The Collegiate Commissioners Association has approved the 72-hour early signing period for college football prospects.
This year's three-day window will be Dec. 20-22, which coincides with the first three days of the junior college signing period. The juco signing period runs through Jan. 15, 2018.
The CCA was the last legislative hurdle following last month's approval from the NCAA Division I Council.
"I think having a mid-December signing date certainly allows some guys who know where they want to go and want to end recruiting to be able to do that," Alabama coach Nick Saban said earlier this year. "It also affords the midyear players, which there are more and more of, to be able to sign and end recruiting a little early."
Miami, Penn State and LSU have the top three classes in the 247Sports.com rankings for the 2018 recruiting cycle, with those three programs already having combined for 45 nonbinding commitments.
Prospects in the 2018 class must abide by current NCAA legislation, which requires student-athletes to begin taking official visits on the opening day of classes of their senior year in high school. Recruits in the 2019 class can start taking official visits during their junior year, beginning April 1, 2018.
The existing signing date of the first Wednesday in February will remain intact, but its significance will be forever changed. For more than two decades, passionate fans across the country have taken time off from work to mill around their favorite athletic complexes and cheer when the signatures on fax machines arrive.
"I think what will happen is that it will be broken up into two distinct signing periods that will be addressed and covered on a national basis through about every medium that we have right now," ESPN national recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill said earlier this year. "What you might end up having, though, is that it might split up on its own into almost a signing day for Top 25 programs and then a signing day for other programs beyond that.
"The bigger programs might be finishing up on just a guy or two in February, where programs further down are still trying to decide on 20 or 21. It will be split up, but I don't know if you will have any less coverage or passion for it."
Unique proposal
The American Football Coaches Association formerly has proposed to the NCAA that players be able to compete in up to four games a season without burning a redshirt year. Such a rule not only would have the potential to make bowl games more interesting but would help a player such as Ole Miss quarterback Shea Patterson, who became the starter following Chad Kelly's season-ending injury yet competed in only three games.
"If you think a kid is ready to play, and he goes out there in September but he's scared to death, goes out there and plays two series and (poops) down his leg, now you're stuck with him, and the kid's screwed," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen recently told Fox Sports. "He may not play the rest of the year and he's burned that year."
The proposal must be approved by multiple entities, with the NCAA Division I Football Competition Committee first up.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.