I dont think you can back count in 09 because the 08 class was a full 25. My understanding is the 2 spots were open for Jackson and Smith because there was room from the 07 class. In order to back count you need room in the 85 and the previous year's 25.
We brought in 23 . Preyear is delayed & Neighbors was shifted over to taking the PBBS route . That's the point where the confusion sets in .
When that happened , it put us @ 83 which appeared to go along with the supposed CNS policy of awarding schollies to P's & K's for 2 year as opposed to one .
If that did take place , we then hit the magic # of 85 which is when I & another had our #'s checked and it came back to both of us as being correct . That said , this was 7-10 days prior to the players reporting for Fall camp so , other arrangements could have transpired .
When Crump & Burnthall departed that supposedly put us back @ 83 . Now the #'s are in dispute . There are 2 sides to the #'s with different results . One of them is the one I've outlined . The other is that neither Tiffin or Fitzgerald will get the free ride that was supposedly in the works for them this year & that Colin Peek has already been rolled over to a full ride . Under that Scenario , we would be @ 82 . In theory it is possible that neither scenario has come to be and Tiffin , Fitzgerald & Peek are all on scholarship with another player or two actually paying their own way this year . Gotta love the possibilities .
However it comes to pass , there will have to be quite a bit more attrition for the #'s to work out next year as well since we only have 9 seniors departing but , will sign a minimum of 20 for 2009 . One thing is certain - most of us wondered how in the world our #'s were going to come together for this year and not only did it all work out , we are currently under the 85 total .
_eek:
Coach Saban has definitely worked some magic since those of us who keep tabs on this #'s stuff have never seen the amount of crunching & shifting that has taken place over the past 20 months . It's still fun to track though
