College basketball has had an early signing date for years, whereby prospects can sign a National Letter of Intent for a week, beginning the first Wednesday in November of their senior year, and take the pressure off themselves during their final year of high school competition.
Now, college football coaches seem to be headed in the same direction. A growing number of conference commissioners are pushing for an early signing date to supplement the traditional first Wednesday of February signing date. There is no consensus whether the early date would be in late summer or early fall of a prospect’s senior year, but any legislation would have to include early official visits. One thing the proposed legislation would do is close a loophole that currently allows a prospect to sign a financial aid form August I that would allow a prospect who graduates high school early to enroll in college classes in January so he can participate in spring practice and accelerate his progress before the start of his freshman season. Colleges are bound to honor the financial aid form, but it is not binding, allowing prospects to sign with multiple schools.
Now, Nebraska coach Bo Pelini wants to take an even more radicial step and eliminate signing dates all together.
“If somebody has offered a kid, let him sign, it’s over,” Pelini told ESPN. “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.”
Pelini’s idea would force coaches to be more serious about who they target because recruits would have the ability to commit to a school at any time once an offer is received. “Some of these kids get 60 offers,” Pelini said. “Some of the schools don’t even know who the kid is.”
“Make the offer mean something,” Pelini continued. “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.”
In order for Pelini’s plan to work, there would have to be some restrictions on how soon a prospect could sign. Otherwise, it also would allow recruits as young as 14 to accept a scholarship offer before they ever play a varsity game in high school.
Most football coaches would rather not commit resources until a prospect signs in February. An early signing period in football would prevent more and more elite prospects who are verbally commiting early from flipping at the 11th hour. But an early signing date could also lead to the same problems that exist in college basketball during the summer with a prolifertion of camps and 7 on 7 leagues. Colelge basketball coaches have a limited observation calendar in July in which to properly evaluate a prospect’s talent and character, which has ultimately led to more than 450 transfers in each of the last two seasons.
