Alligator Alley

Yup, I think that's the perfect number. As it is, it's going to take some attrition (guys leaving early or transferring) to get there.

Up to eight, I believe. Six of the 23 signees last year were early enrollees, so that leaves 17 spots taken in the 2012 signing class.

good good...fill up with those EE's

Sort of. You can count back in perpetuity, but only the early enrollees can count back, and only if there's space in the previous year's signing class. For instance, Florida had 19 signees in the "2011 recruiting class." However, seven of them were early enrollees counting toward the official "2010 signing class." Thus, Florida could have signed up to 38 players last year in the "2012 recruiting class" had the Gators been able to get 13 early enrollees to count back to the "2011 signing class" while staying under the 85-man overall limit.

Instead, Florida signed a "2012 recruiting class" of 23 guys, and six of them early enrolled. Those six early enrollees counted back to the actual "2011 signing class," giving the "2011 signing class" 18 official members (the 12 non-EEs from the "2011 class," plus the six EEs from the "2012 class").

The "2012 signing class" officially has only 17 signees right now. Since EEs can count back if there's space in the previous signing class -- in this case there are eight spots -- the Gators can "oversign" in the "2013 recruiting class" and count up to eight signees back to the official "2012 signing class."

The only real thing that confuses people are the terms recruiting class and signing class. Your recruiting class has no 25-man cap. However, your signing class each year does have a 25-man cap. Think less in terms of recruiting class meeting the 25-man limit and you'll be less worried about it. Nine times out of 10 the 25-man cap really won't affect teams, so long as they consistently get a handful of guys to early enroll each year.

That said, it is dangerous to not early enroll at least a few guys each year because if you don't and you end up with a lot of attrition in a given year or two, you can't sign as many guys as you might need to. Getting a few early enrollees each year allows you to effectively "oversign" to make up for attrition.

The 25-man rule isn't designed to cripple teams who have a lot of attrition in a given year, it just forces them to be smarter about how they're recruiting and how they're early enrolling guys.