued vehemently against this when it was discussed. But you know who actually got it voted in? No, it was not Texas’ threat to leave the Big 12 and join the Pac 10 (that actually was a very real possibility). It was ISU, Kansas, KSU et al who voted with Texas in favor of their demands. Texas convinced these schools – who suffered under the dominance of Nebraska for two decades – that it was in their best interest to diminish Nebraska and give them a level playing field. They saw an opportunity to kick the legs out from under Nebraska, hell ya they’ll take it. Those unwise schools failed to see how it would also hurt them in the long run. The vote was nearly unanimous against Nebraska.

 

We argued that rather than destroy our system of using academically unqualified student athletes, copy it. We had a great system. Not great for our football program, but great for the student athlete (and yes, at the same time, we got great athletes to come to Nebraska). Consider Junior Miller. He was functionally illiterate. Today, this man would not have played Division I college football, not have been all conference, would not have been a Kodak All American, would not have been drafted, would not have made the Pro Bowl, would not have made NFL MVP. Nor would he have recovered from alcoholism and start a hugely successful business in Lincoln after his recovery. What we did with Junior, and many others, is actually teach them. We gave him a simple basic education that the public school system he came from failed to do. We taught him to read, write and basic math skills. Then we made him apply it to a degree. And not a BS in Lawn Mower Engines. Sure, it wasn’t on par with the normal arts or science degree, but it was an education that gave him life skills – which he used to pull himself out from the gutter and become a contributing member, and a saved soul. I guarantee that Junior worked harder for his degree than I did for my cum laude degree. Nebraska’s system saved his life. Rather than emulate it, as we proposed, Texas was successful in destroying it. Now tell me, what was the real motivation of Texas, versus the real motivation of Nebraska?

 

So go slow to criticize any Nebraska recruiting class, past or present. Unfair as it is, there are haves and have nots in major college football, and with the power of schools like Texas, there always will be. Nebraska should be a have not. Devaney overcame the obstacles. Osborne overcame the obstacles. Even Solich tried, though would have eventually failed if not removed. And it appears to this observer that Callahan will also refuse to be defeated by the cards stacked against this school. f#*k ‘em. We’ll just outwork them all, because you know why? We’re Nebraska, and what we’ve always stood for, and still stand for, will overcome the power shakers at Texas, Miami, et al, who delude themselves into thinking they pull the strings.

[AR Husker Fan]

Excellent points. And it highlights the difference between NU and the "football factories". The NU staff supported the concept of student-athlete in spirit as well as in intent.

[Redout]

Each year scholorship amount changes. It depends on how many players have left the program before their eligability is up, quit, thrown off, etc., and also ho w many players from the previous year will receive a scholorship for working hard. Kids who have walked on and so forth could be given a scholorship for working unbelievably hard.

 

Each year is different. Next year we may try to sign 24, the next 19.

 

redout

[N Zone]

We had 25 scholarships to use this year. We may not be done getting players. In fact a safety prospect from cali will be here this weekend. THe limit on the # of players that can be signed each year is controled by the 85 scholarship limit and the # of transfers and graduations

 

The Big 12 does have tougher limits than many of the other conferences. Especially the non-BCS conferences, but I can't give you really any details as I am not really aware of them

 

It gives us a limit of 1 partial qualifier per year. However, we can offer as many shcolarships as we want to unqualified people (no limit to offering anyone as long as they have signed up with the NCAA clearinghouse) However, no need to waste scholarships.

 

Hope this helps