I had no idea that this was even a thing, but I got into it with someone today about the SEC's dominance and the Big Ten's subordination, and this was brought to my attention in the Big Ten's defense. Apparently, it's been a common practice in the SEC to revoke scholarships after a player's first year, a practice that the Big Ten has apparently rejected. So if they recruit a guy, and he's not panning out, they can just replace him with another player. That gives them a huge advantage against schools that are stuck with "bust" recruits for four years. It's almost like giving a school more scholarships than the NCAA maximum. Apparently, Saban has recently adopted four year scholarships but some schools like LSU and Texas (it's not just limited to the SEC but that's where it's the most prevalent) are sticking with the one year scholarship option. Was anyone else aware that this was a possibility? It sort of caught me off guard hearing about it. In Alabama's defense though, there are really only three scholarship freshman from last season that weren't back for this year's team, and all three transferred - to Ohio State, Virginia, and VMI.
I thought all scholarships were year to year. Its just douchey to take it away when someone doesnt "pan out"
I'm 99% sure all athletic scholarships are year to year. I assume the Big10 just has a policy to not revoke scholarships due to lack of performance.
Are you sure you're not referring to the practice of oversigning? 4-year scholarships are awarded by some schools to counter the practice (utilized at some SEC schools) of promising more scholarships than they have and "cutting" those that don't work out. Here's an old blog that followed the topic, including a move by Big 10 schools toward 4-year scholarships.
Although all scholarships are year to year, most schools do not revoke them if they find a better recruit.
Most schools will offer to allow to player to leave at some point, though. Sumler left Oregon for Appy State last summer, for example, and Blackmon just left for some JC in CA after 2 years. All scholarships are year-to-year, though, at least that has been the case for years.
But most teams also don't intentionally promise more scholarships than they can give, with the goal of trimming the less-productive players. I don't know whether they have oversigned more than other conferences, but SEC teams have taken some flack for it lately. The 4-year scholarship trend is apparently a recent one intended to solidify the commitment of teams to their student-athletes.
Interestingly, this actually reminds me of the Jack Welch philosophy of firing the bottom 10% of managers each year. I wonder what kind of a culture would be created on a football team if each season, players knew that the bottom 5 of the "returning" scholarship athletes would be cut every year. Would that breed a spirit of competition, fear, mistrust?
A little-known fact is that Welch often broke his own 'rule', and did so because he actually had a more subjective approach to business. His 4 types of employees, and how they can impact your business: 1) underperforms and doesn't buy in - first to go, no questions asked 2) performs but doesn't buy in - very high on the list to go because they set examples for others. Coach them to buy in, but if they resist, they have to go 3) underperforms and does buy in - coach the hell out of them, because that is your job as a manager. If it doesn't work, they go 4) performs and buys in - future leadership Welch actually believed that the high-performer who didn't buy into the company philosophy is more of a long-term problem than a solid employee who perhaps hasn't been given the proper tools within the organization to succeed.
