The SEC is pushing for main adjustments to the early signing interval in school athletics, together with making your complete month of December a recruiting useless interval and transferring early nationwide signing day up two weeks nearer to the beginning of the month, league commissioner Greg Sankey instructed Yahoo Sports activities. Based on Sankey, the league’s coaches have already authorized the proposed adjustments.
“Placing signing day in the midst of December with playoff video games not works,” Sankey mentioned. “Transfer it to early December, the Wednesday earlier than championship video games.”
December tends to be crunch time for school coaches. This yr, the switch portal opened on Dec. 4 and the early signing interval commenced simply over two weeks afterward Dec. 20. So, on the similar time coaches try to maintain their roster collectively and consider potential areas of want by way of the portal, they’re additionally closing up the highschool recruiting ranks and tying up any free ends on the path.
On prime of all that, teaching adjustments steadily occur all through December as assistants and even head coaches will look to make a transfer as soon as the common season ends. For many groups that gained no less than six video games, there’s additionally bowl prep to fret about.
The 2024 season additionally marks the primary yr of an expanded 12-team playoff. First-round video games will probably be performed the weekend of Dec. 20, which falls proper in the identical window as the present early signing interval format. All of that culminates in making a grind that has began to put on on coaches.
“The toughest factor is there is not any break day,” Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie just lately instructed CBS Sports activities’ Dennis Dodd. “Christmas Eve from midday till Christmas Day, you are evaluating portal children, speaking to portal children, visits with portal children. It simply does not ever cease. There isn’t any time to show it off. I instructed our personnel director, ‘Do not ship any extra texts about gamers within the portal, and depart everyone alone.’ That was about the one time you will have off.”
