Florida president Bernie Machen's perspective, on the SEC’s ability to find loopholes in the 28-player LOI ceiling is frustrating. For the second year in a row, two SEC schools have oversigned their class, as Arkansas and South Carolina both exceeded the limit this signing period with 30 and 31 LOIs, respectively.
One of those loopholes for coaches has been grayshirting players, an act Machen finds, at times, "morally reprehensible". "The universities, with full knowledge of what they are doing, extend more athletic scholarships than they have," Machen has stated.
Saban addressed the over-signing topic as well, noting that critics adding Alabama's new scholarship players can't begin with the number 85.
"We have never gotten rid of a player because of his physical ability," Saban said. "Any player that has left this program prematurely has created his own exit route. … Nobody really knows how many guys we had on scholarship last year, but it wasn't 85. I can tell you that. We have some people that could not finish the season that will probably not be able to continue to play, that will be replaced and we have several players that can graduate and may not come back for their fifth year, who have been redshirted. When you add all those things up, plus guys we have that may not qualify, it is not fair to criticize the numbers. When you look at the numbers without knowing all the facts and internal information, I think that is a little premature and unfair."
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