Ted Kapita

[pony63]

Do we get to replace Keith & Barefield scholarships or do we lose their spots with NCAA punishment?

[CalallenStang]

Do we get to replace Keith & Barefield scholarships or do we lose their spots with NCAA punishment?

I'm not 100% certain what you are asking but I'll try to answer...

Next year since Keith and Sedrick are not on the roster they will not count towards our scholarship total. This means that we will have two scholarships that we would not have available if Keith and Sedrick were on the roster (as they would be using those scholarships). As it relates to the penalty:

SMU needs to give up 7 scholarships over the next three years. Let's say that they want to give up 3 of those 7 next year. SMU needs to be at 10 scholarships to do that next year. We are currently at 9 (the 7 that are playing plus Ben E and Semi who are out for the year), but 3 graduate, so we have 6 scholarship players returning. This means that we could take 4 new players (our 4 recruits) and still be at the 10 total that is required to be giving up 3 scholarships towards the 7 needed to give up. If we had Keith and Barefield we would be returning 8 scholarship players and could only take 2 if we wanted to give up 3.

That being said SMU can elect to give up 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,or 7 scholarships next year. The prudent track for the program is to give up 2 or 3. at this time since we have 4 recruits committed it looks like we will give up 3 unless we take someone in the transfer market (a distinct possibility)'

Also, all of this assumes Ben E is able to return from his injury next year. I've heard it's possible that he medicals and is done which would give us another scholarship to play with (potentially in the transfer market or for another recruit) - but all that is hearsay at this point. We all certainly hope Ben is able to return as healthy as ever.