The ACC is reportedly proposing some changes to the recruiting process that would aim to add dead periods to the recruiting calendar and set a restriction on how soon a school can offer a verbal offer to a prospective student-athlete.
According to a report from The Charlotte Observer, the ACC is proposing adding a dead period for recruiting in February and in July. In addition, the ACC proposes reducing the spring recruiting period from six to four weeks over a six-week stretch. These proposals would help ease the amount of work a coaching staff would have to do during the spring when the focus can be centered more on spring football and running the program without having to go on the road making sales pitches to high school students and their families a couple of extra weeks in the offseason. The emphasis would also, in theory, take some of the pressure off prospective recruits.
If the ACC has its way, a proposal could also leads to no longer seeing schools offer scholarships to players before September 1 of the student’s junior year of high school. In other words, the stories of 12 and 13-year olds receiving scholarships from USC, LSU, Texas and so on would no longer be possible. That’s probably a good proposal that should gain some momentum just for the sake of sanity in the recruiting game.
These proposals were designed with the new early signing period adopted last year. After witnessing how the early signing period was executed across the nation, the proposals from the ACC are aiming to address some of the concerns that have become more visible with an early signing period.
It remains to be seen how much support these proposals will receive from other conferences at this time. The proposal to reduce the recruiting opportunities in the spring may be supported by other conferences and programs in the south like in the SEC, but that is a change that would likely impact the recruiting abilities more of programs in the north like the Big Ten. Expect some possible debates about that particular proposal as the ACC looks to cut down on recruiting opportunities for Big Ten coaches.
