Greg Sankey explains why having Early Signing Period in mid-December 'no longer works'

Makes a lot of sense, especially seeing how busy college coaches can be in December. Though this would be the first step in trying to clean up the mess that college football has become. (Reference Nick Saban’s comments) Wish there was an answer to clean up the NIL quagmire.

 

https://footballscoop.com/news/commissioners-working-to-move-up-december-signing-period

Instead of having a signing “day”, why not let them sign an official LOI say at anytime during the year? It would put the kibosh to the ‘offer’ ruse. If you give an offer to a kid, be prepared for them to accept it, right then, and sign.

 

And that LOI would need to be released by the school if they changed their mind. (or got a "better" offer from another school.)

 

Don’t even make that an option or we’ll just end up with what we have now. You can commit to a team at any time and only with a signed LOI. If you want out of it before enrolling, you tear the whole thing up and the kid sits out a year of eligibility.

 

I don’t agree with that, at all. It would just mean more chaos in an already chaotic system. It should be a binding contract adhered to by both parties. Aren’t ready to issue an official offer, because they might actually take it, then don’t extend it. Aren’t ready to accept an official offer and sign because you might get a better offer, then don’t accept it. Might change your mind, then also wait. They should not get out of it because they change their minds later though, imho.

 

I don’t see why it would be helpful to have a signing day while the regular season is still in progress. The conference championship games are the first weekend of December.

Maybe a better plan is to do away with signing day altogether. Let the athlete sign anytime they want during the Fall. That would really help.

 

Yes - I’ve always thought prohibiting a kid from committing and signing until December is stupid and contributes to the chaos. If a kid wants to commit and sign in September he should be able to do that. Again, if he changes his mind before he enrolls, then you tear up the contract and the kid sits a year - a year of eligibility. No sense in forcing a kid to play where he doesn’t want to be.

 

And neither does SEC coaches changing jobs or getting fired after signing day. If Auburn and LSU Head Coaches know they will fire their defensive coaching staffs, tell kids before signing day.

 

Pate talks about all of this and has some great ideas, especially about offers. Start around the 4:00min mark.

 

That would require depending on peoples integrity, which is a dumb way to run anything. We need freaking rules that are enforceable

 

In a perfect world that would be great....in the one we live in it would just be the next step in the transfer portal/NIL derby where signings as well as commitments are virtually meaningless.

 

The word ‘commitment’ is already the most useless word in recruiting, it means nothing now, except for the seals to clap and crow, imho. You can easily get shanked trying to turn in a list of perceived commitments, as we just witnessed. The only thing that matters is who you actually sign. Not sure how signings would then be deemed meaningless??

 

Signing day for incoming freshmen should not happen until summer A. The majority of players do not early enroll. Most show up after high school graduation.
They can come in take some classes and do summer conditioning. Get ready for fall camp

 

Here are just a couple of examples that hit close to home of why it has already become somewhat meaningless:


I wish you were right, but the schools don't have the backbone to refuse to release them from their NLI as soon as some Tom, Dick, or Harry makes a better offer.

 

Oh, I see now where you’re going. Yeah releasing them on a whim because they “changed” their mind should be a no go, without the Skink rule.

 

There are contracts in this world that you can’t get out of. Do the powers that be want to go there? It doesn’t seem so. They are not having any problems collecting their checks.

 

A player could always transfer, but without a release from their prior school, they had to sit out a year. Unfortunately for the sport, we have already gone down that road, and I don't see any turning back without continual legal challenges. It is sad because what you get without rules that are actually enforced is anarchy, and that is what College Football has become.

 

I like it