National Signing Day: Bernard Machen Is a Hypocrite. But Not for the Reasons You Think
by cocknfire on Feb 2, 2026 7:01 AM EST
in SEC Football
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Because we don't do team-by-team coverage of National Signing Day here at Team Speed Kills, let's discuss a related issue a little more than we did yesterday. Check back later for things like the Team Speed Kills 12.
Ever since Florida President J. Bernard Machen unleashed his loosely-informed tirade on oversigning, grayshirting and related practices in a letter to Sports Illustrated, there have been a couple of kinds of reaction. One is to applaud J. Bernard Machen for being a protector of all that is right with college sports, and the other has been to try to find evidence of his hypocrisy by looking for examples where Florida, for example, grayshirted a student-athlete. The former is not without some degree of merit, as oversigning is at best an ethically gray area; the second is misguided in its focus.
Machen is a hypocrite, and you don't need to look into old Florida recruiting classes to make the point. And what makes it all the more infuriating is that Machen isn't just being hyprocritical -- he's pointing to very act of hypocrisy and saying that it's not hypocritical, and by lying about it too boot.
Associated with "grayshirting" -- and equally disgusting -- is the nefarious practice of prematurely ending student-athletes' scholarships. Some are just not renewed even though the student-athlete is doing what is asked of him. ...
No university would allow this for the general student body. Imagine the uproar it would cause!
Well, I would guess that the uproar would be none at all. Because it happens at American universities today -- all the time! (Exclamation point approved by J. Bernard Machen.)
But to help Machen clear up his thinking, let me offer him the chance to prove he's not a hypocrite by phrasing it this way: Is Machen now saying that all Florida students who are getting an academic scholarship will continue to receive that scholarship for all four years, regardless of what grades they make in the first, second and third year of the scholarship? I'm not exactly going to wait with bated breath to see if Machen agrees to the offer, and it's not just because it's unlikely that he reads this blog.
Some of my education at the University of South Carolina was paid for by academic scholarships that I earned. Most, if not all, of those scholarships required me to maintain a certain GPA to continue to receive the scholarship. The logic was pretty clear: If you're going to give a student a scholarship for academic achievement, particularly if there are only so many scholarships you can give for those academic reasons, it makes sense to make sure those holding the scholarships can actually do well academically in college.
The same logic should apply to the finite number of athletic scholarships at universities. Steve Spurrier caused a controversy when he came to South Carolina in 2005 by taking scholarships away from some athletes he didn't think were meeting the program's standards -- less noticed was that these scholarships went to walk-ons that Spurrier thought were doing things the right way.
Machen is also ignoring that athletes can and often do break the scholarship agreement on their terms. A player can transfer to another school with little recourse from the university, unless Derek Dooley has decided he wants to make a pointless stand. And with April just a couple of months away, no one should need a reminder that high-caliber players often stay for just three years.
Personally, I think oversigning should not happen, certainly not in the Houston Nutt "It Takes a Village" sense. And while I generally think there's not a problem with grayshirting if the student and coaches agree -- it's waiting a semester, not a year, as Machen ignorantly writes -- I can see why some people might object to at least some examples of the practice.
But by insisting that schools treat athletic scholarships as "a moral contract" for all four years, Machen is demanding something from the athletic side of his institution that he would never ask the academic side to do. That is not moral clarity or some sort of righteous stand, it's hypocrisy, and there's nothing brave or praiseworthy about it.
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A few things
1. It’s obvious from his writing that when Machen is talking about grayshirts, he’s talking about when a coach offers one after signing day. He’s guilty of being imprecise with that bit, not being a hypocrite.
2. “Some are just not renewed even though the student-athlete is doing what is asked of him.” All you can ask of an athlete is to be on time, work hard, do what the coaches ask, and stay out of trouble. Sometimes they just don’t pan out as expected, but if they do all that, then they should keep their scholarship.
That’s the equivalent of keeping the GPA for an academic scholarship. Maybe someone doesn’t end up an A+ magna cum laude graduate, but if they keep the required GPA, they keep the scholarship. Maybe someone doesn’t end up a starter on the team, but if they do everything that’s asked of them, they shouldn’t get their scholarship pulled. That’s what Machen is talking about.
3. As for when it’s time to take a scholarship away, Machen says: “There are, to be sure, some legitimate circumstances that result in scholarship non-renewal.”
So where is the hypocrisy, again?
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 7:19 AM EST reply actions
Keeping the required academic performance (GPA) for an academic scholarship,
and keeping the required athletic performance for an athletic scholarship are comparable. Simply showing up and doing everything that’s asked of you will not always guarantee either of these things. For Machen to dismiss the fact that academic scholarships are pulled every semester for poor academic performance, and to condemn athletic scholarships not being renewed for poor athletic performance is open dishonesty.
formerly 'ud2'
by Orlando McCain on Feb 2, 2026 8:26 AM EST up reply actions
Athletics and academics are not perfect analogues. There are more things you can do for an underachieving student than an underachieving athlete. You can change majors, for instance, in order to keep that academic scholarship. You can’t just change sports in order to keep the athletic scholarship.
