re: Class of 2018 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: So Long Old Friend Edition

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The NCAA’s Division I Council voted to approve a propsal that would allow an early college football National Signing Day rule Friday, setting up the Conference Commissioners Association (CCA) to give final approval in June.

The existing date of the first Wednesday in February will remain, but to it will be added a date right before Christmas, coinciding with the traditional junior college signing date. In 2016, that would have meant Dec. 14, but in 2017, will be Dec. 20. The new signing window would last for three days.

Why?

The NCAA says that by mid-December, most prospects are far enough along in the recruiting cycle that they have their minds made up about where they want to attend. They are tired of incessant texts and calls and want to have some certainty about their college destinations shortly after the fall semesters of their senior years.

The early signing period will provide clarity for prospects and schools.

Throughout the process, schools extend verbal offers to recruits, who in turn make verbal commitments. But neither are binding. Signing is.

When it comes time for the early National Signing Day, schools will be expected to extend binding letters of intent for their verbal commitments to sign, and those commitments will be expected to sign them.

If a school does not send a letter of intent to a prospect who believes he is verbally committed to the school, that will be a major red flag to the prospect, indicating that the school is not as committed to him as he believed. While that will be disappointing, the prospect will still have adequate time to visit other schools and find a better option by February’s Signing Day, or wait to see if the school feels differently come the traditional date.

“I think the general consensus is, there is a pool of guys that are legitimate, solid commitments,” Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said. "If you can sign them and that part would be done, it would be good. ... No one’s fighting the early signing in the discussions I’ve been a part of."

Conversely, if a prospect claims he is verbally committed but does not sign the letter of intent a school has sent him, the school will know that he is not truly committed and might be looking at other options. The school will likely do the same.

There will be some measure of embarrassment associated with these inevitabilities, so expect the overall number of verbal offers to decline slightly.

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