There was a time when high school players did not become rock stars before they ever set foot on a college football field.
There was a time when there were no recruiting services, no one to tell fans who was supposed to be good, who was supposed to be great and who might not measure up.
There was a time when summer camps were for fun, when there were no combines, when fans had to take a high school coach’s word on how fast a player could run.
There was a time. But that time is long gone.
Already, Auburn has 19 or 20 commitments, depending on whether you count wavering running back Rodney Scott. Mississippi State has 19. And nobody raises an eyebrow.
Players and their families climb into cars and spend much of the summer visiting various campuses, where they are given VIP treatment. Even the time-honored tradition of official visits is taking a beating.
Against this backdrop, most SEC coaches are in favor of an early signing period, perhaps in early December, that would allow players who have not taken official visits to put the recruiting process to rest. Currently, players can’t sign until the first Wednesday in February.
The coaches tried to convince presidents and athletic directors at the SEC meetings in Destin last May to support NCAA legislation to give football the same kind of early signing window that basketball has in November. It went nowhere.
"I wouldn't say we were in disfavor of it as much as we just had too many questions about it," said David Williams, Vanderbilt's vice chancellor for university affairs and athletics.
Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton had perhaps the strangest concern, maybe the concern of one hasn’t paid enough attention. He didn’t like the idea of an athlete signing without an official visit.
"I think that's part of the experience, going out and visiting with professors, seeing the campus and meeting with everybody," Hamilton said. That’s what literally hundreds of football prospects now do every summer.
At SEC Media Days in Hoover, most SEC coaches continued days to endorse the concept. But there was little optimism that it was going anywhere.
Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer once agreed with his athletic director. But no more.
"I have not been for it, up until the last year or so," Fulmer said. "Recruiting is going so much faster now. There's so many more services, so much more information available. The kids, players and parents are so much more in tune prior to their senior year than they used to be that they're forcing the issue by visiting campuses and those kind of things. So I think there's some merit to an early signing date."
Fulmer said he believes it will eventually happen.
"I saw a poll from the AFCA that said 77% of the coaches out there were for it," Fulmer said. "So I think they'll find some kind of early signing period that works for everybody."
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville is a long-time proponent of an early signing period, but he says the idea doesn’t have as much support in conferences where recruiting comes harder.
“I think it would be great for college football and the coaches and budgets, everybody involved, if we did it somewhere around the first of December,” Tuberville said. “It's not gonna happen. There's too many people against it. I've talked to too many of my buddies across the country in other conferences that just don't think that it would right for their school or their league.
“You know, that's the reason it's hard to get anything changed, right or wrong, in college football.”
Kentucky coach Rich Brooks would like an explanation. He would like to know why it’s OK for basketball, even baseball, and it’s not OK for football.
“I have a hard time understanding why other sports can have early signing, and it's not a major problem,” Brooks said. “I think it's a cost-saving measure. It's a clearing-up matter, if you will. If somebody commits to you, sometimes those commitments are solid. Sometimes they're of convenience.
“If there's an early signing period, you declare whether it's convenience or whether you’re committed. You don't have to spend as much money monitoring the recruiting process.”
Even in the SEC, it isn’t unanimous. Urban Meyer is in charge of a recruiting juggernaut at Florida. He says he doesn’t believe an early signing period would be as positive as others think it would.
“I'm not in favor of it, but also it's not my rule,” Meyer said. “An early signing period will be not a good idea as far as getting to know players.”
And so the beat goes on. Players are offered earlier, visit earlier and commit earlier. But there’s no sign they will, any time soon, be able to sign earlier.
