Florida Cuts Two to Make Scholarship Cap

According to a tweet today by Palm Beach Post writer Ben Volin, the Florida Gators were two scholarships over the 85-player cap as of National Signing Day this year. Ignoring the question of how Volin knew this (or "calculated" it) for now, it's worth noting that two players were allegedly cut, to make the cap. One of them, defensive tackle Gary Brown, had some legal trouble last year and the other, defensive tackle Edwin Herbert, was a JuCo transfer who didn't make any meaningful contributions on the field last year.

It stands to reason that, had it not been for Meyer engaging in the dreaded "over-signing", these two humble student athletes would still have their scholarships. 

This case illustrates the fact that quality coaches are always going to have a plan for making it under the cap. There is little doubt that Meyer would've kept these guys if he could. Florida, like most other major football programs, budgets to give out 85 scholarships every year, and it really does them very little good to save the money. If the player is not causing problems and there is even an outside shot he could turn into a contributor, you might as well keep him around. The limit changes that, though, because once you hit the cap, those guys who might turn into something by their senior year are keeping you from having the younger kids who could be something right away or in a year or two with a couple left on scholarship.

Meyer had a plan. Pursue a certain number of players and, depending on how many of them he got, some cuts might have to be made. It would have been suicide for him to offer a single scholarship before he had a prioritized list of which players were on the chopping block and how many commits he'd need before he had to start throwing off dead weight. 

As has been true throughout this over-signing debate, the math is immutable: if the limit is 85 and your current roster plus the new scholarships you promise exceeds that number, someone has to get cut. The faulty reasoning, however, is in assuming that cutting a player is somehow immoral or unacceptable.

The idea that a player is owed 5 years worth of free tuition and a spot on a roster because he, at one point, signed a letter of intent is laughable, and this is an example of how stories like this should play out: a few relatively unsurprising roster moves drawing little in the way of commentary or righteous indignation. 

Brown and Herbert might have gotten five full years of free education, but they got more than most folks get and, just like with Academic scholarships, these grants don't come no-strings-attached.