Blue White Illustrated

P enn State's annual Blue-White Game has always been a major recruiting event, but since James Franklin took charge of the program, it's become ar- guably the biggest of the year. Yes, in some ways, it's even bigger than the White Out game in the fall or the Lasch Bash barbecue in the summer. That's mainly due to sheer numbers. The sta4 hosted just shy of 200 prospects last year, a quarter of whom either signed this past winter or currently hold schol- arship o4ers from schools in the Power Five conferences. This year, the Nittany Lions are ex- pected to host another large contingent of prospects for their spring game. But there will be one major di4erence com- pared to previous years. Last April, the NCAA's Di- vision I Council moved up the start time for prospects to begin using the 3ve o5cial visits they're allotted. Players are no longer forced to wait until September of their senior year of high school to travel at the school's expense. In addition to the tra- ditional fall visit period, they have a three-month window in the spring of their junior year in which they are per- mitted to take o5cial visits. The period begins April 1 and ends on the 3nal Wednesday of June. This change in the calendar elicited mixed opinions from coaches across the country, and James Franklin was among those who saw both pros and cons. While he wasn't totally against the deci- sion, he made it clear that he had some concerns, mainly regarding the Blue- White Game. "Typically, when you do o5cial visits, you have o5cial visits and that's about it," Franklin said in February. "For the spring game, we usually average about 200 to 250 uno5cial visitors who need to have a good time. We [also] have the game to coach. You also have the issue with hotels [in State College]. "Let's be honest, the Blue-White Game will be a big o5cial visit weekend for us, [and] we still have to coach the game. We still have to entertain the guys who are going to come uno5cially to Penn State, underclassmen and others, and then you've got [what's probably your biggest] o5cial visit week- end of the year. It's going to be challenging." Franklin has surrounded himself with some of the best recruiters in the coun- try. They will 3gure out a way to make sure everyone leaves Happy Valley just that: happy. Sure, it may cause them a few headaches along the way, but they also know that this is a good thing for many of the players they're targeting. For the elite junior prospects who have held scholarship o4ers for at least a year, the opportunity to take o5cial visits in the spring should only help assure that they make the right decision. There will still be plenty of decommitments – that's an aspect of modern recruiting that is here to stay – but for the players who previously put in the time building relationships and taking uno5cial visits, these early o5cials should only put a bow on their recruitment, allowing them to enjoy their senior year with peace of mind. But while the new schedule should help top prospects, there are others who either bloom late or don't have the best of mentors to guide them. For those players, the decision to use their o5cial visits in the spring could come back to haunt them. At this stage in the cycle, there are hundreds of prospects who only hold o4ers from smaller schools in the Group of Five, the consortium of lower-pro3le leagues that features Con- ference USA and the American Athletic, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences. Just like Penn State, schools in those conferences are also planning to host dozens of prospects for o5cial visits in the coming weeks. It's inevitable that some of these players will end up receiv- ing opportunities from bigger programs as the early signing period approaches. And just as inevitably, some of those players will regret using their o5cial visits in the spring rather than waiting to see what materializes in the fall. As with the early signing period, it will take some time to work out the kinks in this latest change to the recruiting cal- endar. Some players will be negatively impacted this year and likely next, but with time, the change should prove to be a positive step in a recruiting process that's only speeding up. Nittany Lion fans should take some comfort in the knowledge that Franklin and his sta4 are forward thinkers when it comes to recruiting. But even Franklin would tell you that it's going to take some time for he and his sta4 to take ad- vantage of this rule change. That process will begin just a few days from now. ■ Official visits will make a busy weekend even busier For daily and breaking news updates on Penn State football recruiting, visit bwi.rivals.com. As with the early signing period, it will take some time to work out the kinks in this latest change to the recruiting calendar.

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