I don't know the exact numbers but it's not as big of a difference as you may think. On average, over the past four or five years, LSU has had one more declare early than Bama. It was either four years, or five years ago, when Bama had one more. My best guess is over the last five years LSU has seen four more. In terms of GSR, the numbers are skewed largely in favor of Bama graduating more. If we take both early entrants and graduates LSU isn't losing more. I've not looked at players transferring to other programs. I suspect, based on what I've read in headlines, the numbers are pretty close to each other. My political persuasion is probably the easiest way to describe how I feel about this. It's not my life, it's not my business. I do have an opinion—those who are skipping post season games are quitting on their team. Just as a scenario... Let's take any SEC team and put them in the Sugar Bowl (when it's not a playoff game.) Or, the Cotton bowl, whatever. You'll find players within the scholarshipped 85, within the 105, even within the 125 that will cherish that game, that ring, or that trophy for the rest of their lives. A lot of those kids will never seen the playing field in the league. If they are going to play and give it all they have when their "teammates" choose to sit out...I'm seeing teammates quit on each other. The scholarship papers they sign run from June and last one calendar year. That's easy to figure out. If they are hanging up their cleats in December they aren't full filling what they signed up for. Again, quitting. Let's look at Houston for a minute for another perspective. We saw Ed Oliver pretty much hang up his cleats about half way through this season. His attitude, along with the way Applewhite handled him, led to a lot of discontent within the rankings of that team. We saw what they leads to last night against Army. If a player is willing to quit before the bowl game, what's to say they haven't been doing the same within the games they've played? I'll be hard to convince the thought of skipping games is something they just thought of after the regular season concludes.
