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Report: NCAA Early Signing Period Moving Ahead of Transfer Portal Window

Big changes are coming to National Signing Day, as the NCAA reportedly plans to move the period even early in December.
Randall Sweet|
Report: NCAA Early Signing Period Moving Ahead of Transfer Portal Window
Report: NCAA Early Signing Period Moving Ahead of Transfer Portal Window

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Oklahoma Sooners

The NCAA is looking to move college football's early signing period ahead of conference title games and the transfer portal window, according to a report from The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach.

The early signing period for the 2024 recruiting class began on Dec. 20, 2023, when 20 of Oklahoma's 27 scholarship recruits officially inked their National Letter of Intent to play for the Sooners.

The transfer portal window opened on Dec. 4, 2023, meaning that the early signing period could move as far as two or three weeks earlier than it was previously. 

"The biggest reason we're doing this is to clear up the football recruiting calendar so the signing period and the transfer portal don't overlap," Big Sky commissioner and National Letter of Intent subcommittee chairman Tom Wistreill told The Athletic.

"The feedback we've received from all coaches is that December is a mess. Especially with the expansion of the College Football Playoff coming next year, that just creates more chaos in December. This should help."

In addition to moving the early signing period ahead of conference title games and the transfer portal window, Auerbach also reported that Wistreill told The Athletic that the period will last either three or seven days. 

The group is also considering a third signing period in the summer, likely in June or August according to Auerbach's reporting. Currently, the second signing period takes place in early February, a little over a month after the early signing period.

The aforementioned changes to the early signing period will be discussed at next week's FBS Football Oversight Committee meetings before Wistreill and his subcommittee meet again to prepare "formal recommendation, according to Auerbach. 

Wistreill told The Athletic that his hope is for the Collegiate Commissioners Association to vote on the topic in early March, which would shake up college football's December calendar if approved.

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Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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