New Football Signing Period Will Benefit Miami Hurricanes Immediately

The above legislation is not final until the close of the Division I Board of Directors meeting April 26. It will be interesting to see where the NCAA will go from here and how the rules evolve.

The early signing period in basketball makes players honor their commitment as long as the coaches stay where they are. Signing day in football has become one of the biggest days on the sports calendar and involves its youngest athletes.

Players cannot make official visits until September 1 of their Senior Year. The majority of verbal commitments come from players who have not even stepped foot on the campus at their school of choice.

This is a good step. What the NCAA truly needs to do is to move the official campus visits up. Allow the players to visit during their junior year and either institute a National Signing Day in August ahead of the start of the high school football season or having a rolling signing period.

Basketball has one in November that has worked for many years. Big XII Commissioner Bob Bowlsby who is the chairman of the football oversight committee told CBS Sports.

"“Why don’t we have signing windows, or why don’t we have longer signing periods…For instance, you could have a signing period that starts the first of September and you issue a letter of intent for 14 days, and if the prospect signs it, their recruiting process is over. If they don’t sign it, you can’t re-issue a letter to that person. It’s sort of mutually binding — as a commitment is supposed to be.”"

Next: Mark Richt is Re-Establishing the State of Miami

We can only hope that this it the beginning of major changes to make the experience of being an athlete fairer and more equitable for student athletes.