63 + 25 = 82, 25 + 2 = 25 ... Recruiting Math Rules

NCAA limits on recruiting class size

1. The roster cannot have more than 85 scholarship athletes (82 for OSU for the next 3 years).

2. A program cannot sign more than 25 recruits a season.

3. If an athlete completely separates from the team and coaches for the entire season, he does not count against the scholarship limits.

4. If an athlete is not on an athletic scholarship but still participates with the team, he is not counted against the scholarship limit.

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Eligibility is not tied to the scholarship limit. An athlete has 5 years to use his 4 years of eligibility unless the NCAA grants a waiver. The 5 year clock starts the moment the student enrolls full time (including Junior College), even if he doesn’t participate with any team.

With 63 returning scholarship athletes from the starting season roster + Jones + Thomas – Berry (discussed later) tOSU’s current roster has 64 returning scholarship athletes. tOSU starts with room for 18 athletes under their 82 total scholarship limit.

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Urban has 17 commitments for the 2012 limit of 25, is believed to be looking for 22 or 23 recruits, but could go as high as 25 – more than a couple over the 18 roster positions he currently has open.

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Here’s your primer for the next 3 seasons on how Urban makes the NCAA limits virtually disappear before your eyes…

Signing under the previous year’s Class can help the yearly limit but not the total limit.

3 conditions must be met to consider a recruit part of the previous year’s class:

1. The previous year’s class must have fewer than 25 scholarships. There are usually recruits who don’t make it to campus as planned or players who depart from the team because of academics, medical, or personal issues.

2. The roster must have less than 85 total scholarship athletes. The Vest gave these scholarships to walk-ons (Jones was his 1st true grey shirt), expect Urban to hold these.

3. The recruit must enroll as a full time student and sign his LOI after the season ends but before LOI signing day (usually January). This means they must have completed the academic requirements.

The NCAA 5 year window doesn’t start until the player enrolls full time so the athlete keeps full eligibility.

QB Cardale Jones signed a LOI in 2011 that stipulated he grey shirt and become part of the 2012 class. WR Michael Thomas joined OSU out of prep school as part of the 2012 class. While the recruiting sites list them as part of the 2012 classes, both signed their LOI in December and enrolled full time in January making them part of the 2011 class. This allows OSU to sign up to 27 students in 2012 and still be within the limit of 25 scholarships a year.

This doesn’t help with the total scholarship limit since the athletes still count towards the current and previous scholarship limits.

Green shirting can help the yearly limit but not the total limit.

Green shirt athletes skip part of their senior year of high school and enroll early. This is promoted by programs and the NCAA.

If they enroll full time before LOI day, green shirts can be signed under the previous year’s class opening another space in the yearly limit of 25 recruits, or they can sign with the current class.

Expect this to become the norm, substantially eliminating the awarding of unused scholarships to walk-ons and diminishing the use of planned grey shirts.

Grey Shirting can help the yearly and total limits.

The NCAA only addresses grey shirting by voiding any limitations in a recruit’s signed LOI the moment a recruit is asked to delay enrollment, regardless of his ultimate decision or the request being optional.

The grey shirt process:

1. A player commits to a team that will be over the scholarship limit if he enrolls under scholarship the following fall, or the player has other issues. The player delays full time enrollment as a condition of his offer, or the delay is necessitated by academic, health, or personal issues.

2. The player doesn’t go to school in the fall or enrolls part time (otherwise their eligibility clock would start). The athlete cannot participate with the team or receive any benefits not available to the general student body - why they usually attend a prep school.

3. When they enroll in January, the player can become part of the previous year’s class or the following year’s class.

The NCAA encourages grey shirting in some circumstances, and sites dedicated to curbing the abuse of grey shirting don’t find it unethical as long as complete transparency is maintained, and the athlete is given a scholarship as promised if he meets academic and conduct requirements. The B1G has rules to make the practice sufficiently transparent to satisfy most ethical concerns.

