The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

The NCAA does some good things

Head coach Dana Holgorsen

 

West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen is a lot like a lot of other FBS coaches. He wholly endorsed a December signing period for football. You’ll remember this from national signing day in February.

… from a head coaching point of view, we were at the AFCA Convention and it was unanimous 100 percent, every head coach in the room raised their hand and said, ‘please, please, please, let there be a December signing period’ because it saves the school money. That month long babysitting stage doesn’t exist, kids don’t get bored and want to go take some more trips just because they can. It’s going to make things a little bit more tolerable from a recruiting perspective.

On Friday, the NCAA’s Division I Council made it so as part of a series of changes to the current recruiting model. This is the biggest item on the list, but it’s not the only worth mentioning.

The obvious benefit for this December period is a coaching staff’s welfare. The time between the end of the regular season and signing day is spent mostly on securing the recruiting class, which is needless. I mean, you need to do it, but it’s a needless inconvenience. This solves that. The players who want to sign during this new window in December, likely coinciding with the junior college signing period, get to do it. The coaches don’t have to spend time and money making sure those players are indeed committed. It’s good for a coach’s nerve, too, but it also narrows the focus for the remaining unsigned-and-committed players. A school will be able to do better work on those cases now, and WVU and many other schools aren’t going to have major programs look over their roster after the season and then poach top recruits from lesser programs before signing day.

There is a consequence WVU will have to adjust to now. Holgorsen is one of a growing number of coaches who would rather not have a prospect visit during the season. It’s just not ideal, and any school runs a risk of making a sub-stellar impression for reasons oftentimes out of a head coach’s control. A noon start limits the amount of time available the night before and the morning of a game. A late start limits the amount of time available after a game ends. A kid might have a game on Friday night and arrive early, early Saturday morning. He might have an early flight home Sunday. It’s not easy to make all the variables click.

But now, with the December signing period on the way, WVU not only must allow and encourage in-season visits, but WVU has to optimize them. That’s a project underway, to be sure.

(Aside: This isn’t altogether great for recruits. A majority of coaching changes do and will take place between the December and February signing periods. What happens to the recruit then? How many schools will pressure a kid to sign early or else?)

That said, there’s also relief in the new rules, which technically aren’t official until the Division I Board of Directors meeting next week. Beginning with the 2019 class, prospective student-athletes can take official (ie, free) visits from April 1 through “the Sunday before the last Wednesday in June.”

The Mountaineers can still discourage in-season visits and try to get players to visit in April, May and June, and that’s significant because a school as remote as WVU runs into issues getting recruits to take unofficial visits or to come to a camp — ie, on their own dime — in the spring and summer. Now WVU can pay for the trips for official visits, and that might convince a player to come back for a camp or for a game, both in an unofficial capacity, later on in the process.

In short, both of these are good for WVU.

The other items:

• It prevents Football Bowl Subdivision schools from hiring people close to a prospective student-athlete for a two-year period before and after the student’s anticipated and actual enrollment at the school. This provision was adopted in men’s basketball in 2010 (effective immediately, though schools may honor contracts signed before Jan. 18, 2017).
• Football Bowl Subdivision schools are limited to signing 25 prospective and current student-athletes to a first-time financial aid agreement or a National Letter of Intent. Exceptions exclude current student-athletes who have been enrolled full-time at the school for at least two years and prospective or current student-athletes who suffer an incapacitating injury (effective for recruits who sign after Aug. 1, 2017).
• It limits the time for Football Bowl Subdivision coaches to participate in camps and clinics to 10 days in June and July and requires that the camps take place on a school’s campus or in facilities regularly used by the school for practice or competition. Staff members with football-specific responsibilities are subject to the same restrictions. The Football Championship Subdivision can conduct and participate in camps during the months of June and July (effective immediately, though schools may honor contracts signed before Jan. 18, 2017).
• It allows coaches employed at a camp or clinic to have recruiting conversations with prospects participating in camps and clinics and requires educational sessions at all camps and clinics detailing initial eligibility standards, gambling rules, agent rules and drug regulations (effective immediately).
• It allows Football Bowl Subdivision schools to hire a 10th assistant coach (effective Jan. 9, 2018).

On that last one, I think WVU and a whole lot of other schools were under the impression that would be effective immediately. I also think WVU has its 10th assistant: Dan Gerberry. He’s currently billed as a Senior Football Analyst, and as I understand, he’s a temporary employee, but that temporary period will last a while longer now.