To read the chatter on fan sites, one would think Georgia cares nothing about competing. The Bulldogs, it is inferred, are just into this football thing for the money.

Why else, it is reasoned, would UGA stand by idly as Alabama and Auburn hire non-coaching football personnel? The Crimson Tide recently snagged former Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele as director of player personnel. The Tigers followed suit a short time later by hiring Carver-Columbus High football coach Dell McGee as, well, Auburn hasn’t specified yet what McGee is being hired for.

The general thinking is these hires are in response to the new NCAA deregulation legislation. In January, the NCAA’s board of directors (selected college presidents) eliminated several of its bylaws in order to reduce the size and scope of the NCAA manual.

The result was college athletics’ governing body attempting to get out of the business of monitoring recruiting texts and phone calls and the number of people who can be involved in recruiting communication, among other things. In all, the NCAA board adopted 25 proposals essentially designed at deregulating the group’s oversight responsibilities when it comes to compliance.

This has been interpreted by many to mean the major programs now can just go crazy in recruiting. The vision is that Alabama’s Nick Saban might be in the process of building a whole new wing over on the Capstone to serve as a sort of telemarketing supercenter for recruiting. There, skilled recruiters such as Steele will spend all day breaking down video of prospects, identifying elite recruits before anybody else and then spending all day on the telephone with them and sending them fat-heads in the mail.

The truth is NCAA rules won’t allow that. Bylaw 11.7.1.1.1.1 on “non-coaching staff members” expressly forbids people in positions such as Steele from analyzing video of prospects or interacting with prospects or current players in any on-field coaching capacity. Yes, the new proposals allow them to communicate with prospects by mail, email, text or phone call. But all indications are those proposals are going to be overturned by schools by the end of the override period, which is March 20^th. Then what are these new hires going to do?

Besides, a closer look reveals that Georgia is pretty well-stocked as it is when it comes to “non-coaching personnel” in the athletic department. A quick check of the Bulldogs’ administrative directory shows that UGA already has a director of football operations (Brad Hutcherson), a director of player development (John Eason), a director of player welfare (Dave Van Halanger), a director of on-campus recruiting (Darryl Jones), a recruiting program coordinator (Connie Connelly), a program coordinator (Bryant Gantt) and a recruiting assistant (Ben Bradenburg). That doesn’t count Josh Brooks, whose responsibilities as assistant AD for internal operations have mostly to do with football; Mike Cavan, a former major college head football coach who primarily works as an athletics fundraiser but is also a de facto football consultant for Athletic Director Greg McGarity; and several graduate assistant coaches and video coordinators.

Never mind the 10 actual coaches who are paid more than $250,000 apiece to run the football program. I mean, how many people do you need to oversee 100 players and sign 25 prospects a year to scholarships?