I kid, I know it was Scott Baio

Roster management. Coincidence.

I’m not comfortable with mandatory summer sessions to begin with. He finished in 3 yearrs, which is to his credit, and his alone. I would want to know the substance of his communications with Kelly. If Kelly applied any pressure whatsoever on him to hit the bricks, then I would want to know as should all here.

But until such evidence surfaces, I'm not going to assume.

To me that would seem to indicate that both sides worked it out to benefit everyone involved.

With his degree in hand, he can leave and not sit out. Moreover, his statement seems to indicate that he's ok with it.

I hate the mums.

graduated from the school?

Seems like a great plan.

it's possible this is seen by all parties as a win-win. Kid gets his degree AND two years of eligibility at a school of his choice, where his playing time will undoubtedly be higher (much higher).

If the kid were forced out before he got his ND degree, that would be a different matter entirely. Also, if the kid just really wanted to finish out his 4th year at ND and play football (though likely not play in games), he should be allowed to.

ND promises its players a degree and an opportunity to play.

For these guys, ND has fulfilled its promise.

If those players want to get more PT and go somewhere else for one or two semesters with ND degree in hand, I have a hard time faulting anyone involved.

Agreement.

After his junior year.

While you are playing the sport

Scholarships are one-year renewable contracts. I think that's a terrible and exploitative system, but that's what the agreement is.

To the normative or moral question of honoring a fair agreement, I don't think that agreement should be measured by the entirely arbitrary timeframe of a period of years, but instead based on the purpose of attending the University. The purpose of attending ND is to obtain a degree, not to attend classes for four years. ND does better by a student who graduates in three or three and a half years than it does by a student who takes classes for four, but does not graduate.

Reward a student’s industry by a foot in the pants.

of our coach and AD, but it's also plausible that they've just gotten smarter about roster management. They may well have had some of these conversations weeks ago, and recruited with knowledge of who was staying and who was planning on leaving, rather than who they were planning to push out.

And my concerns of abuse are much lower when the kid has graduated. I don't think there's an entitlement to a 4th year of fucking around.

In a perfect world, I wouldn't let kids enroll early. There's all manner of small concessions made at the altar of competing.

I'd just assume they'd get the whole thing over with and start playing the players so that ND can drop out of the whole charade but that's me.

The bottom line though is that this appears to be quite dissimilar from a Robby Benson scenario.

85 players into the spring semester, this is the kind of chicanery that happens, and this is the perception , and the temptation, that Norte Dame has long had a policy in place to prevent.

I am reasonably sure, but allow that I may be wrong, that Kelly has Robbie Benson roster management discussions with players like this fellow. And surprise! We come in at 85 or under by spring practice.

We used to consistently end up under 85, which is also not ideal. It's a bit more art than science*, but in my opinion it's not necessarily a big deal if they have a couple Robbie Benson discussions each year instead of a couple openings each year, with the caveat that it's predominantly fifth years on the bubble.


*in the modern senses of the terms

I think for the most part ND made good on their commitment to Morgan (come play football here and we see that you get a degree).

Two of my guys could have graduated in 3.5 or even 3 years from ND. They were smart enough to know that had they done so, I wasn't footing the bill for them to hang out in SB for another year. I'm not sure that makes me GD Spradlin