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[QUOTE="Brooky03, post: 2554669"]
In the context of the sanctions?  Simple.  Say you anticipate returning/filling 9 out of 10 available spots for the following season.  You're going to have to be extra careful with who you offer that final spot to.  If you have an unexpected early departure, you're up to 2 available spots but likely way too late in the game to expand your targets much.  Basically, you already had to limit your target pool because you were so close to the scholarship limit.  The unexpected departure hurts more because you couldn't initially offer as many guys as you would have with more scholarship room.  You'd likely be scrambling to fill the spot with recruits you haven't contacted in a while.  You're behind the 8 ball.

If you're already expecting to return/fill-in 9 out of 13 spots, you're not limited in who you can offer.  You can hand out offers like candy and cast a much wider scouting net.  Now, when you get that unexpected departure, you already have a plethora of targets you have relationships with to tap into.  Makes it much easier to grab a higher caliber player later in the game.

Even without sanctions, you want to leave a little bit of breathing room between true scholarship players (not rewarded walk-ons) and your scholarship limit.  Filling all 13 scholarships is a bad idea due to the issues highlighted in my first point.  The added problem is that players 11-13 are likely to be non-contributors for a while (think DaShonte Riley).  You'd rather fill departures with Top 100 freshman than some 3 star guys who aren't ready yet.  If you max out your scholarships with too many 'projects', you might not have the scholarships available to grab the talented recruits you want/need, or you might end up getting into the game too late and missing on them.
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