College football's early signing period is expected to begin even earlier in December, before the winter transfer portal window opens.
Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill, chairman of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) National Letter of Intent subcommittee, told The Athletic on Thursday that the group has had advanced discussions to move the December signing deadline to the Wednesday before FBS championship games to be postponed. This year it is December 4th. The signing period would give athletes a short period of time to sign NLIs after the conclusion of their high school seasons and just before the transfer window opens for all undergraduate players.
No decision has been made yet on the length of the early signing period, but it will last either three or seven days. The portal will open the day after teams are selected for the College Football Playoff. Although Wistrcill is not sure which option will be chosen, he expects there will be a lot of support for a short window of time that does not overlap with the portal at all.
“The main reason we are doing this is to clean up the football recruiting calendar so that the contract period and the transfer portal do not overlap,” Wistrcill said. “The feedback we have received from all the coaches is that December is a mess. This will cause even more chaos in December, especially given the expansion of the CFP next year. That should help.”
Wistrcill said the subcommittee also hopes to give transfer portal players the opportunity to sign NLIs. At the moment that is not possible.
Another option the group is discussing is the possibility of a summer signing period (either June or August) for college football. It would begin and end before the athletes' senior season, similar to college basketball's early signing period. If approved, high school athletes would have three opportunities to sign NLIs: in the summer, early December and February. There would be no change to the traditional February signing deadline.
Division I commissioners operate the National Letter of Intent program through the CCA, which allows them to control the dates of the signing period(s) in each sport. Wistrcill's subcommittee has been socializing these concepts with AFCA and other college leaders over the past few weeks and months, and the group has also interviewed coaches, administrators and conference staff.
The issue will be discussed at next week's FBS Football Oversight Committee meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. The Wistrcill subcommittee will then meet again to prepare a formal recommendation. He hopes the entire CCA can meet in early March to vote on the NLI changes. Appropriate NCAA legislation may be required to respond to the changes and properly adjust recruiting calendars.
Prominent coaches and administrators have complained that the month of December has become a major problem in college football and has the potential to force quality coaches out of the sport. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told The Athletic in January 2023 that “we are destroying coaching” and “we need to change early signing.”
The early signing period, which came into effect in December 2017, is by no means the only major event taking place this month; there is also the coaching carousel, bowl game preparation and, since 2021, the winter transfer portal window , which expires at the beginning of January.
Most FBS athletic directors made head coaching changes before the opening of the transfer window in order to have a new coach to recruit into the portal. However, the firing and hiring cycle had already shifted in recent years to accommodate the early signing period. Due to the time frame, it was simply pushed up by a week or two, which then led to coordinator and personnel changes below the head coach level. Coaches have complained that high school recruits are bearing the brunt of the calendar rush and that they want to make decisions on prospects before portal players.
Starting this fall, College Football Playoff games will also be played in mid-December, expanding the CFP from four to 12 teams. First-round games will be played on campus the weekend of December 21st, allowing teams to prepare for meaningful games as they navigate the transfer portal window and coaching changes. And while that will inevitably be a lot to handle, removing the early signing deadline from the mid-December equation would help ease the pressure.
(Photo: Patrick Breen / Arizona Republic / USA Today)