COLUMBIA, Mo. — With talk of moving a December fixture to June, it all is a bit Australian, innit?
College sports leaders have floated the idea of shifting the December early signing period — when high school seniors can make commitments to colleges official by signing letters of intent — to June. It’s well-intentioned, given established critiques of how clogged the December schedule is for college coaches, but the idea already has plenty of opponents.
Add Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz to that list.
While he has voiced his December displeasure with gusto, Drinkwitz is deferring to the judgment of high school football coaches when it comes to the proposed June signing period.
“Well, my view is (that) I support high school coaches,†Drinkwitz said last week. “I’ve been a high school football coach.â€
And high school football coaches aren’t fans of the idea, hence his reluctance to back the idea. The Missouri Football Coaches Association joined an increasing number of states’ coaching affinity groups by going on record in clear opposition.
“We as an association believe that this is detrimental for high school football in our state,†the MFCA wrote in .
Important announcement from the membership of regarding the proposed June early signing date.
— MOFBCA (@MOFBCA)
Talk of signing period movement heated up in December as coaches continued to bemoan schedule congestion. The month contains, in loose order, conference championship games, the opening of the transfer portal, the tail-end of a recruiting cycle and the signing period, and bowl games.
That means scouting multiple opponents, scouting and courting potential transfer portal adds, working to keep players out of the portal, working to keep committed recruits on board through their signing ceremony, working to flip other schools’ recruits at the last moment and, if there’s time, observing winter holidays with family and players.
As Drinkwitz put it in December: “Thank God for caffeine and private planes.â€
Both he and Ohio State coach Ryan Day blasted the schedule headache in the run-up to the Cotton Bowl.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to make, first off, December work,†Day said then. “December is not working.â€
“It’s just not possible,†Drinkwitz added. “There’s going to have to be a reset of college football, looking back, ‘OK, this is what we’ve become now.’ We have got to start all over and build it back out again. And it’s going to start with having to figure out the calendar. I don’t have a simple answer for you. It’s not as simple as we’ll just move signing day — that’s got consequences.â€
In the months since December, conference commissioners teamed up to move signing day rather modestly: three weeks earlier. That means high school athletes will have the opportunity to sign on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, just after the end of the college football regular season but before the transfer portal opens.
That will make much of December a recruiting dead period, thus alleviating the burden of checking in with commits.
Given the Southeastern Conference’s backing of this setup, Drinkwitz called it the plan that “makes the most sense.â€
The June signing period isn’t off the table yet, though, and that idea will come up again before decisionmakers this summer.
The argument against it — shared by Drinkwitz and the coaching associations — is based around several concerns.
Perhaps most obvious: “You could have potential for opt-outs,†Drinkwitz said. After all, if a high school player has signed two months and change before their senior year starts, what’s the incentive to risk injury by playing that season. If the bulk of signing happens before senior years anyway, those seasons won’t be particularly impactful in recruitment.
And there’s something broader at stake with senior years.
Since the establishment of the early signing period, “early enrollees really became popular,†Drinkwitz said. “Guys are no longer finishing their senior years, which is some of the best times of young men’s lives. Are you going to start having reclassification? Of course you are.â€
Signing in June could create uncertainty for recruits, who are contractually committing to programs that have an entire season ahead of them, with all the possible ups and downs contained therein.
“There’s obviously going to be coaching changes and decision changes, so you’re going to have somebody committed and then they’re going to have to get out of (letters of intent),†Drinkwitz said. “And then it just opens up a whole new can of worms.â€
Specific points of contention aside, the Mizzou coach sees something else wrong with the process of deciding whether to move the early signing period to June. Drinkwitz has criticized conference realignment for the same perceived procedural flaw.
“Again, don’t we need to ask the people that it directly affects the most what their opinion is before we make decisions?†he said. “The high school coaches have spoken. I think it would be irresponsible for us to do something that directly counters what those organizations say.â€