NCAA's Early Signing Period Could Be Moving Before Transfer Portal Opening

The NCAA early signing period could come at a sooner date, taking place before the transfer portal opening in December.

The current state of college football seems to be defined by two things that have drastically changed the sport in recent years -- Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal. 

Anymore, the college football offseason feels like an extension of free agency from pro sports, yet there is no rulebook or salary cap, making the entire scene feel like madness. 

On Thursday, Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic reported that the early signing period is expected to be moved to an even earlier date. To start the current offseason, the 2024 recruiting class was allowed to sign with their respective programs on Dec. 20, 2023. Oklahoma State's football program used the early signing day to sign 17 recruits to their National Letter of Intent.

A part of the reason for moving the early signing period is to have it happen just before the transfer portal opens up. The last period opened up on Dec. 4, 2023, lasting for about a month.

Again, this just goes to show the impact the transfer portal currently has on collegiate sports. 

"The biggest reason we're doing this is to clear up the football recruiting calendar so the signing period and the transfer portal don't overlap," Tom Wistreill told The Athletic.

For the transfer portal to have this level of impact on the schedule for the NCAA is just more assurance that the period and current status of college athletics is here to stay, and will continue to play a prominent role in college athletics.

Wistreill is the Big Sky commissioner and National Letter of Intent subcommittee chairman. 

"The feedback we've received from all coaches is that December is a mess. Especially with the expansion of the College Football Playoff coming next year, that just creates more chaos in December. This should help," Wistreill said to The Athletic.

Evidently, adding the transfer portal to an already-busy December did create madness, and their response to such is moving the early signing period to the beginning of the month.

The early signing period in the new proposed timeframe, which will be voted on in March, would last either three or seven days.

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