1/19/2024 football Edit

Football coaches push to separate signing day, December portal window

College football coaches like the early signing period but not the overlap with the portal. (USA Today Sports)

Bob Ferrante • TheOsceola

Editor

When college football coaches met in Nashville last week at the American Football Coaches Association convention, there was a strong opinion that the December recruiting calendar needs to be revised.

College coaches juggled a busy schedule in December, one that included a transfer portal window, early signing day, bowl practices and exit interviews. But AFCA executive director Todd Berry, who has been the head coach at Army and Louisiana-Monroe, said the organization will again make a push to alleviate some of the scheduling challenges.

“What we’ve advocated is let’s put the signing date in front of the portal opening,” Berry told the Osceola and a small group of reporters on Zoom last week. “What we suggested is at the very start of that four-day dead period, let’s have signing day at that point in time. Coaches have to be off the road. It makes perfect sense to put it in that location.

“I think we’re all unanimous that we’ve got to get it out of where the portal is right now because it’s not fair to anybody in the location that it’s at. And we certainly don’t want to get rid of that early signing date because it has done what we asked it to do.”

Taking a look at the December 2023 calendar, the transfer portal opened on Dec. 4 and closed on Jan. 4. There are exceptions, including those for players in the College Football Playoff and New Years' Six Bowls, grad transfers as well as those on teams whose coaches took another job. But the early signing period overlapped on Dec. 20-22.

Under the proposal by the AFCA, the portal would open later but the early signing window would move up by roughly 3-4 weeks to a recruiting dead period that in 2023 went from Nov. 27-30. Those dates came after the end of the regular season but didn’t allow programs participating in conference title games to be at a recruiting disadvantage.

“What we suggested is at the very start of that four-day dead period, let’s have signing day at that point in time,” Berry said. “Coaches have to be off the road. It makes perfect sense to put it in that location.”

This is the second straight year the AFCA is proposing the calendar change. A few committees, including NCAA oversight as well as conference commissioners will have the ultimate say in what the December calendar looks like moving forward.

Roster management has shifted focus to December as the three-day early signing window has replaced what was a focal point for generations, which was national signing day on the first Wednesday of February. And since the transfer portal opened up five years ago, the 30-day winter window has been far busier than the 15-day spring window.

Before Florida State’s bowl game, coach Mike Norvell was asked about the December recruiting windows as well as preparing the team for a postseason game. Norvell hasn’t publicly made a comment on adjusting the calendar but admitted to the obvious challenges.

“It’s a ton,” Norvell said. “I think sometimes there’s changes that are made and things that sound good in the moment. But as one change is made then other things stack upon it. It’s an overwhelming time really for all. Players, coaches. When you think about signing day, transfer portal, preparing and doing all things for bowl games, it’s difficult. But I think you got to make sure with whatever change, you rush to change something and it could have a negative reaction off of that.

“It’s definitely difficult to be great in all of the areas but that’s what we’re striving to do.”