By your own math 20 signed last year with 3 not enrolling leaves 17. The cyborg, Renfrow and Gilbert don't count as they were grad transfers.
So, that left us with 17 last year, which means we can have 8 EE's this year to back date to last year.
17 + 8 = 25
Which also means we can sign up to 36 this year, with 8 counting for last year leaving us with 28 "official" 2013 signees.
First, who is the Cyborg? Mustafaa? How could we sign 36 this year even if we have 8 enroll early and are eligible for the last last. 36 -8 = 28, how could 28 count towards the 2014 class when the maximum is 25 per class.
Second, [no disrespect] this is the worst type of post. Please provide proper language from the NCAA bylaws or a source. Otherwise it is incorrect. Transfers count as initial counters when they enroll (either the current class or the past class if EE and available room).
[Warning Rather Boring!!!!]
15.02.3.1 Initial Counter. [FBS/FCS] An “initial counter” is a counter who is receiving countable financial aid in a sport for the first time. (See Bylaw 15.5.6.3 in football for instances in which the institution is permitted to defer the counting of such financial aid until the following academic year.)
15.5.6.1 Bowl Subdivision Football. [FBS] There shall be an annual limit of 25 on the number of initial counters (per Bylaw 15.02.3.1) and an annual limit of 85 on the total number of counters (including initial counters) in football at each institution
A: Are there different rules for graduate students?
Student-athletes who have graduated are subject to the same release requirements as undergraduates and must have at least one year of eligibility remaining. To be eligible for the one-time transfer exception, football, basketball, baseball and men’s ice hockey student athletes must have been denied a scholarship renewal at their original school. If the student-athlete wishes to pursue a degree program not offered at the original institution, he or she is eligible for a waiver to compete immediately at the new school.
-----------------------------------------
One of the more notable exceptions is the midyear enrollee. When an institution HAS NOT reached its yearly limit of 85 overall counters a midyear enrollee who will be an initial counter may count against either the current year's limit of 25 or the following year's 25. When an institution HAS reached its yearly limit of 85 the institution may award financial aid to additional incoming student-athletes at midyear under only the
midyear graduate replacement exception. This exception rewards institutions for graduating football student athletes.
Specifically, it provides an institution with the ability to replace recently graduated student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility in the current year with an incoming student athlete a semester earlier than normal. An additional benefit of the exception is that it allows institutions to bring in additional student-athletes beyond the allotted 85 for spring practice and preparation for the next season.
When the institution has reached its limit of 85 total counters,
the midyear graduate replacement must count against the institution's limit of initial counters for the following year even if the institution had not reached its limit of initial counters for the current year and even if a replacement does not return for next year. The reason is that, but for this provision requiring the carrying forward of initial counter status, an institution using the midyear exception could essentially have a semester-long tryout for a few student-athletes and, if they proved dissatisfactory, dismiss the midyear replacements at semester’s end without consequence—the midyear replacements would never have had to count in overall or initial limits.
