Change to recruiting calendar could be inbound; impact on Texas A&M football?

Early signing period could be moving, making things far easier for coaches like Texas A&M football's Mike Elko

Ever since the advent of college football's early signing period, the bulk of the action has moved towards there. Whereas the first Wednesday in February used to be a second Christmas for college football fans, now the majority of signings take place pretty much right around Christmas anyway.

This can be tough for coaches for a lot of reasons. Especially with the expanded playoff now coming to college football, this would potentially mean that certain programs are trying to prepare for and playing in several extremely consequential games simultaneous to this important three-day period.

This is not to mention what has become a mad dash for coaches, like Texas A&M football's Mike Elko, hired near the end of the season. The extremely condensed time period that these coaches have to work with to get players signed, especially when you consider the fact that every other team after that player will be making a huge run at that same time, can be perilous.

Finally, the current early signing period coincides with the initial portal window, which has been by far the busier of the two. That's a lot to manage for coaches all across the map.

A report has emerged that a change may be coming to remedy one of these problems, if not all. According to The Athletic and others, the Collegiate Commissioners Association is considering moving up the early signing period by two weeks. This would put the signing period directly before conference title games.

This solves the matter of having the early signing period coincide with the initial portal window, but the other two remain issues. There are still teams all over the country preparing for important games at this point, and coaches hired right after the season don't really have any more of an advantage compared to the previous period.

The solution that would work the best is to have one period before fall camp begins, and one in the traditional, February time slot. That keeps the signing periods completely out of the actual game schedules and doesn't interfere with normal hiring/firing cycles.

This is a step in the right direction, but I doubt the movement is done. I would like it to move even earlier before all is said and done.