The college football early signing period was approved just last week, with the first one set to take place on Dec. 20th of this year. The rule, which is completely optional for recruits, allows for prospects to sign early with the school of their choice. Part of the reason it was passed is to allow those prospects who have already made up their minds, and don’t want to wait until Signing Day to commit, to sign early.
Nick Saban says early signing period could result in prospects missing games
The new rule was passed last week.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
One college football head coach who isn’t exactly on-board with the rule’s passage is Alabama’s Nick Saban. In a recent interview with CBS Sports, Saban says that a potential effect on the high school level that we could see is the equivalent of college football players, like Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey did last year, skipping bowl games to prepare for the NFL draft. In other words, Saban says the new rule could tempt high school players to skip part of their season to sign early with a school.
”That means a high school coach is going to be in the same position we are now with [Leonard] Fournette and [Christian] McCaffrey. They don’t play in their bowl games. What’s to say some high school kid says, ‘We’re out of the playoffs, I’m not going to play anymore this year. I’m going to Alabama.’
”To me, it’s bad to the high heaven for everybody. Who’s self interest it’s serving, I don’t know … To me, all this grows out of paranoia in recruiting to think that somebody’s doing something that somebody else is not doing.
”They make this rule that has all these unintended consequences for the game. I don’t get it …
To be fair, Saban does have a valid point here. Sometimes, high school teams know their playoff fates as early as mid-season, depending on how the division and team itself is. If projected first-round draft prospects can forgo their team’s bowl game to prepare for their next career, what’s stoping a blue-chip prospect from doing the same?
It wouldn’t be surprising to see something like this happen with some prospects, but we’ll have to wait and see until then. The next question that comes to mind is whether or not the prospect’s future school will think it’s a good idea to forgo part of their season.
