Greg Sankey calls for changes to college football's recruiting schedule

The month of December is an absolute gauntlet for college football coaches. They’re tasked with finishing up the regular season and then competing in conference championships, bowl games, and if you’re really lucky: the College Football Playoff.

Amid all of that fun on the field, the 12th month of the season is also the busiest in terms of team building. There’s a December signing day that most coaches use to try and ink a majority of their class. Plus, you also have the transfer portal and coaching changes to deal with — and all before the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1.

Ahead of SEC Media Days this week, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey commented on the bustling college football schedule during the holidays, especially when it comes to recruiting. He explained that in the conversations he’s had with coaches and players, he gets the sense that the current schedule is quite a burden.

“Yeah very much so. I went out — well, let’s go back. I sat in locker rooms at bowl games. Our head coaches — when they’re worried about coaching and I’d have 30-minute conversations with some, not everyone, about what December’s like for them right now,” shared Sankey.

“Yeah, you have coaching decisions, head coach and assistant coach. You have signing day, you have the transfer portal, you know, bowl games, and you have a playoff and that playoff will have more December activity,” Sankey continued. “Not to mention the regular season, including in the start of the conference championship.”

He says that parts of the year are much less stressful and busy for coaches compared to the pandemonium in December, and perhaps there’s a way to better balance that out.

“One of the learning experiences from those conversations then in January, February, March. And our decision is… not only is December miserable for football coaches. April, May, June are not miserable, because we put so much intensity upon it (in December).”

Sankey also commented on the difficulties of handling the transfer portal window and doesn’t see an easy solution to the issue one way or the other just yet.

“We do have to think about the transfer structure. We introduced a 60-day window. It used to be a 365-day window. I believe that’s too long. One of the arguments was — if you shorten it, you create too much mental stress for young people. I watch mental stress created at the end of that portal window. We’ve got a lot of young people who enter with promises or beliefs that don’t have opportunities. We need to learn more about that.”

Overall, it’s definitely an imperfect schedule that makes life a roller coaster ride towards the end of each calendar year. There’s just so much going on in December it’s hard to fathom how these coaches even make it through. Hopefully the leaders of the college football community, like Sankey, will come together to figure out a better way to handle the annual schedule.