College football’s National Signing Day is too early. Need convincing? Just look at Syracuse’s most recent signee, Sean Avant, who committed to the Orange this past weekend to play in the fall. Since NSD in early February, SU has reeled in an extra five players (two of which are currently seniors in high school). Avant was a name on the Orange radar for months throughout the fall, but it took until now for it all to come together.
Why does this happen every year? National Signing might be the first Wednesday in February, plenty of players choose schools later.¬†If so many players decide on where they’ll play after NSD, why does the NCAA insist on holding it that early in the school year? The tradition started over 30 years ago, but is it a necessary one?
The main reason National Signing Day is too early is because it comes too soon after the end of the bowl season. Syracuse played in the Pinstripe Bowl December 29th, and Doug Marrone bolted for Buffalo just a few days later. That meant the new coaching staff had less than a month to reorganize its class. Recruits Augustus Edwards, Laray Smith, and Malik Brown all admitted the coaching change made them rethink their decisions. Edwards and Brown were already committed to the Orange, then decided to go elsewhere.
This year’s BCS national championship game will fall on January 6, and with the new playoff system coming the final game of the season will likely be pushed even later.¬†Imagine if National Signing Day was a month later. The first Wednesday in March. Scott Shafer, George McDonald and Chuck Bullough, would have had far more time to stabilize players’ decisions and calm the nerves of itchy commits.
Look at what happened in Piscataway a year earlier. Greg Schiano jumped at the chance to coach in the NFL less than a week before the 2012 Rutgers class signed its letters. At the time, Rivals.com National Recruiting analyst Mike Farrell couldn’t believe the impact of the calendar.
“This couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Rutgers. Never in the history of Rutgers football have things been going so well. The team was coming off a nine-win season when they were expected to finish near the bottom of the Big East, recruiting was going better than it ever has and the state of New Jersey’s top two players were set to commit by Signing Day. And then this.”
While RU ended up bringing in a fruitful class anyway, many schools are not nearly as lucky. With more pressure to win, impatient AD’s and NFL franchises are making massive moves every winter. Most of those changes come during the month January, which leaves very little time before NSD. Eighteen-year-old students should not be forced to make quick and sometimes rash decisions about where they’ll build an education and prepare for their next step in just days. If these prospects were given another month, everyone would benefit.
12 responses to “NCAA Needs To Push Signing Day Later Because of Modern Coaching Changes”
@Kevin Fitzgerald;
I don’t know if the NSD has anything to do with a recruit giving a commitment to a school or not. Some of these colleges start to recruit a player in their junior and sometimes their sophomore years of high school giving them plenty of time to decide where to go to play football. I don’t think moving the date would help to make their decisions any easier.
Is Syracuse going to add any more recruits to the 2013 class? There are a lot of uncommitted recruits still available for the class of 2013 listed on the cusenation.com web site. Are you telling all of us that adding late recruits is a normal process that happens all of the time? Where do the uncommitted go if no D1 school offers them a scholarship? Do they go to D11/D111 or JUCO schools in hopes of getting a chance to play in the NFL? What happens to them?
Look no way would dougie have a class like 2013 and HCSS is bringing in. This years record will show if 2/2014 is to early. If HCSS’s team struggles this fall then the early February date means nothing. If HCSS team goes .500 or better them time might play into who commits. Talent will see SUFB is on the rise and might take longer to decide. Go HCSS and stick your nose in there!!! LOL!!
HCSS has a winning attitude enthusiastic coaches and competitive players. Look for SU to have a winning record this year..
GO SU
Are you kidding?Everyone else is looking for an EARLIER signing period,myself included!!In fact I like the 2 SDs system one early (Dec or late Nov) and maybe the late one 4 weeks after the NC game so the kids that tire of the hassle of high pressure recruiters could take the heat off by signing early and the “primadonnas’ who like being wooed can sign late!!Basketball has that part right!!Coaching changes never happen at a convienient time!!
These kids should realize their PICKING a SCHOOL not a coach!!Its getting crazy out in the recruiting world with those SEC type sharks!!
Later would only intensify the pressure already on these kids!!These kids usually know down to one or two schools by that point where their heading but are just adverse to hurting the losing recruiters feelings after in some cases 2/3 yrs of a relationship!
Quick? Rash? the way we’ve been played by some of these “recruits/targets”?!?!Some of these kids are slicker than hot vaseline!!
Ron,I like your view on this and my rant came even before reading the comments!!We have the advantage of years of following and living this stuff!KUDOs to Ron!!a sensible post!!
D.A. – not sure I agree. You mentioned ‘holding it that early in the school year’. Most Div I schools start in last August or early September. At that point the kids have been on campus for nearly six months. If you move it back a month, it runs into March madness – everyone is entrenched in basketball and won’t concentrate on football. The timing for where it is now comes right of the heels of the bowl season and national championship, so pigskin is fresh in everyones head.
Back in January or Feburary Fayetteville-Manilus Head Coach Damien Rhodes let everyone know that he had 2 D1 prospects(a DE & LB)playing on his team.
Syracuse started to show interest in both of these players when they were freshman and sophomores. They both are juniors in high school and won’t get any national interest from colleges until 2015. I believe that both of these players have already made up their minds as to where they want to play college football.
What good would it do either of these players moving the NLOI signing day back a month?
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Keep on posting!
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Going through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
He always kept talking about this. I am going to send this article to him.
Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!