College football recruiting timetables aren’t working, and solutions are elusive

The college football recruiting framework is broken, but people can’t agree on how to fix it.

The idea of having a college football recruiting signing day in December just doesn’t make sense. Coaches are being hired and fired. This throws a monkey wrench into all sorts of recruiting plans. We could just let the coaching carousel run its course in December and then have both a signing period and a transfer portal window in mid-January. One alternative is to have a June signing day, but as Patrick Conn of College Sports Wire writes, that idea lost steam.

Conn rightly said that the current framework isn’t working and that something needs to be done to change it:

“The recruiting calendar has shifted multiple times over the years from a single signing day in February to having two signing periods over three months. The latest model has an early signing period in mid-December and the traditional signing day in February. Roughly 80-85% of prospects are opting to sign with their schools in the early period in recent years.

“Given how big the month of June is for college football recruiting, this felt like a poor time to try and implement a summer signing day. June is a month when coaches host official visitors as well as camps.

“If coaches and administrators want to make a change to the signing period, it might be time to go back to the drawing board. December is a tough time to hold a signing period with postseason football going on as well as roster management with the transfer portal window.”

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