The Beginning of the End of National Signing Day

Continue to be absorbed, avoiding work and life responsibilities at all costs. Fake sick harder than you have ever faked sick before, maybe even tossing in a fever to match that “really bad cough” you developed in a matter of 12 hours. No one will ever know.

Do everything possible to embrace the absurdity and delight of national signing day, coming your way Wednesday, February 4. But do so knowing that this day—Christmas for the degenerate fan and message board enthusiast—won’t be this intoxicating much longer.

Please don’t view this as a melancholy forecast. It’s not. In fact, the reason national signing day will soon lose its luster is because of how far it’s come. Mr. Recruiting is trading in his spacious two-bedroom condo for a house with a three-car garage. They even left the treadmill.

National signing day hasn’t peaked; it’s simply evolved. And it’s poised to follow this upward rise even more, although it will do so at a different pace and on different terms.

It’s part business and part protocol, and soon, a mere 24 hours will no longer suffice.

Welcome to the Era of Early Enrollees

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After securing yet another No. 1 recruiting class, Alabama head coach Nick Saban provided a bit of recruiting wisdom when he was asked about another suspense-less national signing day.

“The recruiting calendar has accelerated itself,” Saban said, offering up a cryptic ingredient of Alabama’s secret recruiting recipe.

What’s most notable about the statement is actually the timing. Saban made that remark while appearing on ESPN back in 2012. Those are your AOL and pager years when it comes to college football’s rapid progression, although the sentiments are most certainly still applicable. They’ve simply expanded.

More teams have caught on. More players have, too. The accelerated calendar no longer applies to a select few; it now involves schools in all conferences and players on all coasts. No longer a ritual reserved for a select few, this has become common practice.

Over the past two years, Alabama has welcomed 15 players to campus in January. Hop on the highway and take the scenic drive to Knoxville, Tennessee, and you’ll find a similar state of affairs. Butch Jones had 13 early enrollees in 2014 and added 10 more this year. Florida State has welcomed 13 players on campus early over this two-year span. Ohio State welcomed 11.

Arriving early doesn’t make or break a player’s potential playing career, although it does come with perks.

By arriving in January, recruits are able to benefit from extra time with the strength coach, the playbook and, of course, spring practice. It doesn’t guarantee that they will start as true freshmen, but coaches have more time to evaluate (and develop) their games.

If a player can swing it, it’s hard to find any real disadvantage. Because of this, some of the nation’s best players are choosing to forgo the drama of national signing day and take this route. Forget about waiting for a letter of intent; many elite players will spend that morning with their strength coach.

Pushing this trend forward will be a means to make this marriage official earlier than ever before.

An Early Signing Period (of Some Kind) Is Imminent

Butch Dill/Associated Press

It’s not a matter of if, but when. And then, when the when finally gets here, it will be about the when once more.

An early national signing day is coming. This much we know. When it becomes official is still up in the air, as is the date of this pre-signing day that appears to be gaining steam.

ESPN reported in early January that the Conference Commissioners Association—a group formed to explore this very topic—was leaning toward a mid-December signing period that would coincide with the junior college transfer date.

Director of National Letter of Intent, Susan Peal, explained why mid-December would be ideal while speaking with ESPN.com.

"

I'm not saying that's the only option out there, but it is the most favorable. The reason I'm saying that period is the most favorable is that coaches like their recruiting calendar. They like all the work that has been done so far by every subcommittee to get the recruiting calendar to where it is today, and they don't want to mess with that. A December date would have the most minimal impact to that recruiting calendar, so that's why that has been the one date that has come out.

"

This is not an NCAA matter. It’s essentially up to the conferences to decide what best suits them. The ACC has publicly campaigned for an August national signing day, while other conferences have chimed in, piggybacking off its thoughts.

The timing and details are still to be worked out, but an early signing period is brewing. In fact, it could come as early as this year, impacting the next recruiting class.

Essentially, an early signing period would allow early enrollees—or other players simply looking to put a halt to the recruiting process—a means to do so. It would also give head and assistant coaches a way to perhaps lessen the grind of the final few weeks before the traditional signing period.

In terms of its impact on national signing day, this would likely be a knockout blow. It wouldn’t kill the February tradition altogether—there would still be plenty of prospects that exhaust the visits, phone calls and meetings in order to gather as much information as possible—but it would change the way an already accelerated recruiting calendar is viewed.

The Coverage Has Simply Gotten Too Good

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Take away the latest trends and the legislation poised to alter recruiting for good, and you’d still be left with a business that has mastered its craft.

Look at 247Sports.com, for example. This is no longer just a niche website reserved for a handful of ravenous fanbases or conferences: 247Sports, much like the other recruiting outlets, staffs recruiters for various regions—sometimes grouping them to one specific team—and they focus exclusively on college football recruiting year-round.

Not long ago, this very notion would have been preposterous. There simply wasn’t a market. But as recruiting’s popularity has soared year after year, more websites have decided to stake a claim in this business. There are ads to sell, teams to cover and news to break as it pertains to recruiting 365 days out of the year.

“It will always be a kind of fresh start for college football fans, but I definitely think that it's on the decline,” 247Sports’ director of scouting Barton Simmons said of national signing day. “The oversaturation of coverage year round, the increase in visibility of high school prospects and the continued acceleration of the recruiting calendar all have made signing day a little bit of an afterthought. I think some people are tired of recruiting by national signing day. There was a time when signing day was the one day of the year they'd care.”

Everything has improved. Access to the players has increased. Film is easier to find and of much higher quality. The scouting is more sophisticated. The intelligence is more accurate.

Playing a role in this information evolution, of course, is social media. It’s sitting in the sidecar. Without it, the news doesn’t funnel through as quickly as it does. Not only that, but players are now partaking in the exercise—driving this medium—creating further interest simply by keeping the masses current.

That's precisely what the nation's top dual-threat quarterback, Kyler Murray, did as he contemplated offers from other places.

"

Following my heart... #GigEm

— Kyler Murray (@TheKylerMurray) January 30, 2015"

And when an individual player doesn’t post his current leaders to Twitter, someone will likely grab the scoop and post them for him. It's an endless cycle.

As a result, there are far fewer surprises on a day that once revolved around suspense. It doesn’t mean that the occasional flip or unexpected commitment will vanish, but that these delicious moments will soon be more of a rarity. So much is working for recruiting, but it's working in favor of the year-round process rather than its culmination.    

National signing day’s demise is a product of its growth. It’s outgrown its digs, which is precisely why it will find a new home soon enough, one with more space, nicer tiling and perhaps even an eight-person hot tub. Now, doesn’t that sound nice?

Chin up, avid football fan. There will still be a day to fake sick in its new form. Heck, you might even have two.

All recruiting rankings and information courtesy of 247Sports. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand.