Tommy Tuberville favors early signing day, predicts majority of prospects sign early
Considering he has long been a proponent of an early signing day period, it’s no surprise to see former Ole Miss and Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville happy to see the early signing day finally officially pass in college football.
A guest caller on the Tuesday edition of The Roundtable on WJOX 94.5, Tuberville claimed he had been working to get the early signing day period passed for about 10 years as a member of the coaches association. Now that the rule has been approved by the coaches, college administrators and the NCAA, it will officially go into effect for the first time during the current recruiting cycle.
The prospects in the 2018 recruiting cycle will have a 72-hour window to sign early this season, beginning Dec. 20 and running through Dec. 22. If they do not select to sign early, the traditional February signing day will still be available to all prospects to sign with their desired school.
During his radio interview, Tuberville suggested the move would be good for everyone involved in college football recruiting and will save money for the schools. The former SEC head coach also claimed prospects will benefit from the early signing day and predicted a large percentage will sign early, especially if they hold offers from elite programs. As for schools that may not be among the nation’s elite, Tuberville suggested they too would sign a large number of prospects early.
Here’s what Tuberville had to say when asked how many prospects would sign during the early signing day:
“We’ve done a lot of studies on this, the Top 10 teams in the country — and you can pretty much pick out the Top 10 programs across the country, they’re going to be consistently in the Top 10 — those schools are probably going to sign 75 percent, maybe a little bit more,” Tuberville said on the air. “They are going to get them committed and get them out of the way.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if a team like Alabama signs almost all theirs (during the early signing period). Most kids know where they want to go, they’ve already made their decision 6-7 months in advance. There might be one or two they have to fight over at the end of the day.”
Tuberville went on to predict the rest of major college football programs will likely sign about 50 percent of their class during the new signing day period, with the lower level schools signing about 25 percent of their classes early.