ACC Callls for early signing period.

Terry O'Keefe · May 18, 2007

There are two articles on this one from the Charlotte Observer and one from Rivals. Personally I am for the early signing period but think Dec is not nearly early enough. I think they need to go for an August date, that is what Charlie Weis likes as well.

RECRUITING
ACC proposes early signing date for football
Other sports offer pair of dates to choose school
KEN TYSIAC
ktysiac@charlotteobserver.com

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. --
Nearly two months of nail-biting could be eliminated for high school players if an ACC initiative is adopted.

The conference will push for creation of an early signing date for football, said ACC commissioner John Swofford at the conclusion of the ACC spring meetings Wednesday.

Football has one signing date, the first Wednesday in February, while basketball and many other sports have both early and regular signing dates or periods.

ACC officials are proposing the early signing date be the Wednesday before the third week of December. The ACC wants to keep the February date for players who need more time.

"If a young man knows and has made a decision and wants to commit, you could end the recruiting process, so you don't have schools continuing to recruit kids that basically have made a decision," Swofford said.

The ACC will lobby the Collegiate Commissioners Association, which oversees the national letter of intent program, to make the change.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said an early signing date would prevent coaches from going behind one another's backs to recruit players who have committed to other schools.

He said it also might prevent "de-commitments," which occur when players accept one scholarship offer, then shop around for a better one.

"We're sending the wrong message out with the de-commitments," O'Brien said. "Their numbers are getting larger and larger every year."

Though Swofford said the ACC coaches' support for the initiative is strong, reaction to the proposal varied.

"That would be great," said Tommy Knotts, who has coached many top college prospects at Independence High. "It would just eliminate a lot of hassle (for high school players)."

Scout.com regional recruiting analyst Miller Safrit has long been a proponent of an early signing period, but he questioned the December date. He said teams in bowls that get recruits to visit practices in December could gain an advantage.

He prefers an August signing date. The increase in summer commitments from players who visit camps on campuses has created a need for an early signing date, he said.

Butler High coach Mike Newsome supports an early signing date if it would prod the NCAA to allow official visits earlier. He would like players to begin official visits in the spring or summer of their junior year. Current rules allow visits beginning on the opening day of classes of the player's senior year.

Pros and Cons

Reasons for and against an early signing date for football:

PRO

• More players are committing early after attending summer camps at colleges.

• Recruiters would no longer hassle committed players if they've signed.

• It could cut down on players "de-committing" to schools.

CON

• Early signings are unwise because coaches leave or are fired after bowl season.

• Many high school players can't take official visits until mid-December.

• December isn't early enough. August would be better.
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Terry O'Keefe · May 18, 2007

May 17, 2007

Olin Buchanan
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer

An Atlantic Coast Conference proposal for an early signing date in football was endorsed by several coaches, but some said they want an earlier date than the ACC suggested.

The Charlotte Observer on Thursday reported the ACC is recommending the Wednesday before the third week of December as the early signing day for football. The proposal, which must be adopted by the Collegiate Commissioners Association, would also maintain the current national signing date of the first Wednesday in February.

Baylor's Guy Morriss is one of the coaches who support an early signing period.
Basketball and several other men's sports have regular and early signing periods.

Football coaches say an early signing period is necessary because programs are recruiting prospects earlier and many programs have been stung by recruits who backed off verbal commitments just days before signing day.

For example, Miami was left without a quarterback in its 2005 class when Derek Shaw de-committed and opted to go to Arizona State.

A year later, Pat Devlin de-committed to the Hurricanes and went to Penn State.

"That (an early signing period) would make kids stop and think that maybe they're not so ready to commit so early," Baylor coach Guy Morriss said. "We try to do the right thing by the kids, so when, say, a quarterback commits we call other (quarterbacks) we're recruiting and tell them we're full, so they have the chance to look elsewhere.

"But then if a guy jumps ship you have to get back in on the other kids. They don't want to hear from you because you dumped them a few months earlier."

If a prospect was committed but declined to sign a national letter-of-intent during the early signing period, that would alert programs to continue recruiting players at the prospect's position.

But a December signing day would only allow a few weeks to continue recruiting, and that's why Morriss feels an early signing period should be established in August.

"What do you do if a kid is committed and switches on you? How do you get in on another one with everything shutting down around Christmas?" Morriss said. "You may have a month to turn a kid who has vigorously been recruited by someone else for 12 months. You're not going to get in on that kid unless you're one of the big schools. If you're an average school like us, how do you get in on them?"

Nebraska coach Bill Callahan is at one of those big schools, and he also advocates an early signing period.

"I'm hopeful that the NCAA looks at an early signing date," Callahan said earlier this year. "Especially for us at Nebraska, that would be a great advantage. A lot of our (prospect) visits occur during the season. As we all know, it is tough and is getting tougher to hold a commitment from Day One all the way to February."

Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said the Pac-10 had voted 9-1 against recommending an early signing date during its conference meetings two weeks ago.

Bellotti said he believed an early signing date would hurt schools such as Oregon and West Virginia, which aren't in close geographic proximity to a high volume of top prospects and thus need more time to develop relationships with those players.

"Recruiting's a function of population," Bellotti said. "More people means more players. Those schools in high-population areas have those players right in hand, so you can create relationships and can recruit more easily than when you have to travel farther or when the players have to travel farther.

"There are a lot of kids who if they come to see Oregon, they'll sign with Oregon. But if they never get the chance to see it, we're at a disadvantage."

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said the early date would also benefit recruits.

"If a young man knows and has made a decision and wants to commit, you could end the recruiting process, so you don't have schools continuing to recruit the kids that basically have made a decision," Swofford told the Observer.

When a prospect commits to Baylor, Morriss tells them that should mean the recruit will cancel other recruiting trips and won't attend a summer camp on another campus.

But he's well aware that even when a player says he's, committed that doesn't mean he is.

"We have some kids that are committed now," Morriss said. "I don't know how many months and days it is (until signing day of 2008), but that's a long time to hang on to them."

Olin Buchanan is the senior college football writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at olin@rivals.com.

HISTORY OF NATIONAL LETTER OF INTENT
1964: William Davis, a government professor and faculty athletics representative at Texas Tech, founds the National Letter of Intent program. The program is formed by the Collegiate Commissioners Association. Potential student-athletes now can end the recruiting process by signing a letter of intent that binds them to whatever school they select. The lack of letters of intent before this date allowed schools to recruit players up until the moment they enrolled.
1964-73: Through the first 10 years of the National Letter of Intent program, there is only one signing date (May 20) for all sports. By contrast, the most recent recruiting season included one signing period (beginning Feb. 7) for football plus an early signing period (beginning Nov. 8) and regular signing period (beginning April 11) for most other sports.
1991: Former Pac-10 associate commissioner David Price helps revise and expand the National Letter of Intent to its current four-page format. The original letter of intent consisted of only one page.
2007: The Atlantic Coast Conference recommends lobbying the Collegiate Commissioners Association to adopt an early signing period for football. The early signing period would occur in December under the ACC's plan.
(Source: www.national-letter.org)
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ACC Callls for early signing period.

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