The SEC is pushing for major changes to the early signing period in college athletics, including making the entire month of December a recruiting dead period and moving early national signing day up two weeks closer to the start of the month, league commissioner Greg Sankey told Yahoo Sports. According to Sankey, the league's coaches have already approved the proposed changes.
"Putting signing day in the middle of December with playoff games no longer works," Sankey said. "Move it to early December, the Wednesday before championship games."
December tends to be crunch time for college coaches. This year, the transfer portal opened on Dec. 4 and the early signing period commenced just over two weeks later on Dec. 20. So, at the same time coaches are trying to keep their roster together and evaluate potential areas of need through the portal, they're also closing up the high school recruiting ranks and tying up any loose ends on the trail.
On top of all that, coaching changes frequently happen throughout December as assistants and even head coaches will look to make a move once the regular season ends. For most teams that won at least six games, there's also bowl prep to worry about.
The 2024 season also marks the first year of an expanded 12-team playoff. First-round games will be played the weekend of Dec. 20, which falls right in the same window as the current early signing period format. All of that culminates in creating a grind that has started to wear on coaches.
"The hardest thing is there's no time off," Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie recently told CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd. "Christmas Eve from noon until Christmas Day, you're evaluating portal kids, talking to portal kids, visits with portal kids. It just doesn't ever stop. There is no time to turn it off. I told our personnel director, 'Don't send any more texts about players in the portal, and leave everybody alone.' That was about the only time you have off."
