Greg Sankey explains why having Early Signing Period in mid-December 'no longer works'

Changes to the college football recruiting calendar could be coming with the early signing period expected to move to early December. It would change an already busy month marked by bowl game preparation, the College Football Playoff and finalizing early signees.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has made his thoughts clear on the early signing period, and he told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger he doesn’t think the current calendar works with so many changes coming to college football.

In fact, the SEC is “socializing” the idea of making December a dead period for recruiting entirely, according to Dellenger. There have also been “suggestions” to do away with the fall transfer portal window and only have one in the spring.

“Putting signing day in the middle of December with playoff games no longer works,” Sankey said. “Move it to early December, the Wednesday before championship games. That is the concept. It’s, in part, out of respect to high school football. You’ve heard some want the signing day in June. No one has done any work on what that means for high school football. We have a responsibility to listen to the high school coaches. What we’ve heard out of the Texas group is that they do not at all support that. Everybody has to be attentive to that.”

The College Football Playoff is set to expand to 12 teams, meaning games will start around the time the current early signing period takes place. By moving the early signing day to Dec. 4, as The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reported, it would allow teams to finalize their recruiting classes before the transfer portal window opens and the CFP begins.

Tom Wistrcill, the Big Sky commissioner who also serves as the chairman of the National Letter of Intent subcommittee, told The Athletic there have been “advanced discussions” about moving the early signing period to the Wednesday before conference championship weekend. In 2024, that would be Dec. 4.

“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,” Wistrcill told The Athletic. “The feedback we’ve received from all coaches is that December is a mess. Especially with the expansion of the CFP coming next year, that just creates more chaos in December. This should help.”

There have also been discussions about adding a summer signing period prior to athletes’ senior seasons – much like basketball’s calendar. That would be in either June or August and also give athletes another opportunity to sign NLIs.

In addition, Wistrcill told The Athletic the subcommittee discussed having transfer portal players sign NLIs. They cannot sign National Letters of Intent under the current rules.