Juco requirements and the SEC

[DirtyLopez]

Correct me if i am wrong, but soon after Jackie made a living off of signing juco players, Khayat, who was the head of the SEC presidents at the time pushed through a rules change concerning juco players signing with SEC schools. I do not remember what exactly changed, but it made it more difficult for juco players to be eligible to sign with SEC schools.

 

[graddawg]

I think that change required JUCO prospect to have attended his last JUCO for two or three (can't rememeber which) consecutive semesters to be eligible to enroll at a SEC school. The rule was targeted at one of Jackie's favorite practices of having commits transfer to Mayhew their last semester to ensure eligibility. See Tommy Kelly and Demetric Wright as examples.

 

[RebelBruiser]

Exactly. And the rule is 3 semesters I believe. It actually came back to bite us on a prospect a couple years ago. We tried to get a waiver for a player, because he was forced to transfer for some family reason if I recall, but the SEC rule kept him from being eligible to sign with us.

It's a good rule to have in place, if you actually want to pretend academics matter, but you still have to give credit to Sherrill for exploiting whatever it took to get his guys in school.

 

[graddawg]

Exactly. And the rule is 3 semesters I believe. It actually came back to bite us on a prospect a couple years ago. We tried to get a waiver for a player, because he was forced to transfer for some family reason if I recall, but the SEC rule kept him from being eligible to sign with us.

It's a good rule to have in place, if you actually want to pretend academics matter, <span style="font-weight: bold;">but you still have to give credit to Sherrill for exploiting whatever it took to get his guys in school.</span>

No doubt. Which is why I can't hate on Orgeron for using the "great Mormon grade grab" to his advantage. If a loophole is there, exploit it.

 

[coursesuper]

in the late 80'sand early 90's many UM players went through there for one semester. The one I can think of the clearest now is Tim Bowens once went through there on his way into UM.

 

[patdog]

One semester at Mary Holmes College and then one semester at Mississippi. Word was you could count the number of classes he actually attended that semester on your fingers.

 

[RebelBruiser]

in the late 80'sand early 90's many UM players went through there for one semester. The one I can think of the clearest now is Tim Bowens once went through there on his way into UM.

Yea, Bowens was a joke, but again, credit goes to Brewer for exploiting what was there.

You'll find I'm almost always on the side of the 'let them play' argument. I'm not one to pretend college football or basketball is about getting an education. Big time football and basketball is a business. I'd be for opening the doors and letting them all in, because I think it's ridiculous that we pretend you should have to go learn calculus to be able to play in the NFL or NBA. If you have the skill set, some avenue should be available for you to pursue that career. If colleges are going to basically make themselves the only legitimate avenue, then they need to drop the "student athlete" BS. Bowens is a great example of why I think the doors should be opened. He had no business in a college classroom, and I don't know if he ever really set foot in one, but he had plenty of business on an NFL football field. Without the loopholes being exploited, he may not have had that opportunity to showcase his skills and get to the NFL.

I'm getting way off topic though.

I was being dead serious when I was giving credit to Sherrill for exploiting those loopholes. And Orgeron did everything he could to exploit them as well. That's the best thing Orgeron ever did for both Ole Miss and MSU. Without him, you might not have the GamePlan program in place, and half of these in-state signees we're both going after would be Juco bound. Instead, a much higher percentage of them are on track than used to be. Mullen in particular should thank Orgeron whenever they cross paths given Mullen's heavy in-state recruiting strategy. That would be an awful dead end strategy if it weren't for GamePlan.