:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/27572175/20140111_mta_bm2_019.0.jpg)
Much has been speculated with regards to Penn State's available scholarships for the 2014-2015 academic year, ie, the 2014 recruiting class. We got a little clarity today," thanks to a blog post from Donnie Collins (with some help from PSU Sports Information Director Jeff Nelson)
What we knew before today:
- The 2014 recruiting class is capped at 20 scholarships
- In the fall of 2014, Penn State football is capped at 75 overall scholarships
- As with any academic institution, early enrollees (ie, those players who enroll in January) may be counted towards the previous year's recruiting class; thus, anyone who enrolled this semester counts, scholarship-wise, toward the 2013 scholarship limit, not the 2014 cap.
What we didn't know? How Penn State's numbers officially broke down, and how many more scholarships Coach Franklin has left to award after Koa Farmer and Saeed Blacknall flipped from Cal and Rutgers, respectively, this past weekend.
Here's where the clarity comes in: according to Nelson, via Collins in the linked-above post, all five early enrollees are being counted towards the 2013 Penn State recruiting class--which, in effect, expands the class to 25, not the 20 or 23 that many of us thought. As Collins explained, original thoughts were there could be only three counted towards the 2013 class, since that would have put us at the previous year's limit for scholarships--but since Zayd Issah and Neiko Robinson never enrolled at Penn State, we have two more spots retroactively available in last year's class, spots now filled by early enrolees.
That brings the limit of the 2014 class up to a total count of 25 bodies--and means that Franklin has nine days to get as many as two more players to commit.