If a player doesn’t pan out, that can partially be on the coaches too. Maybe they didn’t coach them up correctly, or maybe they just made an error in recruiting. Coaches aren’t infallible. But cutting a player who didn’t pan out is 100% bad for the player and 100% advantageous to the coach, which makes it unfair. And sometimes players are held back by non-career-ending injuries. Whose fault is that? In that case, how in the world revoking the player’s scholarship fair?
All coaches set down guidelines for what you need to do to fulfill your obligations to a team. As long as a player does those things, he should keep the scholarship, period.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 8:37 AM EST up reply actions
You can’t change sports, but you can change schools. (And when you find out you need to change majors, it might not be on time and might not do any good anyway, but we’ll leave that aside for a moment.) And unless the program has agreed that a player can’t contribute, that decision is 100% bad for the coach AND teammates and 100% advantageous to the player — unfair?
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by cocknfire on Feb 2, 2026 9:55 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
“All you can ask of an athlete is to be on time, work hard, do what the coaches ask, and stay out of trouble. … That’s the equivalent of keeping the GPA for an academic scholarship.”
No, it’s not. Some students can be on time to all their classes, work hard, do all the assignments and stay out of trouble — and still not get the required GPA. It is based on achievement, not effort. Athletes are getting a scholarship to make an impact on the football team — not just to show up.
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by cocknfire on Feb 2, 2026 9:48 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Couple more things
So if an athlete isn’t on time, doesn’t work hard, etc. AND has an impact on the team — the scholarship should be lost anyway? That’s the logical extension of your argument.
Second, the phrasing of Machen’s article makes it clear that he believes the non-renewal of scholarships should only be used in extreme circumstances. Given some examples of Florida players who have kept their scholarships, I have to wonder what in the world you have to do to lose a scholarship in Gainesville.
Team Speed Kills. All SEC, all the time.
by cocknfire on Feb 2, 2026 10:11 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
I don’t know of anyone who has lost a scholarship at Florida for underperformance. Frankie Hammond lost his scholarship last summer for DUI, and I can think of at least four players who were kicked off the team during Meyer’s tenure and another couple during Zook’s. One or two who were booted got a second chance, but none of them got the scholarship back.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 10:24 AM EST up reply actions
Here it is
It’s hypocritical to constantly invoke the welfare of the student-athlete on the one hand while criticizing the one NCAA mechanism which actually reduces system pressure to put a kid on the field - even a practice field - with a nagging injury.
A mountain of evidence suggests football can have serious effects on long-term health, and most of it suggests those injuries result from kids ignoring warning signs during their playing days. If CFB seriously wants to take a stand on this, they should be using more medical exemptions, not less.
Machen’s argument ultimately fails on a host of fronts, once you start thinking about the solutions his moral tirade requires. He’s right - the system does have serious examples of abuse. But he’s dead wrong to draw the issues so neatly in black and white, and he does his own coaches no favors to throw in his lot with the “let’s paint every circumstance with the same broad brush” crowd.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 8:00 AM EST reply actions
Players at Florida have gotten medical hardships once their careers have been well and truly declared over. That’s not at issue. The medical hardship part was a veiled shot at Alabama, which has had about twice as many medical hardships as anyone else in the country since Saban arrived in 2007.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 8:27 AM EST up reply actions
So it's a statistical argument?
Given that football has a rampant problem with glossing over injuries rather than overreacting to them, which statistical outlier would you rather have coaching your son? The guy with too many or the guy with too few?
Doesn’t a doctor have to sign off on these things? Or can a coach just declare it to be so?
And if a doctor has to sign off on it, then isn’t it a dangerous thing to start insinuating the doctor MUST be violating his medical oath to render a false diagnosis?
My point remains - start stigmatizing medical exemptions, and you’re going to put kids in harms way. It’s just an inevitable result.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 8:59 AM EST up reply actions
Doctors do have to sign off on medical hardships, I think. But if a school has far more than anyone else and they’re not being used to clear roster space, then it’s time to find out what that program is doing to severely injure more players than anyone else. Plenty of schools have top flight medical programs and have perfectly reasonable standards for drawing that line and don’t give out nearly as many as Alabama does.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 9:14 AM EST up reply actions
So...
…the system is perfectly ethical as is, except for Alabama, who uses the medical exemption to clear roster space. And yet Dennis Dodd just wrote a column calling the off-season the “killing season.” And 13 Iowa players just ended up in the hospital for trying to keep up with their coaches’ demands. And Machen thinks now is the right time to effectively demand fewer medical exemptions.
