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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Nowadays, February signing day is as outdated as a phone booth or NCAA amateurism.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…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/rip-national-signing-day-heres-110613439.html
Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Publish date : 2024-02-08 11:06:13
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