Football coaches have been clamoring for an earlier signing date and they got it. But much earlier than they may have thought and only for a select group of prospects:
The academic and membership affairs staff determined that a prospective student-athlete who intends to graduate from high school midyear and enroll at a member institution midyear during the same academic year (e.g., spring semester) may sign an institutional financial aid agreement on or after August 1 of his or her senior year, provided the institution issuing the financial aid agreement establishes, prior to issuing the agreement, that the prospective student-athlete is enrolled in all coursework necessary to graduate from high school at midyear.
This applies to all sports but will have the biggest impact on football with the largest number of early enrollees and recruiting of committed prospects. Note that midyear enrollees still cannot sign NLIs (except for junior college transfers). So the impact may be limited if coaches are unwilling to sign a prospect to a financial aid agreement that locks the university in to providing a scholarship but does nothing to commit the prospect to the university.
That said, with the rising number of early enrollees and the push for an earlier signing date, expect many coaches and prospects to take advantage of this opportunity to get at least some commitment down on paper as early as possible.