You really can’t have it both ways. Either the system needs to think long and hard about using these exemptions more often, or the system needs to start contemplating contributions to long-term health plans for these players. So - extolling the status quo, except for Alabama, doesn’t really hold water morally, does it? Hence - hypocritical.
Your confusing the issues here. Whatever you think of Saban individually, the health of college football players collectively matters far more. If you’re going to legislate corrections, make sure you’re legislating for more transparency and more exemptions. Otherwise, your realagendas are competitive and financial - NOT moral.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 9:25 AM EST up reply actions
It’s not about Alabama or Saban. If it was Florida doing it, then Florida should be investigated. In general, outliers should be investigated to find out why they’re outside the norm.
The rest is you confusing the issue at hand, not me.
1) Dennis Dodd is a troll. This is well known.
2) Medical hardships would not have prevented the Iowa 13 from going to the hospital, as none were candidates for one.
3) Almost every player death in the last 10 years has been directly or indirectly related to sickle cell trait. That’s a screening issue, not a medical hardship issue.
The issue with medical hardships is figuring out when to end a player’s career. What you’re talking about here is the issue of whether training programs are too strenuous. Those are separate issues entirely.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 9:42 AM EST up reply actions
Really?
Death is simply the most extreme form of medical hardship associated with college football - not some sort of special exception. Training injuries are still injuries. And these are simply cases of players injured or killed preparing to play.
You can create special categories all you want. College football takes an extreme physical toll. You can call for more transparency on the medical issue, but you can’t just pat yourself on the back and say Florida’s system must be right and Alabama’s must be wrong. That would make you the troll, would it not?
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 9:54 AM EST up reply actions
And not about Saban?
“The medical hardship part was a veiled shot at Alabama, which has had about twice as many medical hardships as anyone else in the country since Saban arrived in 2007.”
Pick one.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 9:56 AM EST up reply actions
What I’m saying with that is, Machen is not against medical hardships as a general rule. Otherwise, WR Paul Wilson wouldn’t have got one from Florida a year or two ago. He’s taking a shot at schools that would use medical hardships to clear roster space, and only one school that I know of has been accused of that.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 10:08 AM EST up reply actions
I still don’t get where you’re coming from here. None of the players that have died or that went to the hospital in Iowa were candidates for a medical hardship, so the schools weren’t negligent in failing to give them out to those players.
And again, it’s not about one school or another. I’m not calling for condemnation of Alabama; I’m calling for investigation. Maybe it is just bad luck that Alabama has given out more than double the average school since ’07. It very well could be.
Until we can say that beyond a reasonable doubt though, then doubts will remain. And that’s all I have to say about that.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 10:15 AM EST up reply actions
Evidence of Physical Hardship
You keep claiming that Alabama’s rate seems fishy and that everyone else’s must be right. Summary: “Alabama needs an investigation, because the rest of the system just works fine.”
No, the system does not work just fine. Deaths, hospitalizations, chronic orthopedic problems, and growing CTE data suggests the system actually stinks. Maybe Saban is gaming the medical exemption rule — but focusing on that issue seems extraordinarily hypocritical. Or perhaps diversionary.
But moral? No.
Finally, I am not suggesting that medical exemptions makes these problems go away. I am saying these problems prove that schools should be more proactive towards getting kids off the field. Why should an injury have to be catastrophic or life-threatening to qualify for medical exemption?
Again — the biggest problem in CFB remains kids pushing through injuries to stay on the field. We need to reduce that pressure by encouraging more medical exemptions. And yes, more transparency in the process.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 11:22 AM EST up reply actions
His black and white portrayal in the short article doesn’t do the ideas justice. Yes, there are Academic schollys that get revoked every year—because students have broken the contract they signed (not keeping up their GPA, not adhering to to behavior standards), but they don’t get removed in the middle of a student’s four years because too many were given out, or they need to make room for other players. For student athletes, they too have to adhere to standards of behavior and GPA requirements, but the fringe player can lose his scholarship because coach misjudged/counted/whatever on the scholarships he has out. There should probably be more medical shirting, but Machen is referring to the ones that are serendipitously timed/ with players not making an impact/ not really clear on what’s actually hurt, that seem to manipulate a system in order to circumvent rules. College Football is a business, but if they are going to cling the idea that these are “student-athletes” and their mission is educational, institutions need to take seriously the promise of four years. Student-athletes aren’t sold a one year scholarship with a chance for renewal. And while some athletes do have some mobility and power to leave after three years, those aren’t the ones that become casualties to oversigning. The system itself isn’t bad, it can just be manipulated
by Leak's Jers on Feb 2, 2026 8:48 AM EST reply actions
To clarify
Yes, the LOI is for one year, and does get resigned every year, the SA knows that—but coaches don’t treat it as such.
by Leak's Jers on Feb 2, 2026 8:58 AM EST up reply actions
Bingo
No one ever had their academic scholarship taken away in order to give it to someone else.
