LOS ANGELES — Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey has seen enough. At least when it comes to the December early signing period, which now has six seasons of data behind it, including one season with the December-January transfer portal window.
“We’re crushing coaches in December,” he said Saturday in a wide-ranging conversation with The Athletic two days before the national championship game. “We’re going to add Playoff games (in December). We have to change early signing.”
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That’s because the early signing period, which took effect in December 2017, is far from the only major event in the month. There’s the coaching carousel. There’s bowl game prep. And, for the first time in 2022, there was also the transfer portal window, which opened on Dec. 5, the day after championship selections were made, and runs through Jan. 18. Most FBS athletic directors made head coaching changes in advance of the window opening in order to have a new coach in place to add transfers. But the firing and hiring cycle had already shifted in recent years to account for the early signing period. The windows simply moved it up another week or two, which then led to coordinator and staffing changes below the head coach level starting earlier, too.
The presence of transfer windows made a huge difference — but not in the way it was intended. The hope was that a designated time period to enter the portal would alleviate stress for players. In theory, by not being able to enter the portal until the end of the regular season, they would be able to make a more informed, less emotional decision.
“We’ve created more pressure for young people,” said Sankey, a co-chair of the Division I Transformation Committee that approved the transfer windows. “There was a notion that we needed these long windows to alleviate pressure. I think we created pressure for young people. …
“We have to change December and college football to support the health of our participants and our leaders — and conduct the games.”
It is possible that the transfer windows will be reevaluated, adjusted or even abandoned in the future. But the more obvious and perhaps quicker fix is the one regarding high school prospects, who now feel immense pressure to sign with schools in mid-December. Even as they wrap up high school championship seasons, their recruiters prepare for bowl games — some of which are played on signing day — and coaches selling them on schools mull job changes themselves.
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One solution?
“I would suggest we have to pivot back,” Sankey said. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be the first Wednesday in February like it is, but we have to get through the postseason. We have to get through coaching transitions. It ought to be done in the appropriate timeframe. It should not be disrupting seasons.”
Sankey underscored that the SEC did not drive the decision to implement an early signing period. Others pushed it.
“Our conference responded to say, ‘You’re going to accelerate coaching transition,’” Sankey said. “And what have we done? We accelerated coaching transition. And you look at the creation of the early signing period, it’s very clear that’s changed things, and I’ve talked with ADs who say they have to have coaches hired by late November, early December.”
With hiring decisions happening that quickly, it was only natural that rumors dogged coaches who were obvious targets for certain positions.
“Hugh (Freeze) dealt with it with his team while he was still playing regular-season games,” Sankey said. “We should expect better of ourselves, and that may mean some of this has to move later in the process.”
There’s enough to keep coaches busy in December, from managing transfers to bowl prep to, starting in 2024, another two rounds of College Football Playoff games. Sankey wants to take what he views as an unnecessary burden off coaches’ shoulders when it comes to recruiting, allowing them more time to actually coach their teams and prepare for games. Burning them out is not the answer, and neither is forcing high school athletes to make life-changing decisions in a time crunch.
And it’s not out of the question, Sankey believes, for the issue to be fixed during the coming offseason.
“My fear is that we frustrate people to the level that they just leave the leadership roles that are really important in college football,” Sankey said. “So, change is needed. And we have to be direct in our comments.
“People have to acknowledge the reality, and we need to not be trying to protect some notion that existed five or 10 years ago. We have to acknowledge reality, and we have to pivot.”
(Photo: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
