http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/110906/pac-12-favors-early-signing-date-but-concerns-remain-particularly-from-stanford
Pac-12 coaches offer their opinions on early signing date
By Kyle Bonagura Wednesday, May 13, 2015
It seems inevitable, at this point, that the NCAA will soon adopt an early signing period for college football. Exactly in what form remains to be seen -- the Pac-12 supports a likely mid-December date -- but it's coming.
And that is something Stanford coach David Shaw, who has long been a vocal opponent to the idea, is ready to accept, if only begrudgingly. Just more than a year ago, Shaw called the idea "terrible" and voiced concerns relating to how an early signing day could adversely affect college football. He felt moving the signing period date to before the beginning of a recruit's senior year of high school was a bad idea; he was also concerned about the effect it would have on Stanford's unique admission process.
"It's not devastating if it moves to December," Shaw said. "But it's still not ideal if we're being honest."
For one, Shaw doesn't think the NCAA would force a student-athlete to honor an August commitment if it were to be appealed in, say, January -- his rationale being that once given a chance to think longer about it, a lot of 16- or 17-year-old kids will end up changing their minds and the NCAA "always gives in towards the student-athlete."
While acknowledging Shaw's stance has a self-serving element, it is a valid concern. For a player to commit before his senior year of high school means he would be making a life-altering decision directly before an important developmental phase -- from both a maturity and athletic standpoint. Plenty of kids do it, and it probably works out well most of the time, but to lock in a teenager well before most of his peers will make their college decisions, with no recourse, has its drawbacks.
The Pac-12's preferred December date, which seems on par with the rest of the country, would ease those concerns.
"This is the most important decision of these kids' lives, and they need the time to be able to do that right," Arizona State coach Todd Graham said. "I wouldn't be opposed to December, but I'm fine with where it's at."
Shaw and Graham's shared opinion was echoed by Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott.
"We're absolutely not supportive of moving it toward as early as August," Scott said. "We've got schools for whom your grades in first semester matter in terms of whether you get you get in or not. We'd like to see as much track record as possible academically and allow for more mature discussions in general. But I think we've been persuaded the move from February to December is a compromise for some that have been pushing for earlier."
At Stanford, more so than other schools, a December signing period would still make the admission process more difficult because its admissions department often does not make decisions on prospective student-athletes until after the New Year, and sometimes well up to the current February signing date. Without a change to how admissions are structured, there is a potential for Stanford to lose out on kids who want to sign as soon as they are able. It's likely just a minor inconvenience, but it's one Stanford would rather not face.
"I understand if it moves forward a little bit. I think if it goes too far forward -- a lot of people were talking about August -- you lose your argument that you're recruiting student-athletes because you have no senior year progress as far as academics are concerned," Shaw said. "Once again, we're unique and just about everybody that we have an opportunity to recruit, before we can send them an application, we need to see some measure of senior grades.
"We need to see a fall test score, and those aren't going to be in in time for a summer or August signing day. If these things ever get to governing bodies as far as how student-athletes are viewed, it's hard to say this was an academic decision. This was a coaching decision. This is what's best for coaches."
First-year Oregon State coach Gary Andersen is in favor of allowing high school seniors to sign during the same December period that has traditionally served just junior college players, and he sees far-reaching benefits.
"It can be done today and it can save money, it can save time," Andersen said. "It can relieve stress on kids, high school coaches and parents, assistant coaches and head coaches at every level of football. It is muddy water and gets a lot clearer if you do it in December."
Asked if there were potential pitfalls to an earlier signing day, Andersen shook his head.
"I see zero. It makes kids play their hand. It makes coaches play their hand. It makes a nice clean process. If a kid says yes, then he said yes," Andersen said. "If he's supposedly committed to somewhere and he doesn't sign that paper in December, then to me he's not committed. If he was committed to Oregon State, I would say, ‘You're not really committed.' It would allow us to move on and say, ‘You had a chance to make a commitment or to put your name on a piece of paper when you said you're committed.' You either do or you don't. I see no disadvantage to it at all."
Of six Pac-12 coaches polled, all agreed that December letters of intent should be contingent on the head coach remaining the same. If there is a change at head coach, they said, the kids should have the option to reopen their recruitment.
Cal coach Sonny Dykes can envision a day in which the entire recruiting calendar gets a facelift.
"The recruiting calendar is constructed based on how people recruited 30, 20, 15 years ago, whatever it is, where you sign these guys up and go out in May and find who you're going to recruit," Dykes said. "That's not how it works anymore. You know who you're recruiting. You've known for a year. In my estimation, what they need to do is just take a look at the recruiting calendar and just start over."
He wasn't tied to any specific changes but said it would beneficial for kids to have the option to take official visits much earlier, maybe as early as the spring of their junior year. Currently, they must wait until their senior year before schools can pay for official visits.
Graham agreed.
"Some kids would like to visit these schools earlier but just don't have the money," he said. "And some still commit before their senior season, so it would be nice to be able to take an official visit before committing."
With the quality of the video college programs receive on prospects now, Dykes said there's less of a need for coaches to make trips to see kids play in person. As a result, he questioned the need for college coaches to go on the road to recruit at all during the season "because you need to be worried about your team."
Those ideas came from a longer discussion in which Dykes also wondered if certain teams would set themselves up for failure if they relied too heavily on early commitments. It's less of an issue with a December date, but without senior tape to evaluate, he reasoned, teams are banking on a certain level of development, and that can be a dangerous game.
"It's a little bit like the demise of Texas. If you look at Texas, they were done the second week of February. They were done with [the next year's] recruiting class and a lot of those guys didn't pan out," said Dykes, whose team travels to Texas on Sept. 19. "Look at how many guys they had get drafted [in 2014]. I think the shrewd people would be careful. There would be a race to sign those kids, and some teams would get burned."
He also questioned the intentions of teams that have loaded up on the verbal commitments of players with years of high school remaining.
"There's an unnamed ACC team right now that's got this recruiting class full, another one almost full and half of the other one full, too," Dykes said. "Do they really think they're going to sign those guys? I mean, that's done as a signal: ‘We're ahead of the game, we know what we're doing, we're really cool,' and so there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than trying to find the best football players."
A resolution to the issue is expected to come when the Collegiate Commissioners Association meets in June.
