When all the craziness of last week’s national signing day had ended, coaches could finally catch their breath for a moment. And perhaps reflect on the fact that things will never be the same going forward.
The hype and run-up to the first Wednesday in February will be altered forever if a mid-December early signing period is approved by conference commissioners in June, as expected. But it’s the other piece of new recruiting legislation that should have the biggest impact in the Big Ten: earlier official visits.
The NCAA Division I Council likely will make that a reality this spring. If so, prospects could take paid official visits to schools beginning in April of their junior year of high school and lasting into late June. Right now, recruits can only take official visits beginning in September of their senior year.
“I think it changes everything,” Penn State head coach James Franklin told ESPN.com last week. “It changes your camp model, your recruiting model and your spring practice model. You have to factor all those things in.”
Earlier official visits have long been viewed as a change that would benefit the Big Ten, perhaps more than any other league. To understand why, one only has to consider geography and timing.
Several Big Ten programs, especially West Division schools Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota, are located far away from the top recruiting hotbeds. Getting a kid on campus obviously is crucial to eventually signing him, but it’s not easy for a prospect from, say, Florida or Texas to get to the upper Midwest for an unofficial visit in the spring or summer, considering he and his family would have to foot the cost.
Plus, more and more recruits are committing early, before the current official visit schedule even begins. That puts many Big Ten schools behind the curve and gives even more of an advantage to programs whose campuses are closer to where recruits live.
Then, of course, there’s the weather. A recruit visiting a northern Big Ten school in the fall could well encounter the snow, cold and wind that make late-season conference games a challenge for all involved. Earlier official visits allow teams to show off their surroundings in a potentially better light.
“I think that’s critical,” first-year Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said. “There are not many better places in the spring and summer than the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota. It’s some of the most beautiful weather you’ll find in the entire country. That’s what we look forward to showing off.”
As the westernmost Big Ten school, Nebraska could reap major rewards from the earlier visit model.
The Cornhuskers are second to none in terms of facilities and fan support, and often can seal the deal when players and their families see the campus in person. But with a far-flung recruiting base that this year included players from California, Florida, Texas and Louisiana, it’s not always easy to get those prospects to Lincoln on their own dime.
“It’d be great to be able to pay for that visit,” Nebraska coach Mike Riley said. “I think that’s right for these families. I think that’s good.”
Riley was in favor of another early signing period in the summer, a proposal that was tossed around last year but ultimately rejected. While he likes the idea of earlier visits, he still has some questions. Is it ideal to bring in a player in April or May when he can’t actually sign until December? And is it better to have recruits come to the spring game or an actual home game in the fall?
“Do we shoot the bullet in June, and then we don’t get to bring him from Texas to one of our games?” Riley asked. “What we have found is that the game is a great experience for these guys. Half of our early [2017] commitments had been to the spring game, and then about half of our signees, I believe, had been on our campus before July 1.”
“Did we hit the exact right mark [on the signing date]? I think we kind of chickened out at the end. Now we’ve got some decisions to make on how to use the visits.”
Coaches will have some time to figure this out. Though the December signing date would go into effect this year once approved, the earlier official visits wouldn’t be enacted until 2018, for the class of 2019.
Franklin said his staff already has plans in place on how to best use the potential new calendar, though the Nittany Lions won’t finalize anything until the measures are officially approved. Penn State sits closer to the players it recruits than other Big Ten schools, but State College lacks a readily accessible airport.
“You can make an argument that being able to visit with kids when the weather’s really nice and the campus is going to show best and those types of things, it really helps,” Franklin said. “I also think that when you do something new, there’s always a concern about unforeseen consequences, and there are going to be some to those.”
As always, new rules bring new complications. But the earlier official visits figure to eventually be a good thing for the Big Ten.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
