NCAA Has Been Busy As It Eyeballs Three National Signing Days, New Rules Around Decorating Hotels For Recruits

Oh my goodness, the NCAA might actually be looking out for the betterment of college athletics after all. Could the organization that has been lambasted over the past few years be on the verge of making significant changes that could help the product? 

The NCAA has been in so many headlines over the last number of years that it would seem the organization was preparing for a fire sale. There have been sporadic periods of good news from the folks in Indianapolis, including the recent ruling on decorating hotel rooms for recruits, but we'll get to that in a bit. 

The most recent headlines center around high school recruiting and the transfer portal, which has become more of a problem for student-athletes than a solution. While there are certainly players that have benefited from entering their name into portal, the amount of schools looking for help has sent some athletes to the Division II or III level, but that's a story for another day. 

One of the more intriguing thoughts floated over the last year has centered around what to do with the two signing periods for high school athletes, shoe-horned into the middle of transfer portal madness. But it seems as though the NCAA has finally gotten the hint from coaches in college football that it's time for a change in the calendar. 

While the NFL combine is currently ongoing in Indianapolis, NCAA officials are also meeting in the city this week to discuss changes in the recruiting calendar, which has become the hot-button topic in college athletics, outside of NIL. 

Are We About To Get Three National Signing Day Periods From NCAA? 

After years of frustration from coaches across the sport, it looks as though the NCAA is ready to deliver some drastic changes to when players can sign a National Letter of Intent. 

Currently, signing day occurs during the middle of December, making life miserable for coaches preparing for championship games or the ones scouring the transfer portal. As I've mentioned before, the bright lights around the February signing period have dimmed, dramatically, becoming just another day on the calendar for a few leftover players who had yet to sign with a school. 

But all of this could change this week, with SEC officials already approving the measures. Pete Thamel first reported the potential calendar movement, and confirmed by OutKick. The NCAA is proposing a new signing period date that has the chance to change the entire process. There are three different periods that NCAA leaders are looking at adopting. 

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA  - SEPTEMBER 17: The exterior of the NCAA National Office on September 17, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images)

The first period, and most noteworthy, would start on the final Wednesday of June, lasting anywhere between three and seven days. The December signing period would now start on the Wednesday following College Football's regular season finale, which is a lot easier than putting it in the middle of the transfer portal period. 

And, the final signing period would still start on the first Wednesday of February, and extend until April 1st. All of this allows teams to handle their transfer portal options, while still putting enough attention on the high school signing period. 

Speaking last week in Charlotte, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey noted that the current system no longer works, especially with the upcoming twelve-team playoff. 

"Putting signing day in the middle of December with playoff games no longer works.  Move it to early December, the Wednesday before championship games," Sankey noted to Yahoo Sports. "That is the concept. It’s, in part, out of respect to high school football. You’ve heard some want the signing day in June. No one has done any work on what that means for high school football. We have a responsibility to listen to the high school coaches. What we’ve heard out of the Texas group is that they do not at all support that. Everybody has to be attentive to that."

We still need to figure out how a signing period in June will affect high school players. In the past, coaches and recruits have wobbled on their commitments, so locking a player into an NLI before their senior season begins could be a recipe for trouble. There are injuries, poor performance and different directions that coaches, and players, could end up dealing with, which means the NCAA would have to come up with a way to let players out of their signed letters of intent. 

But all of this is being discussed, with conference officials lending their input to the NCAA regarding these changes. 

No More Decorating Hotel Rooms For Recruiting Trips. Staffers Rejoice!

Congratulations to all the recruiting staffers across college athletics, the NCAA says you no longer have to spend hours decorating a hotel room for a prospect. If you heard a loud roar recently around college campuses, it most likely came from recruiting offices around the country. 

In the past, staffers would have to spend the night before a recruit gets into town decorating a hotel run to make it look like a confetti gun had been shot-off before they arrived. Cookie cakes, loads of candy, pictures and notes from coaches laid perfectly across the bed, this was all about presentation. These recruiting staff members would spend a few hours on the phone with recruits, asking them what their favorite candy and chip flavor was, which was a massive waste of time. 

Sure, recruits would get on Instagram and show-off their assortment of snacks, along with decorations, just to throw it all off the bed once it was time for some sleep. The NCAA made it clear that all "cookie cakes and snacks must be handed to recruits in the lobby."

But if you're a recruit and reading this, don't worry, you can still pose in front of the coolest sports car the school can find. You'll just have to grab the snacks in the lobby area, like an offensive lineman at a free buffet. 

A busy month for the NCAA continues.