NCAA Considering Early Signing Period for Football

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
College football is taking steps toward establishing an early signing period, according to the NCAA official who manages the national letter of intent program.
Susan Peal, NCAA associate director of operations, said the continued acceleration of recruiting has led the Conference Commissioners Association to consider an earlier date to supplement the long-existing date in February, similar to the structure for basketball and other sports.

"I think everyone wants an early signing period," Peal said this week. "It's just trying to nail down what's the appropriate date for that."

The letter of intent program is governed by the CCA, a 32-member panel of Division I conference commissioners. The group will meet in June to review an agenda that includes an early signing period.

The issue was previously considered by the commissioners, but Peal said it's been a few years.

"I think there's more momentum now than ever just because of the changes that are happening with recruiting regulations," said Peal, who works closely with the commissioners on NLI-related topics. "The landscape is changing, so it's time to look at it again."
Click to expand...
ESPN Article

 
This makes me feel a little better:

The introduction of an early period, Peal said, would likely coincide with NCAA legislation to allow early official visits. Currently, prospects are not allowed to make official visits until Sept. 1 of their senior years.
Click to expand...
 
Mavric said:
This makes me feel a little better:

The introduction of an early period, Peal said, would likely coincide with NCAA legislation to allow early official visits. Currently, prospects are not allowed to make official visits until Sept. 1 of their senior years.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
If I remember right, Bo isn't in favor of an early signing period, but this may be part of the reason why. Sure would help this year!

 
Mavric said:
This makes me feel a little better:

The introduction of an early period, Peal said, would likely coincide with NCAA legislation to allow early official visits. Currently, prospects are not allowed to make official visits until Sept. 1 of their senior years.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Early signing without early visits would be terrible for Nebraska.

 
Guess we can trash this thread because one has already been created in the Recruiting Forum.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bo weighs in via ESPN:

Pelini thinks high school players should be able to sign with teams as soon as they receive scholarship offers. If coaches choose to offer scholarships to freshmen and sophomores -- an increasingly common tactic -- they have to be prepared for those players to sign on for the distant future.

"If somebody has offered a kid, let him sign, it's over," Pelini told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "That will stop some of the things that are happening -- people just throwing out offers, some of them with really no intention of taking a kid."

As national momentum builds for an early signing date, possibly in August or December, Pelini, like many coaches, would prefer to see the recruiting process slowed down. Maryland coach Randy Edsall wants to prevent scholarship offers from being given until the start of a prospect's senior year in high school.

Pelini's idea attaches more to the offer, whenever it comes.

"Make [the offer] mean something," Pelini said. "People will be like, 'Whoa, I've got to take this kid now.' It will slow things down for the kids, for the institutions. There will be less mistakes.

"Why does there have to be one specific day? And it will get rid of some of the stuff that goes on, kids pulling the hats and so forth."
Click to expand...
 
The Collegiate Commissioners Association has formed a committee chaired by Mid-America Conference commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher to research whether or not an early signing period would be a good thing for college football.


College coaches and administrators have debated for years the merits of introducing an early signing period for football, and it remains the only major college sport that doesn't give prospective student athletes an opportunity to sign early with their colleges of choice. Basketball has long used a system that allows recruits to sign in the fall and spring, easing the pressure on prospects who wish to end the recruiting process early in their senior years of high school. Football recruits can only sign in February of their senior year.

Steinbrecher said the 32-member panel of Division I conference commissioners has discussed an early signing period for football at least twice in the last five years, but this is the first time the group that operates the letter-of-intent program has taken the next exploratory step.

"While there certainly have been expressions of interest by a number of conferences, we really don't have all the pieces of information we need to make a thoughtful decision," Steinbrecher said. "It's more than just making a decision on an early signing period. What we're talking about potentially changes the recruiting calendar and the dynamics around recruiting. That could then potentially involve changing NCAA regulations.

"We need to get a better grasp of what that means in terms of the recruiting culture for football. We need to dig a little deeper, not only from a coach's perspective or an administrator's perspective, but from the prospect's perspective and from the high school's perspective. At the end of the day, we'll need to find what's best for the student athletes and what's best for our institutions and merge all of that."
Click to expand...
ESPN

 
Mavric said:
The Collegiate Commissioners Association has formed a committee chaired by Mid-America Conference commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher to research whether or not an early signing period would be a good thing for college football.

College coaches and administrators have debated for years the merits of introducing an early signing period for football, and it remains the only major college sport that doesn't give prospective student athletes an opportunity to sign early with their colleges of choice. Basketball has long used a system that allows recruits to sign in the fall and spring, easing the pressure on prospects who wish to end the recruiting process early in their senior years of high school. Football recruits can only sign in February of their senior year.

Steinbrecher said the 32-member panel of Division I conference commissioners has discussed an early signing period for football at least twice in the last five years, but this is the first time the group that operates the letter-of-intent program has taken the next exploratory step.

"While there certainly have been expressions of interest by a number of conferences, we really don't have all the pieces of information we need to make a thoughtful decision," Steinbrecher said. "It's more than just making a decision on an early signing period. What we're talking about potentially changes the recruiting calendar and the dynamics around recruiting. That could then potentially involve changing NCAA regulations.

"We need to get a better grasp of what that means in terms of the recruiting culture for football. We need to dig a little deeper, not only from a coach's perspective or an administrator's perspective, but from the prospect's perspective and from the high school's perspective. At the end of the day, we'll need to find what's best for the student athletes and what's best for our institutions and merge all of that."
Click to expand...
ESPN
Click to expand...
So basically, we need to figure out if having an early signing period can make us more money somehow but if it cant we will just leave it the way it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top