Penn State Sports Magazine
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5 8 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M The Early Signing Period Belongs In July Ever since the early signing period was initiated in 2018, I've thought that it made more sense in July than December. In the 2024 class, Penn State picked up a commitment from defensive end Jaylen Harvey in mid-October. The other 24 players were all committed by July 22. The overall trend since official vis- its were allowed from April to June has moved a ton of commitments to the summer. This we know. Just looking at a few schools in the Big Ten, Michigan held commitments from 25 of its 27 signees since Aug. 1. For Ohio State, 16 of its 20 signees committed before preseason camp began. USC and Oregon had slightly lower numbers — 13 of 20 for the Trojans, 17 of 26 for the Ducks — but that's still more than half of the class. Simply moving the early signing pe- riod up won't fix everything. You would likely see more players hold off on sign- ing early than you do under the present calendar, but you can also come back to recruiting those players in January. This year's dead period ran from Dec. 18 to Jan. 11. Next season's semi- final games are set for Jan. 9-10. If the ending of the dead p e r i o d s tays t h e same, there will be only two teams still playing by the time the January contact period begins. Those two teams will be among the best of the best. Because the current December con- tact period starts at the beginning of the month, there's already data to back up how it could impact those two schools when you consider that conference championship games overlapped with the first few days that coaches were out on the road this year. Telling recruits that you can't visit them for a week because you're focused on the biggest game of the year has never really hurt those schools. You won't find many examples of Player X choosing School Y because School Z was play- ing in the Big Ten Championship Game and didn't come visit him while other coaches could. As important as relation- ships and NIL have become, winning is still very attractive to the nation's top recruits. That will never change. For a school like Penn State, a signing period in the final week or two of July, before camp starts, would work really well. It won't be perfect everywhere, but I think it can realistically be done. The Real Change That Will Impact Everything There's one factor that I believe can fix the vast majority of issues: collec- tive bargaining. Realistically, it's prob- ably two years away, at minimum, and the College Football Playoff is a major reason why. In 2026, the rights to the CFP will once again be up for bid. Disney, which owns ESPN, will surely be involved. FOX has also made clear that it wants a piece of the pie. Would Comcast, owner of NBC, also be interested? Maybe Turner Broadcasting? Sports television rights are getting tricky these days, largely because of how much money was funneled to the NFL a few years back. That move impacted a lot of sports, with NASCAR being the most recent example. It had to outsource races to Amazon, Turner and The CW Network to get the money it needed. This is likely to be a recurring theme. The more networks you get involved, the more money you can bring in. The College Football Playoff is a differ- ent animal because of how many viewers it attracts, but if it pairs up with multiple networks — which feels all but certain — the amount of money it will bring in will be a massive talking point. College football is unquestionably the second- biggest sport in America right now. That's when I believe we'll see schools and conferences face increasing pres- sure to adopt pay-for-play officially. Change may not happen right away, but that's where this is headed. There's a reason NCAA president Charlie Baker last month released his plan for a new football subdivision and direct com- pensation. He knows what's coming in two years. People who get pa i d m u c h m o re than me will have to sort out whether that model is sus- tainable, but I do think direct com- pensation from schools can impact the transfer portal. Legally, you can't stop players now, but could you at least slow down the movement if a player has fi- nancial ties to a specific school? Even if you can't stop it, maybe you can force that player to pay something back if he decides to leave. Maybe his new school has to pay a buyout. If that's too much, maybe that player has to at least sit out spring practice. I think those issues will absolutely be discussed when we get to this point. Collective bargaining is inevitable. It may be the only thing that can truly reduce the chaos we just witnessed. ■ Although he hails from Cornelius, N.C., three-star offensive lineman Eagan Boyer was able to make four unofficial trips to Penn State in addition to his official recruiting visit. PHOTO COURTESY EAGAN BOYER The real issue in December is all the legwork that coaches and recruiting personnel must put in prior to the early signing period. For two-plus weeks this past December, Penn State's coaches spent time in just about every corner of the country.