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South Florida Caught With its Hand in the Oversigning Cookie Jar

Jul 1, 2009, 8:17 PM UTC

South Florida is an institution ranked “tier 3” by U.S. Newsâ†µ& World Report. There it idles amongst such luminary I-A footballâ†µleaders as Oregon State and Mississippi State, schools that will admitâ†µanything mountainous with a pulse as long as it has managed to scrawl anâ†µ“X” on a junior college diploma. Correction: USF is one of six teams in the 16-team Big East that is rated as “Tier 3” by U.S. News. As anâ†µinstitution, the school believes Tampa Bay counts as “south” in â†µFlorida’sâ†µgeography. Bluntly, the place is not Harvard. It’s not even Harfurd. â†µâ†µIn football, South Florida is the kind of place where academic risksâ†µgo when higher-profile schools shy away. There’s a reason its APR isâ†µthe country’s worst. So whyâ†µis this happening to offensive line commitment Kamran Joyer?â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Wesley Chapel center Kamran Joyer, who signed withâ†µâ‡¥USF in February, has asked for and been granted a release from hisâ†µâ‡¥scholarship with the Bulls after uncertainty as to whether he’d beâ†µâ‡¥accepted academically, his father Jack said Monday afternoon.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µIt’s not because he’s an academic risk in the eyes of the NCAA: he’sâ†µbeen given the go-ahead by the NCAA clearinghouse. He is fullyâ†µqualified. This is strange and unexplainable:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥USF’s coaches had anticipated some attrition from signing day, whenâ†µâ‡¥29 players signed with the Bulls, four over the NCAA limit for oneâ†µâ‡¥class. Joyer is the sixth signee not expected to be in school this fallâ†µâ‡¥... Even without those six signees, USF is believed to be at theâ†µâ‡¥NCAA’s overall limit of 85 scholarships, unless other returningâ†µâ‡¥players do not stay with the program as expected.â†µâ†µâ†µAh. South Florida signed 29 players when it had 23 spots and is inâ†µthe process of deleting players it finds undesirable. Unfortunately forâ†µthe Bulls, too many of their many academic risks have come through thisâ†µyear and someone has to be tossed overboard. â†µ

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â†µJoyer, a three-star recruitâ†µwithout great offers, gets the heave-ho and is now adrift a mere twoâ†µmonths before classes start. All over the country, his classmates are inâ†µsummer school, preparing for the coming season athletically andâ†µacademically. Joyer is now trying to latch onto another school thatâ†µhappens to have an available scholarship.â†µ

â†µâ†µThis is a clear case of a school oversigning rampantly without caringâ†µwhat happens to the kids at the end of the class. Jim Leavitt can count,â†µeven if many of his signees have trouble with that. The punishment thatâ†µwill be levied by the NCAA: nothing. Since Joyer didn’t make it toâ†µcampus it won’t even ding their APR.â†µ

â†µâ†µESPN’s weakâ†µsauce response to this: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥As South Florida’s situation shows, these things have a way ofâ†µâ‡¥working themselves out. Schools often sign a lot of players, knowingâ†µâ‡¥full well that a handful or more won’t qualify academically, whichâ†µâ‡¥appears to be the case with the Bulls.â†µâ†µâ†µHere’s where access turns you into a corporate drone: Brian Bennett,â†µthe author of that sentence, says it “appears to be the case”â†µJoyer didn’t qualify academically when the article specifically says heâ†µdid, and that this is an example of things “working themselvesâ†µout.” Tell that to Joyer. Bennett follows this up with some stuffâ†µabout how people want to “reduce” oversigning without givingâ†µLeavitt the full blast he deserves for this. The lack of readingâ†µcomprehension and spine in that post is truly epic.â†µ

â†µâ†µWould the Big Ten-SEC policy even help here? It limits schools to 28â†µsignees, but the real issue here is that South Florida had only 23â†µslots. So it doesn’t sign one of the six guys it chucked overboard ...â†µgreat. That means there’s a 17 percent smaller chance someone gets boned aâ†µla Joyer. Woo?â†µ

â†µâ†µThe NCAA needs to step in here and make the letter of intent anâ†µactual commitment on the part of the school. Anyone you sign who doesâ†µnot end up on campus still counts as an occupied scholarship slot thatâ†µyear, and you can’t sign a letter of intent until you are academicallyâ†µeligible. Otherwise you’re going to get more instances like this whenâ†µunscrupulous coaches meet marginally innocent babes.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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