Tag: early signing period

Mason senior Vaughn Johnson signs to play football for Miami (Ohio). Mason High School celebrated 35 seniors signing national letters of intent Feb. 7. 2024.

Early football signing period moving to early December

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The early signing period for Division I-bound high school football players will move to early December, the Collegiate Commissioners Association announced Thursday.

The change takes effect this fall, and the signing period will begin on the Wednesday after the final FBS regular-season game and before conference title games. It will last three days, though most players sign on the first day.

The early signing period has been the week before Christmas since it was added to the recruiting calendar in 2017. The regular signing period will remain as is, opening the first Wednesday in February and running through April 1.

The move is being made, in part, to clear up a crowded late-December calendar for coaches who are preparing for bowl games. It also will put some separation between the signing period and the opening of the transfer portal, allowing coaches to put their concentration solely on high school athletes in that time span.

“The CCA supports providing high school and two-year college prospective student-athletes with the opportunity to sign (national letters of intent) before coaches turn their focus to four-year transfers during the opening of the Division I transfer window in December,” the organization said.

The group tabled, for now, consideration of another signing period that could begin in June 2025. A decision on whether to add a summer signing period is expected to be made no later than June of this year.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said before his team’s appearance in the Cotton Bow at the end of last season that the NCAA recruiting calendar needed to change.

“There’s no way possible for us to have a 12-team playoff next year, and be recruiting in an open period, and have transfer-portal additions and subtraction going on and be preparing for a game,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s just not possible.”

–Field Level Media

Nov 12, 2022; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback recruit Arch Manning on the sidelines before the game against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Signing period roundup: QB Arch Manning to Texas now official

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Texas kicked off Early Signing Period on Wednesday, signing blue-blood quarterback Arch Manning from Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans.

Manning is the No. 1 player in the nation, per the 247Sports composite, and broke Newman school records in 2022 held by his uncles, Eli and Peyton Manning. In four high school seasons, he passed for 8,599 yards and 115 touchdowns, plus 1,155 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns.

Texas will return Quinn Ewers at quarterback in 2023. The No. 1 player in the 2021 class, Ewers played in nine game with the Longhorns as a redshirt freshman in 2022, throwing for 1,808 yards with 14 touchdowns and six interceptions. He missed three games with a shoulder injury.

Coach Steve Sarkisian is expected to open the quarterback competition, giving the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Manning a chance to vie for the starting job.

–Cormani McClain, the top cornerback in the class, will not sign with any program on Wednesday, his mother tweeted. McClain, from Lakeland, Fla., committed to Miami on Oct. 27, but 247Sports said Florida and Alabama have continued to pursue him.

The 247Sports composite lists him as the No. 9 overall prospect in the class.

–Oregon flipped four-star quarterback Austin Novosad, gaining his commitment a day after offering him a scholarship. Novosad, from Dripping Springs (Texas) High School, had been pledged to Baylor since December 2021. Novosad is the No. 10 quarterback in the class, per the composite.

On Monday, Dante Moore — the No. 5 player and the No. 3 quarterback in the 2023 class — flipped his commitment from the Ducks to UCLA, leaving Oregon in need of a quarterback in this cycle.

–Field Level Media

Jul 14, 2021; Arlington, TX, USA; Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby speaks to the media during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Bob Bowlsby: NCAA groups have discussed ending or moving the early signing period

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The early signing period in college football continues to be a controversial topic, especially in the aftermath of an eventful couple of weeks in coaching moves within the sport. According to Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, change might be on the way.

On Wednesday, Bowlsby addressed the Sports Business Journal Learfield Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, and discussed the impact of the early signing period, which locks prospective athletes into letters of intent during a time period that is often chaotic in terms of coaching moves.

Speaking specifically of the NCAA’s football oversight committee as well as the American Football Coaches Association, Bowlsby said, “There’s a lot more talk than I’ve heard in recent years about either getting rid of (the early signing period) altogether or perhaps moving it to after the first of the year. We’ll see how that goes.”

In addition, the NCAA recruiting subcommittee has begun discussions along the same track.

The early signing day for 2021 falls on Dec. 15. Meanwhile, high-profile coaching moves, such as Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for Southern Cal and Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame for LSU, continue to reverberate. As high school prospects attempt to make their college choices, many football staffs (high profile or not) remain unsettled.

“Clearly, things have changed since the early signing date was put in,” Bowlsby said. “The transfer portal didn’t exist at the time, and there are things that have changed. At the end, we’re going to have to go back to the reason we put it in place and ask if that’s still a valid reason.”

Reporting from Sports Illustrated said these discussions are very early in the process and nothing formal has been proposed. Meanwhile, ESPN noted that 22 coaches have already been hired in this cycle — a large number — and that some of it might be attributable to schools trying to get ahead of the early signing period.

“If we change the signing date again, will it eliminate this accelerated (coach hiring) timeline?” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey asked. “I’m not sure it will. We may have let the toothpaste out of the tube.”

–Field Level Media