Three-point stance: Tide may finish No. 1, pre-Signing Day awards

Today's edition examines the decommitment/school drop epidemic, the team to beat in the Rivals.com Team Rankings and some pre-Signing Day awards.

There has been a lot of talk in recent days about the unbalanced landscape of college football recruiting and how the NCAA needs to do something to avoid so many decommitments and players being dropped down the stretch.

So what’s my solution? It’s not a simple one, but here’s a try: schools should be allowed to tender both written offers to a prospect as of Sept. 1 of their freshman year -- instead of August 1 of their senior year -- and provide prospects an opportunity to sign a financial aid agreement at the same time. However, the financial aid agreement would be two-sided, meaning it binds both player and school to the agreement, not just the school as it stands now. The only out, for either side, would be a change at head coach, no other exceptions. And both prospect and new coach would have 30 days from his hire date to decide if they want to honor the written agreement from the previous coach or move on.

So what would happen then? You’d see fewer early commitments, because players would be very wary of committing to a school that provided only a verbal offer and would still be wary of committing to a written offer without the financial aid agreement. And even if they got the trifecta -- the verbal offer, the written offer and the financial aid agreement that binds them -- they would still likely hesitate. And you’d see fewer early offers because not many schools want to be on the hook for a binding offer to a freshman or sophomore they aren’t sure about. This would stop the cycle of early offers equaling early commitments which equals more decommitments and schools dropping prospects.

The recruiting process has sped up exponentially over the last five or six years and it’s time to slow it down. Anything binding and in writing would certainly do that.

In Erik Swenson’s case at Michigan, Swenson likely would have received the written offer and the financial aid agreement, signed and it would have been on Jim Harbaugh and/or the Swensons to back off it when Michigan went through a coaching transition last December. By backing off the agreement, it wouldn't mean that the two part ways forever. The player could still be re-evaluated and re-recruited if both sides wanted, but at least we wouldn’t be talking about such things weeks before National Signing Day.

My solution, at the very least, means there is direct communication of what is real and what is not and would bring the word commitment back into the vernacular of both athlete and college. That word -- commitment -- has become such a joke when it comes to recruiting that this idea would certainly provide a whole lot of much needed clarity.

Maybe an early signing period would make more sense, one in August as I’ve previously proposed or even December, where you know where you stand on both sides if an NLI isn’t offered or a kid doesn’t sign, but that still doesn’t stop the influx of early commitments which is leading to many of these problems.

Heck, I don't know if my proposal would actually hold up as possible, but what if it was? Wouldn’t this make that playing field much more even instead of the prospects having 90 percent of the power and the coaches who decide to drop kids having their character assassinated?

Alabama is going to finish No. 1 in the Rivals.com team recruiting rankings. I don’t know this for a fact nor have I done the math, but with 17 commitments, a few five-star locks (see below) and a few upsets possible, why bet against them?

This year, more than any in recent years, is as close a race between about four or five teams as I’ve seen. But I still like the Tide.

How about a few fun awards as we round the corner into Signing Day week ...

- Worst Kept Secret – This goes to the recruit everyone knows is going to a school but hasn’t committed yet. So many choices, but I’ll go with Mecole Hardman Jr. and Georgia. I’d be stunned beyond belief if he didn’t end up a Dawg.

- Best Kept Secret – Obvious category here. I’ll pick Derrick Brown, who may or may not have eliminated Georgia, may or may not have Alabama or Auburn leading and may or may not pick Tennessee after this weekend.

- Must Get – This is the prospect who a program must get or the meltdown will be epic and it goes to Rashan Gary and Michigan. After the Da'Shawn Hand hope myself and many others gave the fan base a couple years ago, losing Gary at this point could be twice as bad.

- Frantic Finish – This goes to the school who is in play for the most big-time prospects with such little time to go but might not outright lead for any of them. That’s Florida State. Take a look at their board and try to pick who they get and who they don’t.

- Double Dip – The two players that have always seemed to be a package deal at the same position to one school. To me that’s Lyndell Wilson and Ben Davis, who I think are both headed to Alabama. Wilson and Davis aren’t ex-teammates like Wilson and Marlon Davidson, but they’ve been considered ‘Bama leans at least internally at Rivals for a while.

- Falling Apart – The program that has lost the most down the stretch. Penn State lost some guys but Maryland, especially if they don’t get Terrell Hall, will have crumbled the most.

- Your State is Mine – The state that is owned the most by an out-of-state program. That’s New Jersey and Michigan, especially if Gary commits as expected. Gary would give Michigan five of the top 10 prospects in the Garden State.

- My State is Mine – This is to the program no matter what condition it’s in still owns it’s home territory and that’s LSU with the best home state advantage of anyone.

- A Step Up – Nebraska is going to close with a class that is a step up in talent than they’ve had the last few years especially if they finish with Desmond Fitzpatrick and Lamar Jackson. I know it won’t be a top 15 class, but if I’m a Husker fan, I’m excited.

- A Step Back – West Virginia. What happened? To fall from a 3.1 average star ranking last year to 2.7 currently this year is not good.

- Better Close Strong – No pun intended, but Texas had better close this thing out strong. I know it’s a smaller class than last year by far, but if they whiff on some of these top in-state targets down the stretch, things could get uglier.