Bama being bama

"At the end of the day, it’s hard to envision a scenario where the NCAA comes down on Alabama, even if it does seem they have committed a recruiting violation by tampering with an Iowa commit. However, it would seem like the Hawkeyes have a better chance at keeping him in the fold than they typically might when someone like Nick Saban comes calling."

I agree w/ all of this. Good news.
 
He hasn't said he was jumping, but in case he would I say if he doesn't want to come here I'm fine with it, i'll get over it - as long as we specify and say 'No' to Alabama if we were to release him.
Let him go somewhere else. But Saban can't benefit
 
Sounds like a really strange and unique situation. I wonder if Bama just assumed his NLI with Iowa was no longer binding when they offered. Might just be a complete accident and Bama quickly pulls the offer if and when this becomes a bigger deal.

Or else Saban does Saban things
 
mopkins said:
Sounds like a really strange and unique situation. I wonder if Bama just assumed his NLI with Iowa was no longer binding when they offered. Might just be a complete accident and Bama quickly pulls the offer if and when this becomes a bigger deal.
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Because Bama is clearly the most ethical school of all when it comes to recruiting. C'mon, they have an entire team of attorneys on retainer to run this stuff by. Bama knows they won't get slapped for this because nobody can prove harm if Nixon ends up coming to Iowa or going somewhere other than Bama. And even then, is the NCAA gonna level punishment that might mean an eligible kid who isn't required to know the intricacies of NLI rules doesn't get to play where he got an offer to play? Probably not.
 
Remember when they had a dline coach committing recruiting violations and they got in a lot of trouble? That was just last year. They made him resign and I never saw a single punishment for them. Guess what the violations were? Impermissible contacts with recruits.
 
HawkInATX said:
Because Bama is clearly the most ethical school of all when it comes to recruiting. C'mon, they have an entire team of attorneys on retainer to run this stuff by. Bama knows they won't get slapped for this because nobody can prove harm if Nixon ends up coming to Iowa or going somewhere other than Bama. And even then, is the NCAA gonna level punishment that might mean an eligible kid who isn't required to know the intricacies of NLI rules doesn't get to play where he got an offer to play? Probably not.
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My point is: if the NLI is binding then he CANT go to Alabama anyway. So it doesn't make sense for them to offer a scholarship. Most people, including BHGP, initially reported that he got out of his NLI...but in reality he didn't. What was being reported wasn't true...according to Iowa compliance

What makes more sense:

1) Alabama assumed he was released from his NLI since he wasn't academically eligible to go to Iowa and went to CC instead. (just like was reported by BHGP, but wasn't accurate)

or

2) Alabama openly and publicly committed a major recruiting violation by offering a kid a scholarship knowing full well he already had a signed and binding NLI to Iowa.

I hate Alabama as much as anyone else, but Occam's Razor is a thing for a reason.
 
mopkins said:
My point is: if the NLI is binding then he CANT go to Alabama anyway. So it doesn't make sense for them to offer a scholarship. Most people, including BHGP, initially reported that he got out of his NLI...but in reality he didn't. What was being reported wasn't true...according to Iowa compliance

What makes more sense:

1) Alabama assumed he was released from his NLI since he wasn't academically eligible to go to Iowa and went to CC instead. (just like was reported by BHGP, but wasn't accurate)

or

2) Alabama openly and publicly committed a major recruiting violation by offering a kid a scholarship knowing full well he already had a signed and binding NLI to Iowa.

I hate Alabama as much as anyone else, but Occam's Razor is a thing for a reason.
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My guess is that they assumed he had no binding NLI, and the kid wasn't aware of the rules. Is Bama sleazy? Yes. Would they offer a kid from an opponent that is beating them during an actual game? I have no doubt they would.

But in this particular case, I can easily chalk it up to misunderstanding. Sleazy misunderstanding, yes, considering it's pretty much "public" knowledge that he was supposed to enroll at U of I after first semester. But one must remember, to a typical Bama coach, staffer or fan, "rules" are a relative concept at best.
 
By rule Nixon is also supposed to tell the school he has signed the NLI, but I'm guessing he isn't aware of that rule just like the rest of us.

It's likely Alabama thought he was ok to recruit. There won't be any kind of punishment.
 
mopkins said:
My point is: if the NLI is binding then he CANT go to Alabama anyway. So it doesn't make sense for them to offer a scholarship. Most people, including BHGP, initially reported that he got out of his NLI...but in reality he didn't. What was being reported wasn't true...according to Iowa compliance

What makes more sense:

1) Alabama assumed he was released from his NLI since he wasn't academically eligible to go to Iowa and went to CC instead. (just like was reported by BHGP, but wasn't accurate)

or

2) Alabama openly and publicly committed a major recruiting violation by offering a kid a scholarship knowing full well he already had a signed and binding NLI to Iowa.

I hate Alabama as much as anyone else, but Occam's Razor is a thing for a reason.
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Too many people misunderstand Occam's Razor. Given two or more theories that both equally explain the observations at hand, the one with the fewest assumptions is the most preferred.

Case 1 assumptions:
Alabama reads BHGP or HN.
Alabama chose to not look at some pretty obvious rules that the Iowa Compliance dept. happened to know
Alabama did not look at the appeal to see that I was won and he was academically eligible.

Case 2 assumptions:
Alabama didn't care because they knew the NCAA wouldn't do anything.

