2015 Scholarship Chart Series: Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana has once again found itself in a state of over-signing past the allotted 13 scholarships following Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell's decision to remain in school for his senior season. Coupled with James Blackmon Jr.'s completely unnecessary announcement to stay last week, the Hoosiers have 11 returning players on scholarship and three signed recruits who are ready to step onto Bloomington's campus in the fall.

The announced transfers of Stanford Robinson and Max Hoetzel from the program following the Hoosiers' second round loss in the NCAA tournament to Witchita State makes head coach Tom Crean's job slightly easier this off-season in terms of pushing the program under the scholarship allowance cutoff line.

Crean now has to cut just one scholarship, and this system of over-signing scholarships is nothing new as he approaches his eighth season at IU. In fact, this is the fourth year in a row that the Hoosiers have had to look forward to a new season with more players than scholarships.

"Those things work themselves out," is typically the response Crean gives when asked about his style of rearranging his roster year in and year out.

No, seriously. Type in "Tom Crean those things work themselves out" into your google search bar and gaze at the wide array of dates in which Crean has been quoted giving this answer, or something with very similar wording, when asked by the media.

The thing is that he has not been wrong.

• 2012: Ron Patterson is deemed to have not met the academic requirements for attending IU, damning "The Movement" before it even truly began.

• 2013: Both Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo declare for the NBA Draft and Maurice Creek transfers to George Washington.

• 2014: Noah Vonleh becomes the third player in two years to leave IU early for the NBA. Jeremy Hollowell transfers to Georgia State, Austin Etherington leaves for Butler University, and Peter Jurkin announces that he will leave the program.

The aforementioned transfers of Robinson and Hoetzel fit the trend and Crean appears to be on his way to once again pulling off his system that has worked for years. However, there are two heavy wrenches being hurled towards Crean this time around.

This first of these issues is the continued pursuit of recruit Thon Maker, who has announced that he will attend one of four schools rather than playing professional basketball overseas. Kentucky, Kansas, and Arizona State are also in contention for Maker's services, which will become available once the calendar turns to 2016. So again, "this thing can work itself out," but even if Maker does not choose IU, one of the current players on scholarship has to go.

The larger wrench comes by the way of Indiana's Student-Athlete Bill of Rights that was introduced last summer. The Bill of Rights, which can be found on the school's athletic website, states that all head count athletes receive a four-year scholarship that cannot be taken away for injury, illness, or player performance. Essentially it has to be the athlete's decision to leave.

There is no certain timetable for Indiana to resolve the over-signing issue, and I will be sure to post an update when a resolution has been made.