“They had an oversigning issue,” Jackson said. “They had to free up a few scholarships, and coach (Jim) Tressel told me I probably wouldn’t play and maybe Ohio State wasn’t the place for me.”Ohio State fans have long been critical of oversigning as the practice isn't allowed in the Big Ten. It is a normal practice in the SEC and discussions between these two groups of fans will almost always lead to an argument about the merits of oversigning. When this article hit the internet it poured fuel on the fire as the SEC fans cackled, "See Ohio State does it too!"
This really bugged me because 1) I think oversigning is wrong on principal and 2) I couldn't imagine the Buckeyes oversigned because they missed out on a player they really wanted on signing day (Aundrey Walker). I had to figure it out for myself.
Schools don't really share scholarship information with the public but it is pretty easy to figure out who has a scholarship if you are willing to dig a little. I used two resources to research the Buckeyes scholarships. The first was the Rivals.com scouting site for scholarships and the Scout.com site for the Buckeye roster. What I essentially did was cross-check the recruiting list for the last few seasons with the 2010/2011 Buckeye roster to see who was still on the team that had signed a letter of intent to play for Ohio State.
The following are players on the current Buckeye roster (by year recruited / alphabetical order) followed by the year they appear on the Rivals Website:
Recruited Players
Joe Bauserman - 2004
Tyler Moeller - 2006
Evan Blankenship - 2007
Donnie Evege - 2007
Dan Herron - 2007
Nate Oliver - 2007
Solomon Thomas - 2007
Mike Adams - 2008
Michael Brewster - 2008
Ben Buchanan - 2008
Zach Domicone - 2008
Garrett Goebel - 2008
Travis Howard - 2008
Orhian Johnson - 2008
DeVier Posey - 2008
Etienne Sabino - 2008
J.B. Shugarts - 2008
Jacob Stoneburner - 2008
Andrew Sweat - 2008
Nathan Williams - 2008
C.J. Barnett - 2009
Dorian Bell - 2009
Adam Bellamy - 2009
Jaamal Berry - 2009
Zach Boren - 2009
Corey Brown - 2009
Dominic Clarke - 2009
Melvin Fellows - 2009
Chris Fields - 2009
Reid Fragel - 2009
Kenneth Guiton - 2009
Jordan Hall - 2009
Marcus Hall - 2009
Adam Homan - 2009
Carlos Hyde - 2009
Storm Klein - 2009
Corey Linsley - 2009
Jack Mewhort - 2009
Jonathan Newsome - 2009
Johnny Simon - 2009
Jordan Whiting - 2009
Jamie Wood - 2009
Darryl Baldwin - 2010
Drew Basil - 2010
Corey Brown - 2010
Christian Bryant - 2010
David Durham - 2010
Taylor Graham - 2010
Adam Griffin - 2010
Chad Hagan - 2010
Johnathan Hankins - 2010
James Louis - 2010
Scott McVey - 2010
J.T. Moore - 2010
Andrew Norwell - 2010
Verlon Reed - 2010
Bradley Roby - 2010
Roderick Smith - 2010
Tyrone Williams - 2010
Michael Bennett - 2011
Brian Bobek - 2011
Tommy Brown - 2011
Chris Carter - 2011
Jeremy Cash - 2011
Conner Crowell - 2011
Chase Farris - 2011
DerJuan Gambrell - 2011
Curtis Grant - 2011
Doran Grant - 2011
Joel Hale - 2011
Ken Hayes - 2011
Bryce Haynes - 2011
Jeff Heuerman - 2011
Braxton Miller - 2011
Steve Miller - 2011
Ryan Shazier - 2011
Devin Smith - 2011
Evan Spencer - 2011
Ron Tanner - 2011
Antonio Underwood - 2011
Nick Vannett - 2011
Dionte Allen - Transfer
That's a total of 82 scholarship players on the roster right now (60 in school now and 22 true freshman) . Since it is possible that walk-ons have been given a scholarship I checked each of the following and haven't found any that have been given a scholarship:
Walk-ons
Dan Bain
Dalton Britt
Bo Delande - Preferred
Nate Ebner
Derek Erwin
James Georgiades - Preferred
Tony Harlamert
James Hastings
Tony Jackson
Jon Lorenz
George Makridis
Don Matheney
Chris Maxwell
Taylor Rice
Justin Siems
Spencer Smith
Stewart Smith
Ben St. John
Julian Vann
That leaves the changes that have occurred since last season. After dropping off graduating seniors you are left with 6 players and I split them into two groups:
Gone but expected to be on roster on signing day
Ejuan Price - Enrolling at Pitt
Terrelle Pryor - Declared for the NFL
James Jackson - Transferred to Grand Valley State
Not expected to be on August roster on signing day
Nic DiLillo - Given a scholarship for 2010 but according to Dave Biddle was kicked from the team last fall.
Sam Longo - Told coaching staff of his intention to transfer in January.
Cardale Jones - Recruited as part of 2011 class but was told at the time he would need to greyshirt
On signing day the Buckeyes had 62 players on scholarship and signed 23 players (excluding the greyshirting Cardale Jones) for the mandated total of 85. Since then Jackson, Pryor, and Price have left which leaves them at 82 scholarships.
After doing this it does make me wonder what the Buckeyes would have done if Glenville's Aundrey Walker would have signed with the team on signing day as they would have then given 86 scholarships. My suspicion is since Adam Griffin's scholarship was a last minute gift in 2010 that the same principle held in 2011. Since Aundrey didn't sign we will never know.
The one thing I know for sure is when James Jackson announced his transfer in March the Buckeyes weren't oversigned and didn't need to make room to get in compliance.
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