'Rolling Signing Day': College football leaders are discussing major recruiting alterations

Change is inevitable in college football today. NIL and the transfer portal have arrived at the same time and caused quite the change in this sport. Those moves led us to the rev-share era that officially begun in July. This new era could bring about some more change.

One of the biggest problems facing college football is the calendar. Everything has been crammed into the season window and we do not have enough things occurring outside the season to give everyone balance. Most in the college sports space are pushing for a single transfer portal window in January. That should provide some relief. But what about high school signing day? The early signing period started in 2017 and that quickly turned into the signing period. The next move could be just having signing months.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that leaders are discussing the idea of a “Rolling Signing Day” that would allow recruits to sign a binding document with schools as soon as official offers are allowed to be submitted on Aug. 1.

Sources: One concept that’s begun being vetted in this new Rev Share era is the idea of a Rolling Signing Day for football recruits. It’s *very* early in the process, but the concept revolves around a signing period that’s aligned with recruits' contracts.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 8, 2025

“Currently, they can’t formalize the agreements with schools until the December signing period, which means the deals aren’t binding. That leaves uncertainty on both sides,” Thamel wrote on social media. “The idea of a Rolling Singing Day would mean that when an offer is accepted by a recruit, they can sign an agreement that’s binding by both parties.”

This idea is in the early stages and still needs to be discussed and voted on. However, things are very different now since schools have to manage a salary cap. The football team gets a lion’s share of that cap percentage. Knowing how much money is on the books as soon as possible is essential as each school attempts to manage a rev-share budget for the entire athletic department. This could create quite the change in recruiting.

Some recruitments could be done — with no commitment flip option — before the season begins. That would be quite the change. Signing day is not close to what it used to be when it was held back in February. This would be another massive change to the recruiting process if its is ever passed.

Schools can currently send term sheets to commits once Aug. 1 arrived but these documents cannot be signed until December.