Imagine Alabama football coach Nick Saban at Wednesday’s signing day news conference in Tuscaloosa discussing only safety Xavier McKinney and kicker Joseph Bulovas, while Georgia’s Kirby Smart is talking in Athens just about the talents of cornerback Tray Bishop and linebacker Nate McBride.
Tennessee’s Butch Jones would seem busy by comparison, fielding questions about running back Timothy Jordan, receiver Josh Palmer and defensive linemen Matthew Butler and Ryan Thaxton.
It seems ridiculous to picture such scenarios, but those would have been the only commitments at those schools had the proposed mid-December early signing period been in effect this recruiting cycle.
“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,” Saban said last week while attending a Senior Bowl workout. “It also affords the midyear players, which there are more and more of, to be able to sign and end recruiting a little early.”
College football recruiting could be drastically different this time next year should a proposed 72-hour early signing period of Dec. 15-17 be approved by the NCAA’s Division I Council, which could vote as early as April. The recommendation was made earlier this month in Nashville by the Division I Football Oversight Committee.