Wednesday May 30, 2007

Early Signing Period and Playoff System

Spring Meetings
The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference schedule spring meetings in Amelia Island and Destin, FL respectively each year. These meetings are usually business meetings and most of the time they discuss some significant new ideas but few times do earth shattering changes come about.

This year might be different from other years. We may remember the 2007 ACC and SEC spring meetings as the most significant we have had in recent years. Both conferences have expanded since 1990 and those meetings helped to shape college athletics but this year the ramifications may reach further.

Two items have made their way to the forefront include an early signing period for football and a college football playoff system.

Early Signing Period
The ACC brought up the idea of an early signing period for football. Currently football has only one signing day and that occurs each year on the first Wednesday in February. Basketball, baseball, track and field, golf, etc. all have a fall signing period and a spring signing period. This allows coaches to concentrate on their seasons and it allows prospects that already know where they are going to sign with the school and get the headache out of the way.

I think an early signing period makes sense for football but not under the proposed plan the ACC has come up with. The conference has suggested a December date that would exist along side of the national junior college signing period. The JUCO players may sign then if they intend on enrolling in January following their graduation.

To me it makes more sense to have an August signing period in football. Clemson currently has nine football commitments and could have 14-15 by August. Florida State has 11, Georgia has 10 and Texas has 19. If these prospects know they want to sign with the schools where they have committed then they ought to be able to sign before their senior seasons.

What happens now is that schools continue to recruit these prospects despite their public commitment to a school. A December signing day means the hammering would continue throughout the fall and throughout their senior football season. If colleges could agree on a late August date then the player and their families could enjoy their senior season without getting hounded by college coaches. The pressure would be off of both sides. There would be no reason to call and pester the prospect if he is already signed to a school.

An early signing day would also allow college coaches to concentrate more on their seasons. I understand that they would have to intensify their junior recruiting because of the new date and they would still have to recruit players that have not made their minds up yet. The college coaches would still have to go through February with many kids but if you knew you were only taking two quarterbacks and signed two in August then you could drop the rest of the quarterbacks on your board. The reduced number of prospects would mean more time for other tasks.

A December date would not cut back on time with the exception of the month of January. Another advantage of an August date is the makeup time. If you find out you missed on your top targets in the August signing period then you would have until February to look for and continue to recruit other prospects at that position. If you waited until December then you only have a month to find others.

Playoffs
Florida president Bernie Machen brought up the idea of a national college football playoff at the SEC spring meetings this week. To my knowledge this is the first major college president to come out as a proponent of the playoff system.

Other presidents and chancellors have since made comments on the subject. That has lead to head coaches once again adding their two cents.

Speaking of cents, that is what will make the difference here. It makes sense but makes even more because it makes more dollars and cents.

Secondary education has become more about money in recent years and college presidents find themselves in the fundraising mode more often than ever before. Once the college presidents see how much more money a playoff system will generate then they will all fall in line.

Currently some presidents talk about how much they love the bowls because they see the money they currently make. But we all know that a college playoff system would generate more money. Would Budweiser want to spend money on the Motor City Bowl or a national playoff? Insight.com Bowl or College Football Final Four? The one with more viewers means the one with more advertisers. If you promised the presidents that they could double their money from the bowls if they converted to playoffs it would happen tomorrow. Now we just have to make it work.

Florida has won two basketball titles and one football title in the last 14 months and it is Florida’s president who is at the forefront. He saw the excitement generated by March Madness. He also saw the old bowl system. And despite the fact that Florida is a top 20 public institution its president wants a play off. Have you seen Florida’s budget? Have you seen their facilities? Sounds like a good business man to me.

A college football playoff is coming. They can’t hold it off forever because they are running out of ammunition. Furman and Wofford play I-AA playoffs each year and it doesn’t seem to devalue anyone ‘s degree. The attendance at bowl games have not gone up through the years and television ratings are not continuing to increase.

My guess is that we will start with the ‘Plus One” format which is essentially a four-team playoff. Remember the NCAA basketball tournament went from 16 teams to 32 teams to 48 teams to 64 teams to today’s number of 65. Four teams in football will eventually yield to eight and possibly 16 one day.

At least we are progressing towards two good changes in college football.

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