The commissioners of the various collegiate conferences are planning to review the possibility of adding an early signing period to college football’s recruiting calendar, but not every coach seems to be in favor of it. Some coaches in the SEC are among those not in favor of the possibility. Add Stanford head coach David Shaw to the bunch.
“I might be alone in this, I think it’s terrible,” Shaw said Saturday, according to ESPN.com. “I think it’s terrible. The reason [for an early signing period], in my opinion, is coaches don’t like when kids commit and switch late.”
Shaw was notably vocal in his stance against the idea of an early signing period. As Shaw notes, an early signing day could be a detriment to some of the more academically driven schools, such as Shaw’s Stanford program, as a result of the early signing day process because many kids may not know if they will be eligible to enroll at an academic school until national signing day.
“We have a lot of kids that don’t know if they’re going to get into school until after that early signing day,” Shaw said. “So we’re going to punish the academic schools just because coaches don’t want a kid to switch their commitment.”
But that is why there would still be a national signing day, just as there always has been. An early signing period may have some problems along the way, but even with the current model in place there are always some hiccups somewhere to be found. The early signing day would be more for recruits who have been committed to a program for an extended period of time and are unlikely to switch their mindset between whenever the early signing period would be and national signing day. The early signing day is not for every player, and the odds are the number of players who take advantage of it would be small. Still, Shaw has his concerns.
“What’s going to happen is, if a kid wants to change his mind late after the early signing period, he’s going to appeal and that appeal is going to go through because the committees that decide those appeals, they always give in towards the student-athlete,” Shaw said. “So you have a kid that might be 16 going on 17 that commits and then really has a chance to think about it and changes his mind and we’re going to try to and hold him to it.”
Recruiting is always going to have challenges, no matter if there is an early signing day or not. Details on the idea still have to be hashed out as well at a later time. The Conference Commissioners Association is expected to review the early signing day idea during a meeting in June.