Happy national signing day! Did you even notice?

Remember when errrbody signed on the first Wednesday of February? Those days are long gone.

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The February signing day, or National Signing Day as it was known, was once a consistent checkpoint of the college football offseason. Usually about a month after the national championship game and arriving on the heels of January official visits, the first Wednesday of February was a day of celebration, excitement, drama, and more for college football fans.

A number of evolutions have since removed a method for the conversation surrounding college football to continue into the offseason. Instead, the day where schools celebrate their newest additions has been shoved into the crescendo of the regular season in December.

This isn’t just a Texas-only phenomenon. Only three players in the top-550 of the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking, Ty Haywood, J’Vari Flowers, and Zahir Mathis, entered the day uncommitted. A handful of others had pledged to a school but had not yet signed. The overwhelming majority of prospects sign in December, right when college football is about to play its most important games of the regular season.

The first evolution that took luster off of the traditional signing day was the introduction of the “early signing day.” The 2018 cycle was the first to have this opportunity in the winter of 2017. Coaches quickly realized that “early signing day” had to become National Signing Day, or else it meant committed prospects could listen to other programs throughout the holiday season. That happened with Keondre Coburn, who still eventually signed with Texas.

Because of that emphasis, February lost a good amount of its shine. The onset of early signing day didn’t kill the February celebration immediately, just ask Steve Sarkisian. When he arrived in early January of 2021, he saw needs on his roster and that he could address them with unsigned prospects. He did just that, adding a player like David Abiara in February 2021.

There have been recruitments that have stretched into February in recent years, namely DJ Campbell in the 2022 cycle and Warren Roberson in 2023. However, those recruitments currently function as exceptions.

The onset of the winter transfer portal window has also dampened the importance of the second signing day. When the early signing day started, the portal was not yet a thing. The transfer portal first opened up in October of 2018, so high school kids during the first cycle with the early signing day had no reason to hastily reserve a spot in a recruiting class. Senior risers like Moro Ojomo could afford to wait until February. Now? Teams are incentivized to fill roster needs from the portal instead of from the high school ranks. The portal offers more immediate help.

High school recruits sign in December because they don’t want to lose their spot.

Another factor that’s led to today being a dud is the explosion of players enrolling early. With class size limits no longer a burden coaches have to deal with, and with players wanting to see the field as fast as possible, there’s more motivation for signees to get on campus to get used to life as an FBS player.

Nineteen of the 23 signees Texas added in its 2024 class were early enrollees, while 22 of 25 signees from the 2025 class arrived on campus in January.

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Rules around recruiting and the transfer portal change so often, so maybe there’s a chance for the second signing day to reclaim a position of prominence. But since the onset of the early signing period and the transfer portal, the day that was part of a revered annual ritual now struggles to draw attention from anybody, much less errrbody.