RIP, National Signing Day. Here's an idea to modernize college football recruiting | Toppmeyer
I’m more night owl than early riser, but there was a time during my years as a college football beat writer when my alarm clock would jingle before sunrise on the first Wednesday in February.
I’d have caffeine handy and recruiting capsules typed up and ready to publish as national letters of intent rolled in throughout the morning. I tracked commitment flips, five-star decisions and 11th-hour drama.
National signing day served as something of a holiday for college football fans. I observed the big day by working something like a 16-hour shift.
Nowadays, February signing day is as outdated as a phone booth or NCAA amateurism. It came and went Wednesday without causing so much as a ripple.
The NCAA, in 2017, added a December signing period for football. That quickly became the window when most prospects signed.
Even the December signing period is overshadowed by transfer free agency and the coaching carousel. Recruiting just doesn’t command the attention it garnered when there was only one signing period, in February, when the college football calendar otherwise hit a lull.
Many coaches say the December calendar needs a revision. That month houses conference championships, College Football Playoff games, the main signing period, the winter transfer portal window and the coaching carousel.
“December is not working,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said this winter.
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Probably truth in that, but the February signing period is never returning as the primary signing window.
By the time February arrives, nearly all of the top high school recruits have signed, and many of them are enrolled. They forgo their final high school semester so they can participate in spring practice and get a jumpstart on their freshman season.
How to evolve the signing calendar? My idea: Eliminate the signing periods altogether.
Consider this: Beginning Aug. 1 of a prospect’s senior year, recruits could sign an NLI with a school that offers them, whenever their decision is made. Say a prospect knows by Labor Day that he’s headed to Alabama or Auburn or Georgia or Tennessee. Sign the NLI. Done deal. See you at January enrollment.
A caveat: If the school undergoes a head coaching change, the prospect can void the NLI and sign elsewhere.
This sign-when-ready process would reward schools that establish early recruiting relationships and penalize schools that are slow on the uptake. Of course, a recruit could delay signing an NLI in hopes for a better offer, but he would risk losing the offers he has.
Nixing official signing periods would counteract the practice of schools making a non-commitable offer. Currently, a school can make a faux offer to a prospect before pulling the rug out from under the recruit just before signing day. If signing day no longer existed, a school’s interest in a prospect would become more evident: If the school offered a prospect an NLI to sign, then the school truly is interested. If it didn’t extend paperwork, then the interest is probably fool’s gold.
As it is, the February signing period is a relic within a college sports institution that’s consistently at least a lap behind the times.
Emails of the week
Gary writes: I'll try to give you grace on this article (ranking the top-10 college football coaches), but, I'm thinking you must be on some strong medicine or something. You got Kirby right as #1. Kelly #2? Are you kidding me. He's never won even a Conference Championship, plus he's an arrogant, all about me and his players dislike him! Dabo #8? He's won 2 National Championships.
Note: Gary offered his top-10 coaches list as follows: 1. Kirby Smart (Georgia), 2. Dabo Swinney (Clemson), 3. Mack Brown (North Carolina), 4. Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), 5. Dan Lanning (Oregon), 6. Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss), 7. Steve Sarkisian (Texas), 8. Mike Norvell (Florida State), 9. Josh Heupel (Tennessee), 10. Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri).
As a refresher, my top 10: 1. Smart, 2. Brian Kelly (LSU), 3. Sarkisian, 4. Ryan Day (Ohio State), 5. DeBoer, 6. Norvell, 7. Kiffin, 8. Swinney, 9. Lanning, 10. James Franklin (Penn State).
My response: Your top three seems based on the "lifetime achievement" metric. Mack Brown’s peak occurred nearly 20 years ago. He remains a good coach, and he’d probably rank in my top 20. But, I can’t believe if you were drafting college coaches to run your program today, you’d select Brown at No. 3. As to Kelly’s alleged arrogance, show me a Division I football coach who isn’t arrogant, and I’ll show you a unicorn.
Jack writes: Where is Josh Heupel in terms of, say, top 25? I figure your thinking is he needs a little more time in grade. I think he does. The next two years should reveal a lot.
My response: My top-10 ranking featured five SEC coaches, if we’re counting Texas’ Sarkisian in the SEC. Heupel, buoyed by his Tennessee success, would rank inside my top 20 and be knocking on the door of my top 15. Others outside my top 10 whom I'd have ahead of Heupel: Lincoln Riley (Southern Cal), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State) and Kyle Wittingham (Utah).
Three and out
1. Consider me skeptical that the new SEC/Big Ten alliance will result in the “Power 2” solving big-ticket issues facing college sports. What this new bond does tell me: SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey likes and trusts Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti more than he did Petitti’s predecessor, Kevin Warren.
2. Missouri athletics announced it received a $62 million donation from a donor who wished to remain anonymous, with $50 million earmarked toward football stadium renovations. If Missouri’s stadium is renamed “Paige Stadium,” we’ll know who donated.
3. Don’t tell loyal reader Gary, but seven of his top-10 coaches appear on my list, too. Now, where can I find some of the aforementioned ‘strong medicine’ to celebrate the end of a forgettable national signing day?
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
The "Topp Rope" is his SEC football column published throughout the USA TODAY Network. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: RIP, National Signing Day. Here's my idea to update football recruiting
