Will college football early signing period finally pass?

[Harry]

At least four Football Bowl Subdivision conferences appear to support an early signing period for football starting in December 2016. Others are weighing how to vote later this year on an issue that has been all over the map for more than a decade.

A committee studying the issue recently recommended a three-day early signing period starting on Dec. 16, matching the time when mid-year junior college transfers can sign. The early date would be in place for two years as an experiment before being reevaluated.

Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson said the early date makes sense to better manage the recruiting process. "I think less poaching by other conferences is one positive outcome, and it can help reduce chasing a kid you don't have any chance on," Benson said.

Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said his league supports the recommendation by a 9-3 vote. "Coaches won't be traveling as much to see prospects in January and you can commit more resources to a small pool," Thompson said. "You don't have to babysit and you don't have to wait to be poached."

Read more: http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaaf/writer/jon-solomon/25015736/will-college-football-early-signing-period-finally-pass

[cogido]

It's very frustrating to see our recruit pool get poached, Texas Tech seems to be pretty bad about doing that. But I'm not clear or sure that an early signing date would really change that. Schools in bigger conferences with more money are going to flip other school's recruits whenever they want to. Seeing a player flip at the last minute must drive a hard working recruiting staff crazy. Seems like an unethical fact of life no matter when the signing date is.

[Harry]

With early signing period flipping would decrease immensely.

[FirefightnRick]

With early signing period flipping would decrease immensely.

Wouldn't "Flipping" simply start earlier?

Rick

[outoftown]

Well.. flipping would start earlier, but be less important, because what you got you got, and they would be stuck on some early signees that lloed better early and then have rotten senior seasons. If we find a diamon in the rough early we are slightly less probable to get him poached with a early signing period.

[BillySee58]

The kids who would be getting legitimate interest and offers probably wouldn't sign early.

Plus, this early signing period would be after the players senior years (in December). At least initially. So we wouldn't be signing kids before their senior year, and not have to worry about them blowing up.

[UNT90]

It would simply move the poaching up to December.

The 4 and 5 stars that the P5s battle for would be told to commit early, a week before the December signing day, or risk being left out.

Banks would have flipped to Tech in December instead of the last week of January.

All this would really do would be move national signing day from February to December.

They need a legit early signing period, like sometime in August before the players' senior season. Reward teams for out working and out scouting their competition.

Anything else is really worthless.

[BillySee58]

It would simply move the poaching up to December.

The 4 and 5 stars that the P5s battle for would be told to commit early, a week before the December signing day, or risk being left out.

Banks would have flipped to Tech in December instead of the last week of January.

All this would really do would be move national signing day from February to December.

They need a legit early signing period, like sometime in August before the players' senior season. Reward teams for out working and out scouting their competition.

Anything else is really worthless.

This is still implying that the majority of kids would sign for that early signing period. Banks still would likely have been available after January. He was a fallback guy, even for us. Wheeler may have flipped in December instead. But again, I think a lot of schools will convince kids to take visits and not sign early, if they're committed to a smaller program.

[UNT90]

Disagree.

Having an early signing in December will simply defacto move signing day to December. That's why basketball has a signing day before senior season begins.

They got it right. But college football in the P5 era rarely gets anything right, so I expect this will be an eventuality.

[greenit]

Due to the nature of football, they will not have a signing period before the season IMO. December makes sense. Once you sign, the coaches can focus on unsigned players. Probably have to let visits occur junior summer.