Early Signing Period?

early signing as in letting them sign a paper early or as in enrolling early?

Pros -

It takes the pressure of recruiting off of a kid that knows where he wants to go.
Helps kids that commit early focus on their football and basketball seasons.
Most importantly, it allows kids to focus on the classroom. There won't be the distraction of taking officials, meetings with coaches during classes, and phone calls at night.
Could lead to a few more kids being able to avoid JUCO or Hargrave.

It also allows coaches to get a commit and get a better understanding of who will and won't be in their class.
They won't have to continue leading kids on. Coaches wouldn't have to worry about covering their rear ends are if one of their committed kids de-commit leaving a void in the class.

Coaches could focus on who they really want, letting kids that likely wouldn't get a scholarship to look about instead of waiting for that one scholarship.

Cons -

many kids will commit and then want to bail if something changes but they would have signed the letter of intent.
What would be the punishment for a kid refusing to go to a school when they already signed a letter of intent?
Hold him out a year when other kids haven't committed yet?

P.S. - There was a huge article on this issue in ESPN mag (or SI) about two years ago. I'm sure it is archived on one of their websites.

Con: Kid signs L.O.I., and there is a coaching change.

quote:

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stewie

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Thanks! I'll go look for that article now.

Can't remember who wrote that article or the title, I just remember reading it while sitting on a stationary bike during rehab from a knee surgery.

It has a few comments from Kyle Wright. He talked about his recruitment and how he wished he could signed earlier because dealing with coaches continuing to call and visit when he had been committed to UM for months. It had a few other quotes from high school and college players about the pros and cons, etc.

Sorry I couldn't help more,

Check out collegefootballnews.com, I'm sure they have a bunch of stuff on the issue of early signing day.