Nebraska coach Bo Pelini wants to eliminate national signing day
Talk of an early signing period being implemented for college football has ramped up in 2014. Many coaches have come out in support of the idea, while others are against it.
Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini has a different idea: get rid of signing day altogether.
Pelini spoke to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com on Wednesday and said that a prospect should be able to sign with a school as soon as they receive a scholarship offer, no matter how early a scholarship offer goes out.
“If somebody has offered a kid, let him sign, it’s over,” Pelini said. “That will stop some of the things that are happening – people just throwing out offers, some of them with really no intention of taking a kid.”
Pelini wants a scholarship offer to really hold some weight to avoid situations where a school may dish out a verbal offer to a kid who they do not anticipate accepting a commitment from.
"Make (the offer) mean something," Pelini said. "People will be like, 'Whoa, I've got to take this kid now.' It will slow things down for the kids, for the institutions. There will be less mistakes."
Pelini would like to see the recruiting process slowed down in general, and he thinks eliminating signing day would get rid of some of the extraneous stuff that comes with recruiting these days.
“Why does there have to be one specific day? And it will get rid of some of the stuff that goes on, kids pulling the hats and so forth,” Pelini said.
Pelini said he has not formally proposed the idea, but he “has discussed it with other coaches.” He also said that prospects would be able to be released from their letters of intent should a coaching change happen.
As we’ve seen in recent months, many different coaches have many different ideas in terms of changing the recruiting process. Even if it is an intriguing idea, with so many coaches having so many different opinions, it’s hard to see a change like this happening.
For more Nebraska news, visit HuskerOnline.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
