The first Wednesday in February, National Signing Day, is the most anticipated Wednesday of the entire year. On this day high school football recruits sign their Letter of Intent, which states what school they will be attending and fax it into their respected coach. With the growth of social media over the past decade this day has become more of a circus than anything. On this prestigious Wednesday, television channels such as ESPN flock to high schools all over the nation with wall to wall coverage to see highly recruited athletes make their decisions. The player could just sign the LOI and go on with their day, but most athletes like to take full advantage of time slot on ESPNU. So what do they do? From the limos to the first rate suits, to the bag with their top five schools hats in it the athletes spare no expense in letting the world know what school they will be attending in the fall.
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Some college coaches are tired of this circus and have come up with a simple plan. Eliminate National Signing Day. When a school makes an offer and a recruit accepts, he signs. At any time. End of story. End of drama. One of the supporters of ending national signing day, Rich Rodriguez head coach at the University of Arizona said they have made Signing Day an event when it should not be an event, but what if the first Wednesday in February passed without fanfare because coaches had been signing up players all along, and because some of the top prospects were still weighing their options?1 It just might make coaches think twice about throwing out 125 offers when they can sign only 25 players. It just might make players get more serious about choosing a school rather than a coach, no more circus atmosphere surrounding the most serious decision of these young men's lives.2
1Staples, A. (2015, February 11). As Rich Rodriguez knows, ending National Signing Day could be beneficial for all. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
2Scarbinsky, K. (2015, February 15). No more National Signing Day? Yes, please. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteAwesome read! I have to agree with the coaches on this one. It is kind of redundant for National Signing Day to be as big of a deal as they make it. We turn on the television to watch an athlete sign a piece of paper. It should be exactly how some put it, sign the deal and move on. What is your opinion?
The author is completely correct when he mentions that the National Signing Day has been made a circus with the coverage given to it by the social networking sites and the media. There is nothing big in a student signing the form for a particular college and the majority of the people are blowing it out of proportion. The students can simply sign the forms and go on with their routines, however, it has become nearly impossible to do that due to the wide coverage the National Signing Day receives. The coaches have been signing up players throughout their life and the fanfare around this National Signing Day must come to an end.
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