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by Year2 on Feb 2, 2026 9:15 AM EST up reply actions
Only by budgetary reality...
…and not collective fiat. UNC can offer as many as they like, UVa or ECU be damned, so long as someone’s willing to foot the bill. I’m back in grad school, by the way, after 20 years. Loving it. But paying for it.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 11:26 AM EST up reply actions
No, it's not a given.
But I know plenty of people who have had their TA spots (which I consider the equivalent of an undergraduate scholarship) taken away so they could be used for recruiting new grad students. College football vs. grad school is actually a pretty good comparison.
by dxf04 on Feb 2, 2026 12:02 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed
I turned down a TA simple because it’s a crummy deal - but a necessary one for most. So, yes, take away the cush dorms, the training table, the academic support staff, and the exclusive state-of-the-art training facilities, and CFB and Grad School do have a lot in common :)
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 12:11 PM EST up reply actions
State of the art?
I use a $4 million microscope sir!
by dxf04 on Feb 2, 2026 12:57 PM EST up reply actions
Academic scholarships require you meet a minimum GPA. Athletic scholarships require a player to remain among the 85 best on the team. When a scholarship is pulled, the player can remain with the team and has the chance to reclaim scholarship status.
by wrightc214 on Feb 2, 2026 12:10 PM EST up reply actions
I don’t see a problem with pulling underacheivers scholarships. Year 2 wants to reward mediocrity. If you are not living up to expectations you get fired. It happens in all walks of life and to cry about it is a waste of time!
by wrightc214 on Feb 2, 2026 12:13 PM EST up reply actions
How do you or anyone else tell the difference?
Who becomes the judge of whether a scholarship is being taken away as part of a numbers game? And why should an athlete that’s not helping the team get a scholarship over an athlete that is or might?
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by cocknfire on Feb 2, 2026 10:01 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
This entire issue
is quickly getting to the waste of time argument stage. There seem to be a lot of those in college football. It seems people have already gravitated into two camps and no amount of debate is gonna change either side’s mind. New statistics and dumb analogies will be brought out to support both arguments and hardcore fans would be able to successfully argue each other into stalemate. It’s like the playoff/non playoff argument. Until the University presidents decide as a group to do something, this issue is deadlocked.
The only people that can be convinced one way or another are casual fans who are gonna rip on college sports no matter what. It’s like going to deadspin (or any other site) and seeing them rip the bcs then rip the fact that the seahawks could make the playoffs.
Sorry if I sound grumpy. College sports and ethics is the largest area of gray matter in the solar system.
by Mark Mandingo on Feb 2, 2026 12:02 PM EST reply actions
You're largely correct
But I would like to add that the majority of the din has been coming from one side of the argument. It’s only been very recently that those of us who aren’t particularly bothered by the current rules have started firing back. The last year or so has largely just been anti-oversigning advocates demonizing the SEC without opposition.
Stangely, this tactic has not resulted in people changing their minds about oversigning. Getting constantly insulted rarely does.
But you’re right, it is getting to the waste of breath stage. We addressed it this week and I’m largely done with it now. I don’t really have the energy to care all that much. Oversigning advocates will likely win becuase they care a lot more.
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by Poseur on Feb 2, 2026 12:51 PM EST up reply actions
to be fair
there really isn’t a debate until one side challenges the status quo, so that’s why there’s so many anti oversigning rants to begin with. Most of the time you don’t even have to read somebody’s argument to know what side of the issue they’re on. Just look at their affiliation. That’s not a shot at you. If I saw it was somebody from Dawg Sports or some big 11 blog I would know which side they were on.
by Mark Mandingo on Feb 2, 2026 1:07 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed
And I don’t mind honest debate, but I am sick of being called evil, stupid, unethical, or whatever. That’s not a way to convince people, not saying you, or anyone on this thread, was.
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And The Valley Shook!
by Poseur on Feb 2, 2026 1:18 PM EST up reply actions
"Care"
I just refuse to let the weight of conventional wisdom and diatribe win. Pulling an enrolled kid out of a dorm is just flat wrong. Telling a kid in advance that an available scholly remains contingent on one being available is perfectly acceptable. From the kid’s perspective, it sure beats being told, “No,” now and then later, “Well, turns out we could have worked it out. Good luck at your second choice.”
In other words, every one of these situations remains highly circumstantial. Some are fine. Some are horrendous. But the broad brush stroke is just lazy thinking, IMO.
by heelsgot6 on Feb 2, 2026 1:45 PM EST up reply actions
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