Recruits: The top recruits will be showered with attention even earlier. They will also have the opportunity to lock-in their college choice earlier avoiding a courtship of diminishing returns. I’m sure it’s fun initially but must grow cloying over time. The entire recruiting process can be truncated with an early decision. The second or even third tier recruits may be able to wait a bit and see where the top of the class signs and make their own decision with additional insights into playing opportunities and what schools are truly interested. This may also cut down on the unfair practice of “grayshirting” whereby schools will over-sign a class, essentially reneging on the promised scholarship for the upcoming season.
The downside for them is the timing means the recruiting process will overlap significantly with their final season of high school football. You likely cannot afford to defer the entire dance until your season concludes because you only have five weeks after your season ends. In Wisconsin, the high school playoffs did not conclude until the second weekend of November. Schools are in a rush and will move on if you wait.
An injury before or during your senior season could put a chill or deep freeze on recruiting interest entirely. Your injury may not be healed by the signing window. Injuries will be tough to evaluate for coaches and recruiting services as well.
In addition, during that early signing window, you do not have as much information about who is leaving and who is staying at your prospective schools. The depth chart may look entirely different after the bowl season. Finally, that December window also jumps up against the coaching carousel that kicks off at the end of the regular season and before bowl season.
Downside to new early signing period: Some HC changes do happen after Dec. 20 each yr. This probably will trigger a bunch of NLI appeals.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) May 8, 2017
This year, Tracy Claeys was fired by Minnesota on January 4, 2017. Had the new rule been in effect last season, there would likely have been players signed by a coaching staff who weeks later would be gone. The new regime would have no loyalty to those recruits casting considerable uncertainty as to the players’ status within the program.
