There’s a question that’s worth asking — will this be the last Early Signing Period ever?

It’s possible. With the Playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, it would make sense (I’ll have thoughts on that a bit later in this column).

For now, though, Wednesday’s start to the Early Signing Period went off as scheduled, and it was filled with plenty of noteworthy takeaways.

Here are my 5 SEC takeaways from Wednesday’s action:

1. Georgia will survive the Dylan Raiola drama

The Raiola drama happened well before Wednesday. The 5-star quarterback was actually Nebraska’s first official signee when those could become official at 7 a.m. ET. But the winding road of the former Ohio State/Georgia verbal pledge was anything but drama-free.

It didn’t matter that Raiola played his final year of high school ball in Georgia after flipping to the Dawgs in May. Whether it was a combination of NIL/family ties (Uncle Donovan Raiola is the Huskers’ offensive line coach)/playing time, Raiola’s mid-December visit to Nebraska was followed by a commitment 2 days before the Early Signing Period.

But something tells me that if anybody can handle the loss of a 5-star quarterback, it’s Georgia. In the past 6 years, Kirby Smart watched the likes of Jacob Eason, Justin Fields, JT Daniels and Brock Vandagriff transfer. Yet during that stretch, Georgia played in 3 College Football Playoff National Championships and won 2 while going 85-11 with nothing but top-7 finishes.

The Dawgs will be just fine without Raiola, especially with Carson Beck set to return in 2024. His late flip does bring into question what the quarterback picture will look like after Beck uses his final year of eligibility, but Smart can address that in the portal or with the 2 former blue-chip quarterbacks who’ll back up Beck in 2024.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Georgia still landed a flip from longtime 5-star safety FSU commit KJ Bolden — Raiola’s Buford (Ga.) teammate — and is set up to sign another No. 1 class.

2. Even without the Jeremiah Smith flip, Auburn’s receiver room got significantly better overnight

You have to hand it to Hugh Freeze. Even though there were many moments this season in which the Tigers made it painful to watch them attempt a forward pass, Freeze landed 2 5-star receivers in his first full cycle.

Yeah, it probably helped that Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson are Alabama natives. It also probably helped that Auburn’s path to playing for a true freshman receiver is about as favorable as it gets. Still, though. That’s a major win for a program that had huge holes in the passing game.

Would it have been nice for Auburn to pull off a flip of fellow 5-star wideout Jeremiah Smith after he’d been committed to Ohio State for over a year? Sure. But between Coleman, Thompson and Auburn’s inevitable portal splashes at receiver, we should see a much more prolific group of passing game weapons on The Plains in 2024.

3. Texas and Oklahoma are ready for the SEC

I mean, they’re a combined 21-2 in games not played against each other. They’re ready.

But as we know, the SEC is a talent-driven league. Joining the conference will magnify that for Texas and Oklahoma. Fortunately for them, they’re both set up to bring top-10 classes in for 2024. They have a combined 37 blue-chip recruits (4- or 5-star), according to the 247sports composite. Eight of the top 100 recruits signed with those 2 programs, who already had rosters that ranked in the top 10 in talent composite (Texas was No. 6, Oklahoma was 9).

Does that mean that they’re destined for short- and long-term success in the conference? Of course not. There are coordinator hires, quarterback battles, game management decisions and a million other things that’ll determine that.

But in terms of adding talent to provide the depth needed to compete in the SEC, the new kids on the block did just that with their 2024 classes.

4. Florida, Florida, Florida … yikes.

Since Monday, Florida watched:

  • 5-star CB Xavier Filsaime flip to Texas
  • 4-star LB Adarius Hayes, a Florida commit for the past 11 months, flip to Miami
  • 4-star DL Amaris Williams flip from Florida to Auburn
  • 4-star WR Izaiah Williams flip from Florida to Texas A&M

Plus, the day started with 5-star DL LJ McCray delaying his signing, but he later did sign with Florida.

Including Jamonta Waller (Auburn), Wardell Mack (Texas) and Nasir Johnson (Georgia), Florida lost 6 blue-chip recruits since Nov. 11. That’s not including losing arguably the team’s best offensive player (Trevor Etienne) and best defensive player (Princely Umanmielen) to the transfer portal.

On the bright side, at least the Gators kept 5-star quarterback DJ Lagway. Had he flipped on Wednesday, the sky would’ve been falling in ways that we haven’t seen yet in the Billy Napier era. That didn’t happen.

They also got a flip from 4-star tailback Jadan Baugh, who had been committed to Arkansas since May. That’ll help ease some of the pain of losing Etienne.

While I don’t think Florida’s work in the 2024 class is finished — with high school recruits and the portal — that’s still a problem. Napier preached patience. Now, the foundation of his program that was supposed to be in place heading into Year 3 is showing serious cracks. That’s what happens when you lose 5 in a row to miss out on bowl eligibility and you’re facing arguably the most daunting schedule in college football history in Year 3.

5. We have move Signing Day back to February

Next year, as my guy Peter Burns pointed out, the first game of the new 12-team College Football Playoff will be on Dec. 20. As in, the same date as the start of this year’s Early Signing Period. (Now, they’re different days of the week next year, Dec. 20, 2024 is a Friday and Signing Day always starts on a Wednesday, but as it stands, it’s still the same week.)

That doesn’t make sense anymore.

The college football calendar needs to be changed, again. Clearly. We’re at a place where teams in the Playoff that should be using their on-field success as an advantage will be at a supreme disadvantage if the Early Signing Period remains in December.

Combine that with the portal window being open and this is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. The entire intent of the Early Signing Period was so that long-time commitments wouldn’t be jeopardized in the 11th-hour, and recruits could instead get on campus to enroll early. We still have plenty of long-time commits that flip in the 11th hour with the Early Signing Period, so that problem hasn’t been solved. Plus, recruits were still enrolling early when they signed in February.

We also need to at least give some of these new coaches a chance. Having to salvage or re-recruit an entire class in 2 weeks doesn’t make any sense.

Moving Signing Day back to February would give recruits a clearer vision of what a team does in the transfer portal. It could help cut down on some of the 1-and-done transfers, too.

It made sense to have an Early Signing Period before the transfer portal restrictions were loosened and before the 12-team Playoff became a thing. But now, those 2 are dominating the sport.

It’s time to adapt. Or rather, revert to February Signing Day.