List off the Pros of having an official signing day

[Johnson85]

I get your point that it has to start "somewhere" but here's my point. I think if you had rule where at any point after the 1st day of their senior year of HS a kid could officially sign it would ease the craziness. Only because I think a ton of kids wouldn't sign and schools wouldn't want to fill their class their early without watching senior tape and risk of injury. The December date eases some of the issues with the Feburary date but has caused some other issues.

I just think there is a better way for all involved than trying to pin down two dates and then anytime after the Feb date. Because yes, some kids wait but its very few

If you push back to the 1st day of their senior year, it would ease the craziness in some ways, but increase it in others. You'd have lots of schools wanting to push for a commitment earlier and making a bird in the hand type arguments. To the extent signing classes didn't largely fill up in September, you'd have recruits pressured every time they take a visit to sign on the dotted line. Game theory would all of the sudden be extremely important for those players who are borderline offers for the schools they want or who think they can play their way up the board their senior year. What about the senior who has a committable offer to Memphis, but is being kept warm by MSU. He now has to try to forecast Memphis's willingness to take another player at his position and that players willingness to commit, or else maybe he ends up at Memphis.

The two separate signing dates creates a cluster 17 as far as the coaching carousel goes, but I do think over time it will maximize the "match" between schools and players. Players will get an early, strong indication of whether they really have an offer from a school or are being kept warm. There's a few days for people to play musical chairs, and then they have a couple of months to work on contingency plans if things don't work out in the early signing period. Schools will also have an early indication of who is actually committed, and likewise will have a couple of months to work on contingency plans if they get surprised.

[Tbonewannabe]

If you push back to the 1st day of their senior year, it would ease the craziness in some ways, but increase it in others. You'd have lots of schools wanting to push for a commitment earlier and making a bird in the hand type arguments. To the extent signing classes didn't largely fill up in September, you'd have recruits pressured every time they take a visit to sign on the dotted line. Game theory would all of the sudden be extremely important for those players who are borderline offers for the schools they want or who think they can play their way up the board their senior year. What about the senior who has a committable offer to Memphis, but is being kept warm by MSU. He now has to try to forecast Memphis's willingness to take another player at his position and that players willingness to commit, or else maybe he ends up at Memphis.

The two separate signing dates creates a cluster 17 as far as the coaching carousel goes, but I do think over time it will maximize the "match" between schools and players. Players will get an early, strong indication of whether they really have an offer from a school or are being kept warm. There's a few days for people to play musical chairs, and then they have a couple of months to work on contingency plans if things don't work out in the early signing period. Schools will also have an early indication of who is actually committed, and likewise will have a couple of months to work on contingency plans if they get surprised.

This definitely lets them know if they are Bama plan C,D, or E.

[Lord McBuckethead]

This definitely lets them know if they are Bama plan C,D, or E.

Yep. In the long run it is going to help schools like us. We get to lock in guys we know for sure are M&W. We know the guys we have to keep working on moving after the early date. Also we get the advantage of Alabama not being able to string guys along until our class is pretty much full. It should keep from us having to drop low rated players for blue chips.

I for one wish our entire class would sign on the early day and start working on 2019 class while everyone else is working on closing out theirs. If we could get extra time with 2019 guys, it would make an impact.