At what point in time can Braylon Heard and Nick Ash's schollys be distributed? When school starts again in the fall or the year after?
Heard is still on scholarship until we hear something official that contradicts that...possibly on NSD? I am assuming the staff meets with him this weekend, since they've been on the road pretty much non-stop, and he either stays or requests a release. He started the semester, so he either finishes the semester or if he is released now, he'd either have to pay for school or quit, I'd guess.
Ash's would have been available immediately, I assume, since he graduated. I'm not 100% certain how they restrict it, but if you are at 85 and a guy leaves, fall camp, you cant go out and recruit a new player or accept a transfer to fill his slot until the next term. You can however award that schollie to a walk on that is already on the team right away, as long as you are at or under 85. That protects players from getting dropped for a 'better' player in the same term. At this point you have several open with the seniors exhausting availability, so it doesn't matter.
so, if Heard does decide to leave now, his scholarship could go to a current player now, or an incoming player for the fall term. Again, all it affects is the total number of scholarships available.
If we max out at 28, we have to find 2 scholarships through normal attrition before fall arrivals. If Heard leaves, just 1. If we only take 26 (or 27 w/ Heard out), then any further attrition would leave open scholarships to fill.