(02-01-2018 10:04 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 07:43 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 02:23 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  What I think is interesting is the potential for abuse by the new coach. Hey I'm not going to renew your scholarship at Enormous State University but the coach at Northeastsouthwest Tech has said if you transfer there you have a scholarship waiting on you. Makes it easier for the new coach to clean house and recruit his own people.

This happens all the time anyway. It's most prominent in basketball, where some newly-hired coaches make it a condition of accepting the job that the school agrees the new coach can non-renew any or all players who are on the roster when he is hired.

But it is very rare in football because of the 25 newcomer limit and 76.5 minimum scholarship requirements.

When Blake Anderson was hired as the 5th coach in five year at AState he couldn't run anyone off and was actively trying to keep some marginal guys with bad attitudes from quitting to avoid falling under the minimum scholarship limits.

The only deterrent in basketball is APR. When Central Arkansas hired their coach they were already in APR trouble so the new coach flushed the team and started over.

That points up two issues that, for football, would need to be dealt with:

1) It makes sense to allow a team to go over the limit of 25 to bring in new recruits when players decide to go elsewhere after a coaching change, but it could also create a perverse incentive for a new coach to chase players out of the program, if he gets to add one new recruit for every scholarship athlete he forces off the team.

2) There would have to be a waiver of the FBS football scholarship minimum for any program that has a coaching change or a postseason ban. If a head coach leaves for any reason, and half of the returning players on his "old" team transfer out, then the new head coach could very well have a difficult time getting up to the 76.5 scholarship minimum for the first two seasons.