Voluntary Scholarship Forfeiture can help the yearly and total limits.

The NCAA is concerned with the number of players on scholarship, not the number of players on the team. If a player’s family has the resources, the player can voluntarily forfeit his scholarship while remaining on the team. As an alternative, 2 or more players can take a partial scholarship, creating a new full scholarship for an additional player.

This is unlikely but could happen if a player’s parents can afford the gesture, would like to benefit from the publicity, or are already program boosters. It would be an improper benefit under NCAA rules for someone to give the player’s family money, and then have the athlete voluntarily forfeit their scholarship.

…so, if you know of any scholarship athlete’s families who are wealthy and could use some publicity…

Multi-Sport Athletes can help the yearly and total limits.

Many athletes receive scholarship offers and participate in multiple varsity sports (such as football and track). The athlete can choose which scholarship to use. An example was Robert Smith, who continued at Ohio State on a track scholarship while feuding with Cooper.

This is unlikely - most varsity sports have fewer scholarships than their starting lineup so the football scholarship is used, not the other way around.

Roster Reduction is the most likely route

Every season there are players who leave before they have used up their eligibility. Some are announced to be disciplinary. Most are described as:

· Academic difficulties

· Personal/family problems

· Career ending injury

· Graduated and moving on to the next phase of their life

· Transferring to a program closer to home, offering more playing time, and/or runs a system closer to their skills

Some roster cuts are overt. RB Jaamal Berry appears to have finally achieved his goal of getting tossed from the team. Typically it is difficult to track which are honest reasons and which are covers for roster cuts - like academic scholarships and GPA, you have to make the squad to maintain athletic scholarships.

OSU bypasses the ethical issue by guaranteeing the full 4 or 5 year scholarship, and continues to offer every athlete free tuition for life until they achieve a bachelor’s degree, as long as the athlete leaves in good standing. Most use their eligibility elsewhere, but occasionally an athlete will be cut but continue their education. In the eyes of the NCAA, the athlete has separated from the varsity team and no longer counts against the scholarship limits.

Red-Shirting doesn’t help either NCAA limit

Red shirting is of no value to reduce scholarship limits. A red shirted player still counts as a scholarship athlete in the total and yearly limit. I am covering it here to finish off the topics.

A player is considered a red shirt if he does not appear in any contests of a team for a season. The 1st red shirt season doesn’t count against the player’s 4 years of eligibility, allowing athletes to spread their eligibility over 5 seasons.

Hardship Waivers, referred to as medical red shirts the NCAA doesn’t count a year of limited or no participation as a year of eligibility. The season becomes a 2nd red shirt year if the following conditions are met:

1. He appears in less than 30% of the team’s competitions.

2. Does not appear in any competition after the midpoint of the season.

3. Suffers a season ending injury.

The NCAA is lenient in granting Hardship Waivers because there is a scholarship cost to the program and the athlete benefits.

Medical Red-Shirting can help the NCAA total limit (updated 4/19/12)

In this process, the athlete is injured before the season.

He receives a hardship waiver so he doesn't lose eligibility.

Like grey shirts, he doesn't participate with the team or receive any benefit not available to the typical student, so he is not counted aginst the NCAA total limit.

The athlete can still receive a scholarship, which becomes classified as a general aid grant.

Urban probably won’t try to completely fill the NCAA yearly limit of commitments.

If you peruse the returning offensive and defensive rosters, cutting Berry and 4 others is achievable, but there probably isn’t enough depth to cut 13%. The exception would be if several recruits already agreed to grey shirt.

The effect of sanctions… The 2015 Rebound

There really isn’t any notable negative effect after 2013 once the roster is down to 82 and room is made for recruits.

A competitive gain comes when the sanctions end with the 2015 class, and will extend a few years – Urban will immediately have 3 additional roster spots which should allow him to sign larger classes or the freedom to red shirt more athletes. Yeah, NCAA!