NCAA football should commit to early signing period

We are three weeks away from the only football signing period the NCAA has for the class of 2014, February 5 through April 1.  With no fall early signing period permitted, Division I and II football programs are busy solidifying their verbal commitments, soothing nervous recruits and parents, fending off encroachments from other programs on those same commitments, conducting their own back-door recruiting, and all this while running scenarios of every conceivable outcome.  It is tension at its highest as the future, that is the success or failure, of every NCAA DI and DII program in the nation hangs in the balance.

That tension and win-lose proposition leads us to conclude that the NCAA should give serious consideration to adding an early signing period for college football’s top two divisions.  With recruiting now starting as early as the seventh grade, we know that the stress and pressure which gradually builds for the athletes, their families and college coaches can be alleviated to some degree with the addition of a fall signing period.  Yes, there is the risk that an athlete will be injured during the final few weeks of a high school football season, but that is the risk every coach, we think, is willing to take if they can put some of the brouhaha behind them as has been the case with basketball for years.  Granted, not all recruits will want to sign early, but those that do should be provided that option.