Report: NCAA Commissioners Vote in Favor of Moving Up Start of the Early Signing Period
The NCAA is making a change.
On Wednesday, ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel reported the NCAA's Collegiate Commissioners Association agreed to move up the beginning of the early signing period.
This adjustment, which would allow high-school players to sign their national letters of intent (NLI) as soon as the Wednesday before conference championship games in 2024 and beyond.
Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz was one of the most-recent coach to go on the record about the need for changes to the NCAA's recruiting calendar. Ahead of his team's battle with the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2024 Cotton Bowl, Drinkwitz shared his thoughts on the current process.
"There's no way possible for us to have a 12-team playoff next year, and be recruiting in an open period, and have transfer-portal additions and subtraction going on and be preparing for a game," Drinkwitz said. "It's just not possible."
The leader of the Tigers was not alone in his belief, as it was echoed moments later by Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day. In his response to the question, Day called for the formation of a governing body that would take a full assessment of what is working, and what is not.
"I think when big decisions like this need to be made, we struggle in college football because everyone is coming at it from a different point of view," Day said. "While I don't have good answers, we all have to come together and make some hard decisions...We gotta look at this thing from a big picture, and then start from scratch and go from there, and there's a lot that goes with that."
The earlier start to the early signing window is a step in the right direction in the minds of Day and Drinkwitz. However, there is a lot more to be done before everything on their wishlists (and those of the rest of the helmsmen in college football) are checked off entirely.
