The ongoing Covid pandemic and its effect on college football will continue to be felt well into the next year.
For example, coaches like Georgia’s Kirby Smart still have no idea when recruits will finally be allowed on campus for official visits.
There are other more pressing matters, with the early signing period set for Dec. 16. There's the uncertainty over how many spots schools will have for early enrollees, due to not knowing how many players will declare for the NFL. And there's the question of seniors taking advantage of the NCAA’s blanket waiver.
For those unaware, the NCAA has told schools like Georgia that any seniors who choose to come back for an extra year of eligibility won't have their scholarships count toward the 85. However, when Smart is trying to squeeze in what he said could be as many as 20 early enrollees. How to get this done is right now his biggest concern.
“You assume those guys are going to be gone, but they’ve got the flexibility to come back. That's great. That's the right thing to do,” Smart said. “I think that’s super, but trying to make decisions for your organization mid-year is a different circumstance.”
Smart explained why that's the case.
“Let's say we have five mid-years, which isn’t the case at all. But let's say we have five that want to come. We have to have a spot for every one of them to come, so every senior who elects to stay, we don’t have a mid-year spot,” Smart said. “So, even though [seniors] won’t count towards the 85, we don’t have a spot for (mid-years) to come.”
Right now, there's just no clarity.
The fact the early signing period now coincides with what's scheduled to be the final game of the regular season has pushed back the time when seniors-as well as declaring juniors-could go ahead and make up their minds.
“We don’t really control which 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,” Smart said. “I don’t think all the things mesh really well, especially if you’re a program that has a shot at a lot of mid-years.”
Once again, Covid is partly to blame.
With some high schools doing virtual learning only, that has encouraged many incoming freshmen to go ahead and enroll in college instead.
“We’re looking at the possibility of anywhere from 14 to 20 mid-year enrollees. Let's say we have 20 mid-year enrollees who want to come—we don't have 20 spots. Yet the seniors won't count next year, but they're eating spots right now,” Smart said. “It just doesn’t add up. It doesn't make perfect sense, so it's a dilemma we have to deal with. You also have programs that have juniors, so you don't know about juniors who haven't declared yet, but we're having a signing date before the juniors declare.
“We’ve been saying for a while that the timing just isn’t accurate, and it really causes some mismanagement. The people who suffer are the high school kids who may be told one thing, and then someone says, ‘Well, I thought you could be here, but maybe you can’t be here.’ It just depends on the number of spots you have.”
While some want to blame the NCAA, Smart said he's not one to do so.
College sports’ governing body has been clear on what the situation will be; it just doesn't make his and other coaches’ jobs any easier.
“They’ve been in communication in terms of the seniors being given another year of eligibility. That's why, to them, it doesn't matter, because the seniors don't count,” Smart said. “They’re not factoring in that (seniors) do count for spring, and it removes a spot. Look, I'd love every senior back. Seniors are the most valuable parts of your team. I’d love to have every one of them back, but not knowing is what’s tough.”
