25 Hard Cap Question?

Walk-ons are it

Just wait until they pass the, your coach left so all 85 could transfer out rule. It'll happen right after signing day to some team too, and that P5 team will never recover.

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I don't see how the powers that be are even considering this rule.

After the first school loses 50 something players after a coach leaves, that rule will quickly disappear.

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It's certainly possible, but you have to keep in mind that all of the ones that *want* to transfer have to be desirable somewhere that they'd rather be... I think the number outgoing from any one place is highly unlikely to ever be more than 10-15 even if the rule passes. Certainly could be wrong, but given that the current proposal will mean that they can't follow that coach, it's not exactly a simple proposition. You're probably not transferring from NC State to BYU because your coach left... so it's a little more limited in practice than most seem to think from what I've read thus far.

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Can some of the more savvy recruiting gurus on here explain to me how a school that's behind on scholarship numbers catch up to a full roster when they can only sign a max of 25 players each cycle?

For example, say a team has a full roster of 85 players going into the season. Let's also say 4 players get dismissed from the team during the season. Now the team only has 81 scholarship players on the roster. If 25 leave due to graduation or early departure for the NFL , how does the team get back to 85 given the 4 unexpected losses?

Thanks in advance.

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If in any year they don't use the 25, they still do have access to back count early enrollees (up to 5 per year) based on the article from Wiltfong back in December. Many thought that the back-counting was going away, but it doesn't seem to be the case...

The reality though is that if a team loses more than 25 in a season, unless they had some open spots in the prior class, they are going to operate under the 85, meaning walk-ons likely earn those scholarships on a one year basis until they get the opportunity to fill back up with recruited athletes. Technically *blue-shirts* would also be possible, but those have to be officially "non-recruited" players... which becomes a bit more of a challenge - often times specialists like P/K or PR/KR type athletes.

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meaning walk-ons likely earn those scholarships on a one year basis until they get the opportunity to fill back up with recruited athletes.

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Also, walk-ons have to be in the program 2 years before they can get a scholarship that does not count toward that year's 25 hard cap.

Somewhat relevant to this topic and don't feel like creating a totally separate post when it's at least at it's core about an ACC school... but:

Clemson signed only 14 players in 2017, and according to an article from before last season, they'll cap out at about 16 in the 2018 class as well... that's *30* players over 2 seasons. The 2 years prior, they'd only taken 47 total, which puts you at 8 under the 85... I assume they may have some holdouts from the 2014 class that are still on the roster, but you'd have to assume that they're going to be in trouble from a roster management standpoint in the next couple of seasons.

They'll have to replace the 7 differential there PLUS however many they lose out of the 2015 and 2016 classes (which will be significant given that so many returned for their senior season this year and they also have several highly projected players that will be juniors this season). Unless a good number of juniors return, they could be in a situation where they can't fill all the spots vacated, even *with* the space from the 2018 class to back-count 5 EEs into.

I haven't seen any SEC schools recruiting classes as small as Clemson, but anyone aware of any SEC schools in a similar boat other than maybe Ole Miss post transfers/scholarship restrictions?

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It was my understanding that back counting is done with as well.

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It is not... not the way that people *thought* it would be.

The back-counting that is gone is the ability to back count recruits into the spots where players have failed to qualify. Per an article from Wiltfong in December, teams will still be able to back count up to 5 early enrollees provided they had room in the prior year's total of 25 initial counters. Will edit and post article if I can find it.

LINK

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Every year around National Signing Day, the question arises. How do programs sign more than 25 players when that is the limit put in place for each school?

The answer is simple: up to five early enrollees are allowed to count toward the previous class.

Each college program has a compliance department that keeps track of these numbers, as does the NCAA to make sure each school is following the rule. It can get murky, but let's say you only signed 22 players in the previous recruiting class. That means you have three extra spots to sign this year, assuming you have the early enrollees to count back.

However, there is a new rule in place where you can’t get a spot from a non-qualifier back. Say a prospect signs on Dec. 20, the date of the Early Signing Period, but fails to meet the academic requirements later to get into school. That young man still counts towards the 25. In the past a school would get that counter back and could just go add a JUCO prospect in June, elevate a greyshirt or even take a high school senior that is still out there unsigned. If that prospect fails to qualify under the new rule, the school doesn’t get that spot back. This new rule — as some have incorrectly feared — does not mean you can't sign over 25 players. You simply need to have wiggle room created via early enrollees, as always — you just can't take too many risks and lose that initial counter.

It shouldn't be a big deal when you have basically 100 scholarships to work with over a four-year span and college football teams are only allowed to carry 85 scholarship players. You shouldn’t have any issues staying full unless you’re a program that consistently runs players off and then makes a lot of risky moves signing kids that won’t qualify.

As it stands right now, Minnesota is the only program that heads into this new signing period with over 25 commits, sitting at 26. They also inked 26 in the 2017 cycle but only took 22 in 2016. They’re going to have room to maneuver and count guys back. Ohio State’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class is up to 21 commits. There will be several schools like the Buckeyes expected to go over 25 by February’s National Signing Day.

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