College Football: The Big East And SEC Continue To Oversign Commits

When student athletes are recruited to play at LSU, they should receive a warning letter from head coach Les Miles with the following statement:   "You may be cut off football-grant-in-aid due to over-recruiting."

Although the NCAA only allows a school to sign 25 new recruits each February, Les Miles has been signing 27. Dumping kids off athletic scholarships seems to be no big deal to Miles and his fellow SEC football coaches, but it can be devastating to the student athlete, the majority of whom had more than one offer to play college ball.

The SEC is not alone in perpetrating this fraud on student athletes, but the conference is by far the worst offender. NCAA rules permit FBS institutions to have 85 players on scholarship at any given time. SEC football programs typically have 103.

On the average, the eight Big East football universities recruit seven more players each than they can keep on football scholarships.

According to the report entitled "Over the Limit" compiled by ESPN, Big East schools have at some point 92 students on scholarship.

That means approximately seven student athletes at each Big East institution will be told, oftentimes via email or letter, that their football services are no longer needed and their tuition will no longer be covered by an athletic grant.

The Big East can look to the Big Ten for inspiration. The Big Ten has been clear in letting its member institutions' coaches know that over-recruiting is not acceptable.

Better than the other five BCS conferences, Big Ten members have on average one recruit over the limit. The worst offender is the SEC with an average 18 students at each member institution over the 85 limit.

Big East coaches and their colleagues from all the FBS conferences need do a much better job of evaluating talent, developing talent and sticking with the talent they have recruited and coached.

If recruits are not performing up to expectations on the playing field, there should be an evaluation process in place that documents their efforts as well as steps the coaching staff took to make the players better.

The academic side of a student-athlete's performance should also be evaluated. Students who regularly miss class and have failing grades would not have earned the right to continue with an athletic scholarship.

When a student-athlete has done all he can to be successful both athletically and academically, no coach should be allowed to take away an athletic scholarship to give to another prospect.

The leadership of the Big East, commissioner John Marinatto and university presidents, should send a clear message to athletic directors and coaches: The most important contribution a student-athlete can make to our institution is to earn a degree.

Mike Slive, SEC commissioner, has taken steps to address the problem.

Recruiting judgment errors and omissions of coaches and coaches' preferences for a hot new recruit over an established player should never be a reason to take away an athletic scholarship to a player in good standing.

The Big East, SEC, and the other FBS conferences should be about educating its student-athletes first and foremost. To do less is unacceptable.