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Matt Womack's decision to spurn LSU for Alabama got the Tigers in trouble with the NCAA.

LSU getting hit with significant penalties for its contact with Matt Womack could change the way coaches deal with potential early enrollees.

Womack, a 6-foot-7 offensive lineman from Mississippi, signed a financial aid agreement with LSU and indicated he planned to enroll early at the school. Once he did that, it allowed LSU coaches to have unlimited contact with him.

However, Womack ultimately changed his mind, didn't enroll early and signed with Alabama on National Signing Day. Due to its unlimited contact, LSU was banned from signing recruits to financial aid agreements for two years and lost 21 evaluations days this year.

Once Womack indicated that he wasn't going to enroll early, LSU's compliance office advised Les Miles and his staff to stop recruiting him. Miles recently told reporters he "didn't quite know how to handle it any differently than we did."

Middle Tennessee State coach Rick Stockstill had a similar reaction.

"To me, I don't see what LSU did wrong," Stockstill told AL.com. "I don't know everything, but from what I've read and what I've seen, that could happen to anybody that signs someone early. The NCAA ought to look at treating an early enrollee as a normal recruit, a guy that can't graduate early.

"I don't understand how you can penalize LSU just because the kid changed his mind and went somewhere else."

David Womack, Matt's father, told AL.com after the penalties became public that the school was aware of the risks of its unlimited contact. Still, LSU followed the NCAA's rules which permitted it to have unlimited access to the player after his indication to graduate early.

LSU is believed to be the first school to be penalized for its contact with a player who ultimately signed elsewhere. The rule was put in place last April to discourage players from signing financial aid agreements with multiple schools. A year earlier, multiple players, including Mississippi safety C.J. Hampton, signed FAAs with multiple schools, giving each school unlimited access. Hampton signed with Alabama, Ole Miss and Florida State, but ultimately ended up in Oxford.

LSU's hefty penalties could cause coaches to reconsider their approach to early enrollees.

"It definitely makes me wary," Syracuse coach Scott Shafer told AL.com. "I'm more of a traditionalist. I think if you have a special circumstance where a kid is extremely familiar with your school, maybe his family played there and it's his lifelong goal to play there and you feel really solid about his intent and character, maybe you look into that. But for the most part I don't think it's worth it."

Syracuse had one early enrollee this year, but it was a local kid and Shafer felt good about his chances to make it to campus. In general, Shafer says he prefers to bring his players onto campus in the summer as one big group.

Other schools, like Alabama, have taken a different approach. The Crimson Tide had seven players, including five-star quarterback Blake Barnett, enroll early this past January. Alabama coach Nick Saban believes enrolling early has "its benefits in terms of transitioning into college life socially, academically and athletically."

Shafer thinks you have to be careful about the recruits you bring in early.

"It's hard on a young man to come at the mid-year unless he's extremely sturdy both academically and as a well-balanced value-oriented type kid," he said.