Smart Addresses Major Issue with Scholarship Numbers

COVID-19 dictating how the 2020 college football season goes, will that impact the incoming recruiting class? Yes, in so many ways.

With COVID-19 dictating how the 2020 college football season goes, will that impact the incoming recruiting class? Yes, in so many ways.

In March, the NCAA suspended all in-person recruiting and players have not been able to take an official visit to any schools. The NCAA has extended the dead period until April 15, 2021, so recruits will not be able to visit a school they are interested in attending for more than a calendar year.

This dead period prohibits coaches from traveling to watch a recruit play a high-school game, making it impossible for teams to see everything they would like to. Coaches must rely solely on highlight tapes that recruits post on Hudl, which will only be the plays they believe are their best.

Not to mention the importance of the in-person evaluation going beyond the play of the athlete. How do they respond to coaching? Are they leaders? How do they interact with their teammates? All of those aspects of the evaluation are now gone.

Early Signing Day

With early signing day just around the corner on Dec. 16, head coaches have to figure out exactly how many spots they have available.

At this point, the early signing day has become the target date for players to sign their National Letter of Intent. Head Coach Kirby Smart expects to have most of his recruiting class sign early. He said, “We’re looking at the possibility of anywhere from 14 to 20 mid-year enrollees.” If that many sign early, there will only be a couple of players signing with Georgia on National Signing Day in February.

A mid-year enrollee is when the recruit signs on early signing day and begins taking classes in January. When student complete all the graduation requirements early, they can graduate in December and start their collegiate career the next semester. This allows the recruit to join the team for bowl-game practices and spring camp instead of waiting until fall practice begins. 

85-Man Roster

Each school can have 85 football players on scholarship, but COVID-19 has made this more complicated than usual.

The NCAA has granted each college football player an additional year of eligibility, and seniors who claim this additional year will not count toward the 85 limit. However, this does not go into effect until the fall semester of 2021. While Smart is happy to know everyone was given a chance to play one more season, he now must balance this with the mid-year enrollees he will have next week.

Smart stated, “We don’t really control what seniors stay, and we’ll certainly give them the flexibility, but if we have more mid-years that want to come than seniors who want to leave, we have a problem.”

There are several seniors that Georgia would love to see play one more season, but there are several players in the 2021 recruiting class that Georgia would love to see play for the next three-to-four seasons. It is up to the coaching staff to figure out how they want to manage this. If Georgia tells a recruit they don't have a mid-year spot for them, it could start things off on the wrong foot.