Early Signing Day

JackD

JackD

Varsity Lurker
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Can somebody explain why the early signing period was created? It seems like it puts teams in coaching transitions in a tight spot to retain commits and basically no chance to pursue different prospects. Also, I don't see who benefits from it and how.
 
It is a benefit because schools don’t have to keep recruiting committed players right up to the signing deadline.

Plus it allows you to try and offer other kids if you whiff on your targets

I think that is one of the reasons why we always had open scholarships. Now if we know we have spots open we can target certain players to fill needs with remaining spots.
 
From a GT perspective (and a reason CPJ pushed for it) was to keep the Bamas of the world from stealing recruits in February right before signing day that would have otherwise signed for us months before!! For players, a chance to get it over instead of having to drag it on for another 2 months if they wanted to get it over it (and not have their phone ringing off the hook).
 
It changes nothing except expedite the timeline/deadline.

Someone should be able to sign as soon as they want.
 
I like it. I believe it’s a benefit to a team like us. It takes 90% of the pieces off the board in December and gives every team with remaining spots/needs another 6ish weeks to recruit the remaining pieces.

The downside before is you never knew if someone was a risk to flip. A factory would offer as a plan B one week prior to signing day and there was no time to react.

Both Kirby and Saban have said they hate the early signing period, which is enough for me to know it’s good for a team like Tech.
 
It also allows players enroll earlier for spring semester and practice with the team while getting some classes in as well.
 
JoeCakeEater said:
I like it. I believe it’s a benefit to a team like us. It takes 90% of the pieces off the board in December and gives every team with remaining spots/needs another 6ish weeks to recruit the remaining pieces.

The downside before is you never knew if someone was a risk to flip. A factory would offer as a plan B one week prior to signing day and there was no time to react.

Both Kirby and Saban have said they hate the early signing period, which is enough for me to know it’s good for a team like Tech.
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Correct. The factories have the staff to recruit for months and months, and to poach and poach. Early signing helps us.
 
There is a negligible benefit. A guy either flips last minute in December (that Allen kid) or flips last minute in Feb. We either poach kids from the next tier down in December or February.

There really is such a minute difference.
 
RaiderJacket said:
It also allows players enroll earlier for spring semester and practice with the team while getting some classes in as well.
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That has always been a possibility.

The benefit is mostly to the kids. Especially the kids that get screwed by Bama and others on signing day due to over signing.

With this, Bama and the factories will have to be more cautious as to who they offer, as those kids can lock into a scholly now. And, if Bama pulls a kids offer in the early period, they have another few months to commit somewhere else before they fill up their schollys.
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
There is a negligible benefit. A guy either flips last minute in December (that Allen kid) or flips last minute in Feb. We either poach kids from the next tier down in December or February.

There really is such a minute difference.
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It is actually a pretty big difference. The factory’s cannot raid at will because they have to save space for the 10-20% of players who do not sign early. By February they always had a much better idea of exactly where they stood.
 
JackD said:
Can somebody explain why the early signing period was created? It seems like it puts teams in coaching transitions in a tight spot to retain commits and basically no chance to pursue different prospects. Also, I don't see who benefits from it and how.
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It makes sense because recruiting has accelerated and intensified over the past few decades. Kids are scouted and evaluated so early now – long before their junior year for the good ones – that coaches don't really need to watch a kid throughout senior year before deciding whether to offer. Moreover, recruiting has become so exhausting that it takes a big toll on the players and the coaches. Allowing the players to sign earlier if they want to just reduces the stress for everybody.
 
BackstreetBuzz said:
It is actually a pretty big difference. The factory’s cannot raid at will because they have to save space for the 10-20% of players who do not sign early. By February they always had a much better idea of exactly where they stood.
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No. It makes little to no difference. Kids waiting now are the same ones who would wait until after Feb. Case in point, look at the Top 10 in this year’s rankings. All those schools have 20+ with PSU the outlier of sorts at 18. There’s not an unusual amount of talent sitting around and waiting. The trend to hold out started to become a dumb thing years ago. Anyway, those Top 10 classes are either full or nearly full. Some may be waiting on 2 to 3 more - same as as if it was February in the old world already.

Until you allow a kid to sign the moment an offer is made, all you do is move up the stupid hat ceremony day and the last minute offers and de-commits.

It barely moves the needle.
 
I think we need an early signing period in football, but we have the date all wrong. It should be from July 20 to July 31. Coaches could make serious offers after the summer camps and kids could sign before their Senior seasons get started. It is unfair that coaches preparing for playoff games and bowl games have to focus on recruiting right now. The point is well taken that the date is awful for new staffs. I think persons who sign early but then there is a coaching change could be released if both the athlete and the school agree to the release. This would more closely parallel Basketball, with an early signing period before the season gets started and then a late period after the season ends.
 
