CFB Recruiting: Where's Petey? The Impact Of Grey Shirting

Every season in college football, quietly behind the scenes of recruiting, a choice is made. It is not a fair choice to either ask a coach to make or ask a player to be a part of.  That choice is commonly referred to as "Grey Shirting".  

What is Grey Shirting?  Grey Shirting comes from the 85 scholarship limit set upon schools by the NCAA.  Each year a college is allowed to sign 25 players and over a four year period that totals up to 15 over the limit that have to be trimmed off the rosters.  Many of these are taken care of due to attrition which comes from medical hardships, quitting the team, kicked off the team or going to the NFL early.  Often, the number from attrition does not drop the number of players below what is mandated by the NCAA.  When this happens, signees from the previous class are asked to wait a year to enroll in school and either go to junior college or take a year off hoping that roster slot opens up.

Alabama and Nick Saban have this situation right now.  In 2009, they signed UnderArmor All-American Petey Smith to attend the University of Alabama to play football.  Smith had the grades and the talent to compete in the SEC but Alabama was over the 85 scholarship limit.  Petey was asked to wait until 2010 to register for school which freed up a slot on Alabama's roster. 

In 2010, Petey comes into the season as a freshman but it still leaves Alabama with 86 roster players.  Two players have yet to report in Tuscaloosa and the general thought is that one of them will be asked to wait until 2011.  Alabama is not the only team out there either as it's becoming more and more prevalent with scholarship limits.

This is, however, not the only way that coaches handle this.  Some will sign players that they are sure will not qualify and send them to junior college to keep the numbers under control.  This is a good practice as it gives the non-qualifier a chance to focus on grades and becoming a better student with the promise of a continuation of football for the effort.  Some others will just limit the number of signings for each year below the 25 allowed.  USC developed a strong reputation for this under Pete Carroll.

Is grey shirting a bad practice?  It is an arguable question.  Some believe that these players lose nothing because they still have four years of college playing time left.  Others look a little beyond the game of college football and wonder if these players make it to the NFL have their careers been shortened by a year.