Rivals’ national analyst Greg Smith has thoughts on the NCAA increasing the number of official visits, the Buckeyes loading up and a simmering NIL problem.
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1. NCAA makes another change
One of the latest NCAA rules that came up was a removal on the limit of official visits that a prospect can take. Prospects are still allowed one official per school unless a coaching change occurs.
The problem was that there was no change to the 56 official visits each school could use in a cycle.
Now that’s not an issue. The Division I Council on Friday approved an increase of official visits per school from 56 to 70. It’s not a permanent move and is in place for one year. Also, schools are still permitted to sign as many players as they want. As long as they stay under the 85-man scholarship limit.
These are good moves for the sport big picture wise. There is one thing I’d warn prospects of. It still might not be the best idea in the majority of situations to take more than five official visits. There is only so much time for you to take these visits. Eventually they distract from your obligations for school and your high school team.
It’s nice to have as an option to take 10 official visits. That doesn’t mean you have to.
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2. Buckeyes loading up for a run
Ohio State pulled a shocker over the weekend when it landed five-star defensive lineman Justin Scott. It’s not surprising that the Buckeyes could land a five-star. The surprise is that Scott shut down his recruitment at this point. Michigan and Notre Dame had been strong players in his recruitment but he pledged to Ohio State.
Could this be the start of a huge summer for coach Ryan Day’s program? There are two other five-stars on the defensive line that the team has all the momentum with right now:
The potential to have a haul of three five-stars along the defensive line is real for defensive line coach Larry Johnson. Eddrick Houston, Dylan Stewart and Scott would give Ohio State the best defensive line haul in the country. The Buckeyes are also sitting in a good position for four-star defensive backs Miles Lockhart and Aaron Scott. There could be a lot more star power on defense heading to Columbus before the season starts.
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3. James Franklin shines light on Penn State NIL
There are certain schools that you just assume would have a bustling NIL situation. In the Big Ten, you’d expect that Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State would all have money flowing in for programs to use for NIL. As we’ve seen things unfold over the last couple years that has not been the case.
Each of those major programs has seen its own struggles with getting donations for NIL. Ohio State made a strong NIL commitment over the last year. It's not a coincidence that it’s on track to land a lot of major prospects this cycle. Penn State coach James Franklin recently went on the "Next Up With Adam" podcast. He said that progress has been made at Penn State but the program is two years behind.
Franklin’s assertion is that if the 750,000 Penn State alumni gave something it would be a powerful thing for the program. That’s definitely true but not really realistic.
There are other problems here. NIL isn’t explained well for the average fan. That is partially because the teams technically don’t control it. Also, NIL wasn’t initially intended as a vehicle to help secure recruits.
There is also the issue that fans see the Big Ten making more money than ever but schools keep asking fans for money. Fans don’t seem to grasp that programs can’t take that television revenue and use it for NIL. Again, that is an education around the NIL issue.
This is a tricky issue to solve. The easiest solution would be for the NCAA to allow NIL to be brought in-house for schools. We’ll see if that ever happens. Until it does this disconnect will continue between fans and programs around the country.
