Moving football's early signing period continues to be debated
The decision to move the high school football’s early signing period continues to gain traction.
According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, American Football Coaches Association executive director Todd Berry said that after the latest coaches’ meeting, there’s a growing interest to move the beginning of the signing period up from the third Wednesday in December to before the transfer portal opens.
If this were to happen, the signing date could potentially move to the first Wednesday in December or immediately after Thanksgiving.
“It’s so chaotic right now,” Berry reportedly told Rittenberg.
The news comes a few days after SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic that he believed that coaches simply have too much on their plate in December and that he was advocating for the end of the early signing period in college football.
SEC commissioner in favor of changes
“We’re crushing coaches in December,” Sankey told Auerbach. “We’re going to add Playoff games (in December). We have to change early signing.
… We’ve created more pressure for young people. There was a notion that we needed these long windows to alleviate pressure. I think we created pressure for young people. We have to change December and college football to support the health of our participants and our leaders — and conduct the games.”
Berry also said that some coaches don’t believe moving up the signing period will make any substantial changes, while ESPN’s David Hale reported that NC State head coach Dave Doeren suggested not having a signing day at all and letting recruits sign any time.
Recruits are currently able to sign during a three-day period in December of their senior year or wait until National Signing Day, which falls on the first Wednesday in February of their senior year.
The Early Signing Period was adopted in 2017 for the 2018 recruiting class to accommodate the number of recruits enrolling early at colleges midway through their senior year of high school.