Bama expected to have as many as 110 players heading into Spring

I doubt he'll have to do it at all and if so he will be culling troublemakers. Three comments:

1. It won't likely be 15-18 players. Some will be dismissed, some will flunk out, some will go pro, some will transfer and some will quit football before August.

2. Some of the players on scholarships may be walk-ons who were awarded 1-year scholarships (when they were available) for merit. When they are not available, they go back to being walk-ons.

3. All scholarships are awarded from year to year. Nobody gets a four-year scholarship and they all know (at least the marginal players) that they may not be renewed if the coach wants it. Players that have no chance of PT are often encouraged to go start somewhere at a smaller school, which is good for both team and player.​

Any coach that oversigns probably already has a good idea how many academic casualties he will have and how many are thinking about transferring, too. Saban is playing a lot of Shula recruits who he may not get along with, he's not exactly a warm and fuzzy guy. He's already run off some slackers and troblemakers and he may have some more to get rid of.

One thing for sure, he'll be down to 85 in August like everybody else.

Here's a question for you. How many scholarships will Les be over the 85 if all scholarship players return, all grayshirts and last year's academic casualties are signed, and Les signs 30 this year (as you predicted he might)?

Well, Nick knows how to recruit. One thing good recruiters do is to be aware of how much attrition he can expect so that he can oversign. All coaches do this. LSU coaches have pulled scholarships, Les has pulled scholarships. All this tells me is that Nick expects some attrition before summer.

Well, they rarely have to actually pull a scholarship. Year before last, Miles had to dismiss five players unexpectedly, but . . . good recruiters anticipate attrition and oversign to compensate for it. And Les is a good recruiter.

 

Red, I suspect LSU will be between 92 and 96. That's 7-11 players, the norm you would expect from attrition. So your point is well taken.

But make no mistake, Bama will be over 100, between 102 and 106 most likely.

Those extra 10 or so players won't be removed by "normal" atttrition factors.

Hopefully, this answer will sooth those Bama defenders on TF. lol