This is an opinion column.
The first Wednesday of February used to be special.
Tucked between the end of the college football season and the Super Bowl, this little oasis of hope became something of a holiday.
It was the National Signing Day and kids today wouldn’t even know about it.
They don’t know the suspense of watching a live webcam trained on a fax machine.
Or what a fax machine is.
Sad.
The lost generation was born in 2017 when the ugly NSD step-cousin joined the family. They call it early signing day but it killed our little February celebration, sucking all the oxygen from the traditional date.
That’s just one of the reasons this needs to change, they should get off our lawn and bring back the old way of doing things.
There are several practical arguments to the abolition of the ENSD, but another that’s makes business sense. Because who are we fooling, right?
Last week’s unveiling of the 2024 SEC football schedules should be a hint. You got two full hours of SEC Network programing out of 16 lists being read — a healthy chunk of which were already known because of another hour-long SEC Network special on June 14 revealed each school’s league opponents.
Before ENSD, the ESPN programming was impressive for the February NSD. Now, it’s lost in the pre-Christmas shuffle with little to no live programming set for Wednesday when a sizable chunk of the high-end talent will make it official.
Just look at last year. Only two or three of the top 100 high school recruits remained unsigned before February. There wasn’t much drama. Droopy balloons and stale cake for everyone.
ESPN’s coverage Wednesday on the main networks is limited to a two-hour singing day special on ESPN2 from 2-4 p.m. CT. The SEC Network will have a special from 11 a.m. through 2 p.m. CT with five-minute updates at the top of the hour from 8-10 a.m. CT.
There are just so many other things on the plate right now. Coaches are juggling the effective end of this recruiting cycle with bowl and/or playoff preparations.
There’s also the transfer portal.
This is the first season of the amended windows, placing more importance in the 30-day span after the conference championships.
Just a lot of traffic within the college football world before the battles of 6-6 teams resume Thursday in the majesty of bowl season. That’s not a complaint given Monday’s the magical comeback in Monday’s Famous Toastery Bowl saw Western Kentucky, Alabama’s 2024 season opening opponent come back from down 28-0 to win in overtime, 38-35.
That’s the kind of fun we should be having during the final few shopping days before Christmas.
The battles over 4- and 5-stars are supposed to be a pre-Valentines battle for loyalty.
And just wait for next year. The inaugural season of the 12-team College Football Playoff has first round games set for Friday, Dec. 20 and Saturday, Dec. 21. That’s just days after what would presumably be the 2024 ENSD.
That means eight playoff teams would be finalizing the most important game plan of the season and four traveling to game sites while trying to finalize the future of their programs.
Adding this early signing period had good intentions but had critics from the beginning. Nick Saban, for one, was no fan of the change that made it harder for him to pick off stars committed elsewhere in January to finalize the February haul.
“I don’t think it’s in the players’ best interest,” Saban said just before the first ENSD in 2017. “I don’t see where it benefits anybody. It’s really stressful for everyone when we’re all trying to get ready for bowl games and playoff games and we have a signing date right in the middle when we’re going to be practicing for a playoff game.”
Of course that’s all the more reason for others to love the system. Alabama, for the record, had one of its lowest-rated classes in that recruiting cycle but did win that national title while juggling the present and future.
There are other logistical issues this system creates. The need to have coaches in place to complete a December signing class moved up the calendar for firings so buy-out season shifted from December to November and even October.
The dominos of good intentions continue to fall from this relative-relic of a pre-NIL, pre-portal, pre-expanded playoff era.
So here’s to the movement to dump the early signing day.
We can leave the fax machines with in the great Radio Shack in the sky but maybe bring some of the fun back to that first Wednesday in February when the spotlight isn’t divided five ways?
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