77GTFan said:
I think we need an early signing period in football, but we have the date all wrong. It should be from July 20 to July 31. Coaches could make serious offers after the summer camps and kids could sign before their Senior seasons get started. It is unfair that coaches preparing for playoff games and bowl games have to focus on recruiting right now. The point is well taken that the date is awful for new staffs. I think persons who sign early but then there is a coaching change could be released if both the athlete and the school agree to the release. This would more closely parallel Basketball, with an early signing period before the season gets started and then a late period after the season ends.
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The NCAA and the ADs along with the highly paid, uber-powerful HCs would never allow the early sign date to be that early and run the risk of having LOIs in place and then have rash of injuries that affects your FB Program

I'm sure GT wouldn't want to have 20 LOIs from your hypothetical signing date and then have 8 of them suffer season ending injuries during their Sr. season, and be stuck with them

This is still a business, and you want your raw materials to arrive in as good a shape as can be expected

Before you get all holier-than-thou, there's gonna be a downside to CFB, it's always gonna be there, better to manage it than complain about it
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
No. It makes little to no difference. Kids waiting now are the same ones who would wait until after Feb. Case in point, look at the Top 10 in this year’s rankings. All those schools have 20+ with PSU the outlier of sorts at 18. There’s not an unusual amount of talent sitting around and waiting. The trend to hold out started to become a dumb thing years ago. Anyway, those Top 10 classes are either full or nearly full. Some may be waiting on 2 to 3 more - same as as if it was February in the old world already.

Until you allow a kid to sign the moment an offer is made, all you do is move up the stupid hat ceremony day and the last minute offers and de-commits.

It barely moves the needle.
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What you are saying is simply not true. The effect was well stated a few posts above yours. I will try to explain one aspect.

With one date, Alabama would offer all their top QB prospects knowing they only had room for one. Often, the third(fourth/fifth) guy committed right away and stopped visiting schools, but the top guy held out so he could be wined and dined on other campuses and because he liked the attention.

Saban didnt really give a öööö because if the top guy committed late he would just pull the offer from the third place guy and give the top guy that spot.

Even if you counter that the top guy only waits till Dec vs Feb, surely you must understand the huge difference for the third guy. He now has two months to find a match vs zero time before. Unlike before with the single date most of the teams he is interested in and who are interested in him still have slots open. Before, he was left scrambling to find whatever school had not already signed a full class.
 
GTCrew said:
What you are saying is simply not true. The effect was well stated a few posts above yours. I will try to explain one aspect.

With one date, Alabama would offer all their top QB prospects knowing they only had room for one. Often, the third(fourth/fifth) guy committed right away and stopped visiting schools, but the top guy held out so he could be wined and dined on other campuses and because he liked the attention.

Saban didnt really give a öööö because if the top guy committed late he would just pull the offer from the third place guy and give the top guy that spot.

Even if you counter that the top guy only waits till Dec vs Feb, surely you must understand the huge difference for the third guy. He now has two months to find a match vs zero time before. Unlike before with the single date most of the teams he is interested in and who are interested in him still have slots open. Before, he was left scrambling to find whatever school had not already signed a full class.
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Goliaths behavior hasn’t changed. We see that from the committ numbers I mentioned. They get the vast majority of their Plan As and scoop up their Plan Bs from the Davids (ie we lost a kid to USC & we stole a guy from Rutgers). The only differnence is this happened in Dec instead of February.
 
coit said:
That has always been a possibility.

The benefit is mostly to the kids. Especially the kids that get screwed by Bama and others on signing day due to over signing.

With this, Bama and the factories will have to be more cautious as to who they offer, as those kids can lock into a scholly now. And, if Bama pulls a kids offer in the early period, they have another few months to commit somewhere else before they fill up their schollys.
Click to expand...


GTCrew said:
What you are saying is simply not true. The effect was well stated a few posts above yours. I will try to explain one aspect.

With one date, Alabama would offer all their top QB prospects knowing they only had room for one. Often, the third(fourth/fifth) guy committed right away and stopped visiting schools, but the top guy held out so he could be wined and dined on other campuses and because he liked the attention.

Saban didnt really give a öööö because if the top guy committed late he would just pull the offer from the third place guy and give the top guy that spot.

Even if you counter that the top guy only waits till Dec vs Feb, surely you must understand the huge difference for the third guy. He now has two months to find a match vs zero time before. Unlike before with the single date most of the teams he is interested in and who are interested in him still have slots open. Before, he was left scrambling to find whatever school had not already signed a full class.
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I used fewer words.
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
Goliaths behavior hasn’t changed. We see that from the committ numbers I mentioned. They get the vast majority of their Plan As and scoop up their Plan Bs from the Davids (ie we lost a kid to USC & we stole a guy from Rutgers). The only differnence is this happened in Dec instead of February.
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The good thing is now we have 2 months to replace the safety whereas in the past it would have been an unused scholarship.
 
NotTomNotPhilButGCollins said:
The NCAA and the ADs along with the highly paid, uber-powerful HCs would never allow the early sign date to be that early and run the risk of having LOIs in place and then have rash of injuries that affects your FB Program

I'm sure GT wouldn't want to have 20 LOIs from your hypothetical signing date and then have 8 of them suffer season ending injuries during their Sr. season, and be stuck with them

This is still a business, and you want your raw materials to arrive in as good a shape as can be expected

Before you get all holier-than-thou, there's gonna be a downside to CFB, it's always gonna be there, better to manage it than complain about it
Click to expand...

Reasonable argument. However, schools often do not rescind offers because an injury occurs. You could easily address this one issue with some medical hardship rules that assist both the schools and players. If 8 of 20 signees had career ending injuries you have a bigger problem - your program is obviously under some wicked spell or divine punishment.
 
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