National Signing Day Is About Student Athletes—Until It’s Not

National Signing Day is supposed to be about the players college football programs are adding to their teams and, with that, their schools. But really, signing day is as much about who isn't on campus.

Take Michigan. By all accounts, the Wolverines had incredible signing day. Coach Jim Harbaugh threw a party that included visits from Tom Brady, Jim Leyland, Ric Flair, and Migos—and on top of that, Harbaugh landed commitments from No. 1 overall recruit Rashan Gary, star local cornerback Lavert Hill, and California tight end Devin Asiasi, bolstering an already stellar class that ranks No. 5 in the nation.

It was a great start for Harbaugh, who with his first full recruiting class showed the Big Ten and the rest of the country that he is a force to be reckoned with. Amid the flexing and festivities, Harbaugh also bragged about Michigan's academics, telling ESPN about the importance of education.

As much as Michigan and the National Collegiate Athletic Association would have you believe that signing day is a celebration of academics as well as athletics, Harbaugh was just the latest in a long line of coaches who have proved that it's anything but. And we know that because of who won't be showing up in Ann Arbor.

Meet Erik Swenson. He was the first commit in Michigan's 2016 class, agreeing to joining the Wolverines under former coach Brady Hoke. Swenson stayed true to his commitment when Harbaugh took over, and then, all of a sudden, he was no longer a Michigan recruit.

The exact timing of when Michigan pulled Swenson's scholarship offer is up for debate—Swenson said it was a few weeks ago, while others claim it was months ago. What isn't up for debate is that the Wolverines kicked Swenson to the curb, solely based on his football prowess.

Swenson isn't alone. Just a week before signing day, defensive end Rashad Weaver, who had been committed to the Wolverines for seven months, claimed that Michigan told him he might not have a spot on signing day:

Decommit…. — ▲Shad▲ (@R_Weaver80)January 26, 2016

Weaver is right: college football is a business, and when coaches like Harbaugh extend and revoke scholarship offers, they're making football staffing decisions. Nothing more. "Student-athletes" like Swenson were promised scholarships to attend school in Ann Arbor, and now those promises are null and void. That's just the way the business works: in order to bring in more talent, Harbaugh oversigned recruits, promising more than the NCAA limit of 85 players scholarships, the better to cull the least promising football prospects. As MGoBlog chronicled, that means there are four Michigan players who will lose their scholarships next season.

Whether or not you find yanking scholarships, or promised scholarships, to be morally repugnant—maybe you do when it's a rival school, but not when your favorite program just got potentially better on the field—it's yet another reminder that the NCAA's insistence on big-time college football as a primarily academic exercise is a complete and utter antitrust-law-dodging farce.

Harbaugh might have touted Michigan's academics, but given his roster management, it's very clear that nobody on his football team is a Wolverine because of their study habits. Michigan really is a great school, and it's a nice selling point on ESPN, but the bottom line is that football scholarships aren't predicated on academics, as the NCAA has tried to claim in court.

Nope, football players were offered admission to Michigan based solely on their fluctuating athletic skills, and how said skills stacked up against other players the school's coaches were recruiting. In the wake of signing day, some of those players are losing their opportunity to receive a Michigan education solely because Harbaugh found better football players to replace them with.

Yesterday was a big day for Michigan football, worth celebrating with Brady and Jeter and all of Harbaugh's special friends. But was it the same sort of day for the University of Michigan?