On Wednesday the NCAA Division I Council proposed two early signing periods for football, with the first in late June and the second in mid-December.
Alabama coach Nick Saban was quick to voice his opinion Wednesday evening after practice.
"I am absolutely, positively against any kind of early signing date, especially a June signing date before a guy plays his senior year," Saban said in a news conference. "If we want to have an early signing date after the season, I would be more for that. We've moved the recruiting calendar forward, which creates a lot of issues and problems when it comes to evaluations, not only of a player but of his character and his academic status."
Saban said the Crimson Tide may not have signed freshman tailback Joshua Jacobs had an early signing period been in place last year. Jacobs, a 5-foot-10, 200-pounder from Tulsa, Okla., played in only six games as a junior at McClain High School due to injury but blossomed as a senior, rushing for 2,704 yards and an eye-popping 15.1 yards per carry.
Jacobs rushed 16 times for 100 yards in last Saturday's 34-6 win over Kentucky.
"We probably would have been full, and that is what I am talking about," Saban said. "We would probably make some academic, character and maybe evaluation mistakes, because you aren't even seeing a guy play during his senior season.
"From a high school coach's standpoint, what is really the guy's motivation to play and really work hard to get better to play for his team in his senior year?"
Under the proposal, the two early signing periods would be 72 hours, with the second one coinciding with the enrollment signing date for junior college players. The existing signing period starts on the first Wednesday of February and runs through early April.
Also proposed Wednesday was the addition of a 10th full-time assistant for Football Bowl Subdivision programs, which Saban very much supports.
"For the number of players we have involved, if you do the player-coach ratio in any sport, football has the least amount of coaches compared to the number of players," Saban said. "Special teams has become a really important part of the game, and for a guy to coach a position and special teams is really, really difficult. I've been an advocate so we can have a special teams coach, and it would help the ratio."
The Crimson Tide worked out for two hours in full pads Wednesday in preparation for Saturday's game at Arkansas.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.