That's 3:1 in favor of Case 2 via Occam's Razor.
 
HawkInATX said:
Too many people misunderstand Occam's Razor. Given two or more theories that both equally explain the observations at hand, the one with the fewest assumptions is the most preferred.

Case 1 assumptions:
Alabama reads BHGP or HN.
Alabama chose to not look at some pretty obvious rules that the Iowa Compliance dept. happened to know
Alabama did not look at the appeal to see that I was won and he was academically eligible.

Case 2 assumptions:
Alabama didn't care because they knew the NCAA wouldn't do anything.

That's 3:1 in favor of Case 2 via Occam's Razor.
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But what you're missing is if he had a NLI signed and binding...HE COULD NOT SIGN WITH ALABAMA. There would be no point in publicly offering him a scholarship knowing it was a violation and knowing he couldn't sign with them anyway.

1 answer makes a lot of sense...the other answer you have to jump through a lot of hoops and make a ton of assumptions to get to. That's Occams Razor in a nutshell. One is full of conspiracy theories, assumptions and Alabama hatred....the other is an honest mistake.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
My guess is that they assumed he had no binding NLI, and the kid wasn't aware of the rules. Is Bama sleazy? Yes. Would they offer a kid from an opponent that is beating them during an actual game? I have no doubt they would.

But in this particular case, I can easily chalk it up to misunderstanding. Sleazy misunderstanding, yes, considering it's pretty much "public" knowledge that he was supposed to enroll at U of I after first semester. But one must remember, to a typical Bama coach, staffer or fan, "rules" are a relative concept at best.
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This exactly. Thank you.

I hate Alabama. I hate Nick Saban. But to think they did all this out in the open...blatantly committing violations in the open because "Saban spits at the NCAA" is really dumb. Most people, myself included, thought that once he went to community college his NLI was no longer binding.
 
If he had academic eligibility problems already in high school, and again at IWCC, I don’t think he’ll work out at Iowa and it’s probably better if he just goes to Alabama. Does anyone want to waste energy on a kid who can’t pass high school level classes, especially when he’ll have to maintain at least a semblance of earning a bachelors degree? All while being a full time, year-round P5 football player? When he was first supposed to come to Iowa he couldn’t even enroll because his grades were so shitty, what makes you think with the zero tolerance staff we have at Iowa that he’d be likely to stay eligible...Could he all of a sudden turn it around and be a good student? Maybe. But I wouldn’t want to bank on a “maybe” and spend a ton of time and effort developing the kid only to risk him washing out, not to mention the scholarship.

Not passing the high school classes tells me he doesn’t want it bad enough and doesn’t take his life serious enough to be a dependable teammate.
 
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Fryowa said:
If he had academic eligibility problems already in high school, and again at IWCC, I don’t think he’ll work out at Iowa and it’s probably better if he just goes to Alabama. Does anyone want to waste energy on a kid who can’t pass high school level classes, especially when he’ll have to maintain at least a semblance of earning a bachelors degree? All while being a full time, year-round P5 football player?

Not passing the high school classes tells me he doesn’t want it bad enough and doesn’t take his life serious enough to be a dependable teammate.
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I get what you're saying, but sometimes it can be a wake-up call as well. Look at Shonn Greene. Went to Iowa, got bad grades, went to community college, came back to Iowa a monster.
 
mopkins said:
I get what you're saying, but sometimes it can be a wake-up call as well. Look at Shonn Greene. Went to Iowa, got bad grades, went to community college, came back to Iowa a monster.
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I also hear your point, but I would be wary of wasting the time developing and coaching a kid who has a high likelihood of washing out. It wasn’t just bad grades to start out his college career, he didn’t even have enough grades to enroll. The Iowa staff reportedly hound dogged him in high school about his grades and he still didn’t get it done.

I guess I just envision the scenario we’ve seen before where someone comes in as the next big thing with a lot of talent, and then you see them leaving the program because college isn’t their gig. All after spending hundreds of coaching hours and a scholarship down the tubes. I wouldn’t be willing to take the risk.

Alabama on the other hand will pay him a living wage and bluff him through classes. Probably better for everyone if he goes there.
 
Every kid is a risk. Kids leave all the time for various reasons. He is probably a bigger risk, but he is good enough for Alabama to want. Probably worth it. He also seemed to really kick it in towards the end and got really close. Just because it wasnt important enough at 17 or 18, doesn't mean it's not in another year or two. He seemed to be going in the right direction at least.
 
Fryowa said:
If he had academic eligibility problems already in high school, and again at IWCC, I don’t think he’ll work out at Iowa and it’s probably better if he just goes to Alabama. Does anyone want to waste energy on a kid who can’t pass high school level classes, especially when he’ll have to maintain at least a semblance of earning a bachelors degree? All while being a full time, year-round P5 football player? When he was first supposed to come to Iowa he couldn’t even enroll because his grades were so shitty, what makes you think with the zero tolerance staff we have at Iowa that he’d be likely to stay eligible...Could he all of a sudden turn it around and be a good student? Maybe. But I wouldn’t want to bank on a “maybe” and spend a ton of time and effort developing the kid only to risk him washing out, not to mention the scholarship.

Not passing the high school classes tells me he doesn’t want it bad enough and doesn’t take his life serious enough to be a dependable teammate.
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Iowa has had their fair share of "scholastically challenged" student athletes, just like every other school.
 
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