Clemson Not Over-signed Says Clemson SID

The blogosphere has been abuzz the last few days about Clemson's decision not to extend Ray Ray another year of athletic scholarship. Many reports have suggested that the reason for the cut was that Clemson had extended itself beyond the 85 scholarship limit. Take, for example, this post by FanHouse's Brian Cook titled "Oversigning Strikes In McElrathbey Cut":

Somehow, McElrathbey has juggled football, Farmarr, and school such that he'll graduate in just over three years -- a time frame that no doubt accelerated rapidly as soon as James Davis announced he'd return for 2008 -- but he's been cut three years into his college career.

This is the glory of oversigning, and the reason the practice should be either abolished or severely curtailed.

You might notice that Cook's assertion was that over-signing is to blame was completely devoid of any sort of support for the claim. If you took a look at any of the other reports around the web, you'd probably notice the same thing. Nobody seems to be able to cite, or they aren't interested in citing, any sort of sources or facts before they try to burn Clemson and/or Bowden in effigy.

How hard could it be to find this information out? I sent an email to Clemson Sports Information Director Tim Bourret, asking if Clemson had signed beyond the NCAA-imposed limit. Here's what he had to say (after re-iterating that Ray Ray did, indeed, have a scholarship still available to him):

For each of the last nine years we have been under the 85 when we start practice and have always given scholarships to walk-ons before school starts. We anticipate that being the case again this year.

Based on that wording, is it possible that they are currently over-extended but plan to cut a bunch of players before August? I suppose it is, but one has to ask oneself: if you were Tommy Bowden and were looking to make some room under the scholarship cap, would you really cut such a celebrity as Ray Ray? Even if you would, would you do it to give a scholarship to a walk-on?

It sounds to me like some folks thought this would be a great example of their recent cause celebre (and one the Average Joe could get behind), but didn't bother to do the research.

We all know what they say about assumptions, right?

Previously at FanHouse: