College Football Desperately Needs to Adjust Calendar Overload: All Things CW

Rule changes are coming to college football, just not the ones needed most by coaches, players or fans.

You many have seen some reports this week that the NCAA is on the verge of making a few changes regarding the football calendar that would go into effect before the start the 2023 season.

However, they aren't the kind of changes that most people are craving. 

For example, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that the Football Oversight Committee is expected present new legislation to the DI Council in a couple of weeks, which if approved would go to the the Board of Governors in hopes of being in place August 1. 

The changes would allow coaches to visit high school juniors in person starting Jan. 1 (almost a full year earlier), allow coaches to have contact during the spring recruiting period, allow coaches to begin calling prospects at the end their sophomore year, and raise the number of in-person, off-campus contacts as a junior and senior to eight combined. 

Here are the things that aren't being tabbed for immediate change: 

• Altering the number of coaches or off-campus recruiters.

• Nick Saban's favorite: Allowing head coaches to go visit schools and prospects in the spring. 

• Allowing analysts and other off-field field staff members to coach on the field.

That last one had actually been been passed by the Football Oversight Committee only to be tabled by the Division I Council, which did approve increases in the number of countable coaches in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, softball and ice hockey. 

While basketball programs, men's and women's, can each add two coaches who can’t recruit off-campus, baseball, softball and hockey can all have four full-time coaches instead of three. 

But the big thing that everyone's looking to for realignment is December, and the log-jam the month has become.

In addition to conference championships, there's the early-signing period, the coaching carousel, the transfer portal window and bowl games. 

There's also final exams and arguably the two biggest holidays of the year. Now we're also going to mix in the 12-team playoff, including some games involving home venues.

All this during a 31-day span, and at the end of a grueling season.

There's isn't a coach who wouldn't be blamed for saying "Are you kidding me?" or a lot worse. 

One reason why there hasn't been any movement on changing the December schedule is the lack of support from head coaches of smaller programs, who believe the chaos helps them in recruiting, especially since their colleagues at the power schools are so swamped. 

Another is that no one has come up with an idea everyone can get behind about what to do regarding early-signing day.

For now, we're backing the suggestion made by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, to take a step back and return to a single signing period in February — at least until someone figures out something better.

Until then all we're going to have in December is a giant mess that continues to distract from the kind of success that should be enjoyed at the end of a season. At minimum, the players deserve better. 

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