Well the problem is that the media give passes to certain programs they happen to adore and don't really focus on these kinds of things. Notice how much attention ESPN is giving Charles Jackson (but only one side of it) and ask yourself, if this was Notre Dame, would it have even been mentioned?
Truth is, they (aka National Media) love Nick Saban and Alabama. They are not going to make a big deal of it for as long as they can get away with it. Their problem is, oversigning has become an issue and is now forcing programs like Alabama out in the open.
I will say that oversigning is not in itself evil. Programs need to be allowed a certain amount of flexibility. Players choose to transfer on their own. Players do break rules. There are players who sort of "give up" when they realize they aren't going to make it and just sort of coast and really just try to get a "free ride" out of the system. Coaches need to be able to remove these guys from their program and have the ability to replace them in a timely fashion. Plus the LOIs are signed a full semester before programs know if kids will make it or not. Coaches need to be able to oversign at least a little to protect themselves. Granted, they can try to recruit kids more likely to make it, but still there are so many kids that you just don't know 100%--they could make it but you don't know.
The Big Ten allows for only oversigning of only 3 players. And for each player, I believe an explanation has to be sent to the Big Ten office. I think this is the right approach. I think 3 players is a bit conservative, I'd like to see the number closer to 5 or 6, but the point is the same. There should be some limit on the oversigning at any one time.
The problem is, cheaters are always going to cheat. If you come up with a good rule designed to combat oversigning practices, the cheaters will still come up with ways to circumvent and ESPN will always help them do it as long as they are Notre Dame, USC, Miami, Texas, or one of their other precious darlings. For example, I doubt you would stop teams from being able to remove kids who violate rules (team or society). In fact, the National Media probably applauds the "integrity" of coaches doing this. So, if you come up with a tight oversign rule, the cheaters would just be more aggressive at removing players much earlier in the process. Thus, they aren't oversigning since the players are already gone. No matter how you slice it, people will take advantage of what they can and the National Media will let it slide. Everyone knew USC was cheating, but ESPN was making too much money being the USC Bandwagon Network to say anything about it.
The one way to get these guys isn't through rule changes but through vigilance. The game has a funny way of taking care of itself for the most part. If recruits are better aware of shameful practices by certain coaches and if those practices are given the light of day on ESPN, the cheaters reputations take a hit and their recruiting suffers. I don't like OSU because Gundy yanks scholarships away from kids in his recruiting class every year because he oversigned and didn't have a contingency plan for oversigning (Grayshirting for example). This is bush-league. Yet he gets away with it because no one ever hears about it. If I was a parent of a recruit, I would not trust Gundy at all with my child.
The problem with vigilance is, the media has a tendancy to grab a hold of something and really hang on while completely ignoring something just as bad. Again, cheaters cheating as focusing on one scandal is a way of diverting attention from another.
You are never going to get ESPN and the other talking heads to quit hedging their bets so that they can make money be trying to be someone's Bandwagon Network.[/QUOTE]
