Recruiting guru Jamie Newberg has a piece up about the pros and cons of an early signing period for football recruits.
Other than a brief “it’s about the kids” lapse, it’s a pretty thoughtful job.
Newberg’s strongest point is about how college football is already gravitating to early verbal commitments. He cites a couple of interesting facts about the process:
My how things have changed, just look at this decade. By June 1, 2003, 61 prospects made commitments to schools from a BCS conference. That same number as of last Friday (June 1) was 323. In five short years the number of commitments just during the spring is up an astounding 500%! [Emphasis added.] By June 1, 2004 the number of early verbals was 118 and on the same date in 2005 and 2006 the numbers were 122 and 196 respectively…
… Over the past two and a half years (this class included), the Longhorns signed an amazing 50 prospects from recruits that had committed to them by the first day of June prior to the start of the senior seasons. That number would even be higher had Texas not lost a handful of committed prospects to other schools…
In other words, if things are already heading that way, perhaps it’s worth considering codifying a process that helps the schools and the kids (ha! now I’m doing it).
Newberg is in favor of an early signing date in the summer, but acknowledges that there would have to be some significant rule changes for that to occur. He also sidesteps the LOI issue for a kid that commits early and then sees the head coach leave, merely saying that’s something that would have to be addressed.
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