Eric Sorenson
College football, like all sports today, is constantly evolving.
Next year the traditional Bowl Championship Series will be replaced with playoffs. Television contracts to broadcast certain teams and conferences have never been higher. Most major conferences now have their own television network or are aligned with major ones to help showcase their games each fall.
Here in the Pac-12 both Arizona State’s Todd Graham and University of Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez have both made major strides in turning around their programs in just two years on the job.
While they have been battling against one another for some high-profile recruits, they do agree on one thing when it comes to signing future student-athletes for their respective programming.
“I know Todd Graham and Rich Rod both want a December signing period,” CBSSports.com college football insider Jeremy Fowler told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat in a recent phone interview. “I think most of the Pac-12 coaches would want it, aside from [Stanford’s] David Shaw who’s against it.”
The same somewhat holds true in the Southestern Conference where some head coaches have acknowledged during this week’s conference meetings they too would like a winter signing period but school presidents and athletic directors would have to unanimously agree which clouds the issue.
SEC prefers to keep current recruiting calendar intact, but if it must change, it would like post-Thanksgiving signing
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerCBS) May 28, 2014
Further, Fowler said schools would likely get push back from high school coaches who don’t want the distraction for their players during state playoff games, some of which stretch into early December. On the flip side, coaches don’t want a signing day in August for fear players won’t play hard during their high school season for fear of injury.
Arizona’s top 2015 prospect, Saguaro wide receiver Christian Kirk, says if there is a second signing day added to the traditional first Wednesday in February one, it would be beneficial to the players.
“It could prevent kids from de-committing and causing a bunch of conflict,” Kirk told Sports360AZ.com on Wednesday. “Kids could sign and not have to worry about coaches nagging them for the next couple months before they take off.”
Kirk’s good friend, former Scottsdale Desert Mountain star, now Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen agrees.
LSU’s Les Miles has been one head coach outspoken in favor of adding a second signing day citing with Kirk that it would help the players, while not changing the recruiting calendar for coaches.
