Friday, June 3, 2011

Big Changes Emerge from SEC Meetings in Destin

Well, the SEC coaches (including our own James Franklin) were unanimously opposed to addressing the "oversigning" issue by cutting the number of scholarship players a school can sign per year to 25 from its current limit of 28, but the conference's university presidents were unanimously in favor of capping it at 25.  Turns out the presidents' vote is the one that counts, and the SEC has now officially adopted legislation designed to end oversigning for good by capping signing classes at 25.  The conference will now propose the 25-man limit to the NCAA with the expectation that every conference that hasn't yet done so will follow suit.

There were other key decisions made as well, including a measure to give the SEC oversight of the practice of forcing players out using medical scholarships (a practice for which Alabama's Nick Saban has notably come under fire), a measure to prevent graduated students from transferring to the SEC with immediate eligibility to play their remaining season, and a rule prohibiting SEC schools from hosting 7-on-7 camps and SEC coaches from attending them.

All of this on top of the decision to eliminate divisions in basketball.  Considering this raft of changes along with Steve Spurrier's "proposal" to pay players, I don't think anyone's going to accuse the meeting attendees of sitting on their hands down there.  On a semi-related note, what's the over/under on number of delegates to the meetings who made an appearance at Floribama this week?  I hear Chancellor Zeppos is a sucker for a good foam party.

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