Recruiting, a few points

As the Lane Kiffin saga continues, with his press conference at Southern California less than an hour away, lets look at the recruiting aspect of these past 24 hours.

First, the Tennessee recruiting class has lost four commitments already, with some more probably to come. They were ranked at number seven last night before Kiffin gave he resignation. Scout.com now has Tennessee ranked at number 24. This is quite a drop in less than 24 hours. Their is also a very good chance that Tennessee will lose more recruits before this is all over. Micheal Hamilton, AD for Tennessee, needs to make a choice, do you sacrifice the class you have now and take your time to make the right hire that could bring in good classes for years to come or do you make a quick hire to save the class you have now.

Second, it has not been totally confirmed yet, but supposedly some of Kiffin's staff were contacting recruits that had enrolled early at Tennessee and told them not to go to class yet, so they could transfer to Southern California. The way that the rules work in the NCAA are if a student-athlete enrolls in a school early they are not fully enrolled until they attend their first class. The first day of class for all of Kiffin's early enrolled students was today. Where is the line ethics crossed in coaching and recruiting? I firmly believe that Kiffin and his staff crossed that line by calling these recruits and telling them to not attend their first class. A coach should never tell one of their athletes to not attend a class. Education comes first.

Third, once a recruit is enrolled at an University they can not transfer to another school without losing a year of eligibility. If coaches can jump ship whenever they want why do the recruits who were promised things from these very coaches have to stay at school that they most likely came to because of the coach. The NCAA needs to lift this rule and institute a new rule stating that a student athlete can transfer schools without having to sit out a year as long as they were not coerced by another coach and as long as they do not transfer to a school where the coach they were playing for has gone to. If the player wants to go with the coach to the new school then yes, they should have to sit out a year. This rule would most help the student athletes who wanted to play for a certain coach but once they are at school the coach left or retired and now the student athlete can transfer to different school is they would like.