The month of January continued to be a very busy one in college football recruiting.
It’s just for the next cycle.
“We are well into the 2020 and 2021 classes,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said last week. “We spent the entire month of January getting close to 2020 kids.”
The 2019 recruiting cycle marked the second one containing a 72-hour signing period during the middle of December in addition to the traditional date on the first Wednesday in February. Many college coaches expected the early signing period to have a profound impact, which it certainly has, as 72 percent of prospects who signed with Football Bowl Subdivision schools during last year’s cycle chose to do so in December, with that bumping up to 76 percent this time around.
It was even more extreme with Southeastern Conference programs, as 91.7 percent of Georgia’s newest class signed early, with Tennessee at 90.5 percent and Alabama at 88.9 percent. With having so many kids now signed before Christmas, SEC coaches are using January as a race to the future.