Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 SEPT. 26, 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED L egendary Alabama head coach Bear Bryant pulled an interesting trick from his sleeve during a run of five consensus national champi- onships from 1961 through 1979. In the decades well be- fore 1992, when roster limits were set at 85 players to help level college football's com- petitive playing field, Bryant routinely stockpiled recruit- ing classes with 40 or more of the nation's best players, even if he didn't necessarily need them. It wasn't unusual for Ala- bama's roster to feature 140 scholarship players or more. Bryant's philosophy was simple: If top players are on my sideline, they ain't on yours. Welcome back to the good ol' days after the NCAA Division I Board of Directors recklessly ruled in Au- gust that because of COVID-19, ev- ery 2020 fall sports athlete will be granted an extra year of eligibility in 2021 — even if they complete a full and interrupted 2020 fall season. For football in particular, Notre Dame players who would've ex- hausted eligibility in 2020 — includ- ing players such as quarterback Ian Book, defensive tackle Kurt Hinish, tight end Brock Wright, placekicker Jonathan Doerer and offensive tackle Robert Hainsey, to name a few — can play again in 2021 and their roster spot will not count toward a team's 85-scholarship limit. Even sixth-year 2020 Irish safety Shaun Crawford could come back for a seventh year in 2021. The six players mentioned above fall into a group of 13 Notre Dame scholarship holders who were set to burn their last year of eligibility in 2020 before the NCAA made this knee-jerk and costly eligibility ruling. So, in the unlikely event that all 13 of those Irish players return in 2021, Notre Dame's football roster could swell to 98 scholarship players — depending on the size of the 2021 recruiting class. Add the 35 walk-ons that Football Bowl Subdivision programs are al- lowed to carry, and Notre Dame may need an auxiliary locker room for its 133 players. This 2020 season will remain status quo. Things get tricky in 2021 when ros- ter management challenges become more pronounced and roster rhythm is disrupted while recruiting classes collide with players already on the team. For example, if Notre Dame brings in 20 recruits with its 2021 class, those players would join the 17-man haul from 2020 — all 17 of whom now have an extra year to play — which would essentially leave the program with a 37-member freshman class, whose eligibility clocks will then tick on the same timeline. "The real trick to this is the next recruiting class and how the NCAA is going to allow you to manage your roster," Irish head coach Brian Kelly theorized about the uncertain chal- lenges and difficult decisions that lie ahead. Roster management is one convo- luted issue this NCAA ruling created. Finance management is another. How can schools that are already slashing staff, salaries and secondary sports programs absorb the millions of dollars lost each Saturday because of empty or sparsely filled football stadiums to fund 10-30 addi- tional scholarships every year for the next four years? Undoubtedly, the Power Five conference schools with the most money and most motivation to win football games will find a way to carry 100-plus players, and therefore further widen the talent gap between the elites and the others — a chasm the 85-player scholarship limit was designed to close. Smaller programs with tighter budgets won't have funding for additional schol- arships, meaning senior stu- dent-athletes will either be pushed out the door or given a roster spot once reserved for an incoming recruit. The domino effect tumbles all the way down to high school. Way more questions than answers remain with an eligibility ruling from the NCAA that was well intended, but perhaps overreaching and definitely premature as a majority of football programs carry on with their seasons. Also, consider the sweeping roster overhauls coming each of the next four years with hundreds of graduat- ing players enticed to enter the trans- fer portal, relocate and play immedi- ately at a new school because they now bring two years of eligibility instead of just one. The inevitable transfer tsunami cre- ated from this NCAA decision will take top players from lesser programs to the greener grasses of the bigger ones and again separate the haves from the have-nots in college football. Presumably, through traditional at- trition, early NFL entrants, a thanks- for-coming nudge out the door for some players and creative recruiting strategies, programs will ease their number crunch over time. But for now, expect college rosters to swell at the elite schools, maintain at the lesser ones, and the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer. ✦ NCAA's Eligibility Ruling Is Too Much, Too Soon UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com Sixth-year senior Shaun Crawford could return to Notre Dame for a sev- enth season next fall after the NCAA ruled all fall sports athletes would be granted an extra year of eligibility in 2021. PHOTO BY MIKE MILLER