The college football recruiting calendar could soon change with the proposal of a third signing period in June. NCAA officials are meeting this week to discuss the potential major adjustment, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The mid-summer signing period would be introduced alongside the December period, with the latter being rescheduled to occur before conference championship games. The traditional February period would remain in place. The overall repercussions of the proposed plan for three signing periods is unclear with pros and cons expected as a result of a major change to the college football recruiting calendar. Director of recruiting Andrew Ivins and college football recruiting analyst Tom Loy shared their initial reactions to the June signing period proposal on Wednesday’s episode of the 247Sports Football Recruiting Podcast.
“I see some issues with a potential June signing window,” Ivins said. “Why? I think if the NCAA were to have prospects sign before their senior seasons, you’re essentially dumping gasoline on the transfer portal and player tampering. Here me out here, as it stands right now, we have guys that play their senior years, but what happens if we get a ton of opt outs? What happens if we have a prospect that signs with an American Athletic (Conference) school, adds 20 pounds as a senior, has 13 sacks — you don’t think the SEC, ACC are going to be involved in his direct messages trying to get him to flip elsewhere?
“I mentioned the opt outs, I think that is certainly something notable. I get it, I understand why they want to have that summer signing window, but I think it’s only going to lead to more player movement, because a lot of these kids that schools sign in June aren’t going to be the same individual when they show up on campus in January. And now with players able to transfer multiple times and not sit out, it’s much easier to open the door and push them towards that transfer portal.”
The first proposed signing period in June, per the NCAA, would be a three- or seven-day period. The same goes for the December period that would come after the final regular-season FBS games. And the traditional signing period in February would expire April 1.
“I’m starting to wonder if signing matters at all,” Loy said. “It kind of seems very pointless. But on paper, I love the idea of a June signing day. Kids know where they want to go, they sign, everyone’s happy. Coaches can finish their class, they can focus on football. I’m also not sold that a lot of kids want to sign early. I don’t know what the incentive is other than what, their spots gonna be filled? The majority of guys can wait. But I’ve heard two different sides on this from two different coaches that I spoke to this morning. They both love the idea of a June signing period, but one thinks May in-home visits are going to result in guys committing, locking kids up early; they sign half their class in June — maybe the majority of it — and then they can focus on football. It all sounds great.
“But the other side, like you mentioned, believes that it’s just a longer period of time for tampering to occur. They take their official visits, they sign, more tampering occurs and then their let out of their NLI anyway, which doesn’t seem binding at all anymore. Whether it’s a head coach leaving, an [offensive coordinator], position coach, whatever the case may be, it seems like the NLI is not being held to. It all seems pointless, seems pretty irrelevant, but like I said, on paper, love the June signing period, just not sure it really matters.”
SEC coaches have already approved proposed changes to make the entire month of December a recruiting dead period and move the early signing period up two weeks, league commissioner Greg Sankey told Yahoo Sports.
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December is typically a hectic month for college football programs as roster management — whether that be high school recruiting or transfer portal — and staff changes and postseason games all overlap. The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff format begins in 2024, which means more teams will play meaningful games deeper into the December calendar. The first round games of the newly approved 5+7 format are scheduled for Dec. 20-21 — which would be just a couple days after the previously scheduled start to the early signing period.
Brad Crawford contributed to this report.
