Fitz, Cats support new recruiting rules

CHICAGO-We hoped you liked National Signing Day this February. Chances are that it will be the last of its kind.

Next year, there will likely be far, far fewer prospects signing their national letters of intent on the first Wednesday of February, as has been the custom for decades. The NCAA is considering recruiting rules changes in April that would create an early three-day signing period next December, as well as allow early official visits during April to June of a prospect’s junior year.

The cumulative effect would likely wipe out all of the hat dances and signing ceremonies in February. Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald believes that national signing day – or days – would move up a couple months next year, if the NCAA approves the proposals.

“I think 18 of our 19 guys (in the Class of 2017) would sign the third week of December,” said Fitzgerald. “That will become the signing day.”

He’s probably right. Eighteen of the new Wildcats were committed by the end of last July, so the one that Fitzgerald is omitting is Chee Anyanwu, who was offered just a few weeks ago and committed during an official visit on Jan. 21.

WildcatReport asked seven members of the class if they would have signed early if given the opportunity. All seven responded yes. They were so confident in their decision to commit to Northwestern that they would’ve jumped at the chance to sign early.

Take Linebacker Blake Gallagher, who was the first commitment of the class, pledging to Fitzgerald in December of 2015. He had to wait 14 months to sign his LOI.

“I was confident it was everything I was looking for. I knew 100 percent that's where I wanted to spend the next four, five years, and that's where I wanted to play college football,” said the three-star prospect from Needham (Mass.) St. Sebastian’s Country Day. “There wasn't another school that could've changed my mind...I would’ve signed when I committed, to be honest.”

Offensive lineman Sam Gerak had the same confidence in his pick and added a practical reason.

“I wasn't changing my mind,” said the three-star prospect from Avon (Ohio). “I would have liked to have made it official so I could start communicating with the strength coaches earlier (and) easier too.”

Fitzgerald has for years been an outspoken critic of the current recruiting system he calls “antiquated.” He welcomes the early signing period but sees it only as a steppingstone on the path to a completely redesigned recruiting process.

“I think they’re two positive first steps, I think they’re two necessary first steps, the change in the recruiting rules,” he said. “I believe this model is broke.”

Fitzgerald advocates using a technology-based system to eliminate all the secrecy around recruiting and open it up for all to see. Currently, coaches can’t talk about recruits until their signed and news about scholarship offers are usually broken by recruiting sites such as Rivals.com, or by the prospects themselves. That can lead to a lot of misinformation.

Fitzgerald envisions a national recruiting database where schools could go in and log their offers to prospects. Then, after a mandatory 72-hour cooling off period – “we can’t pressure them, we can’t sign them,” he said – the NCAA would send that prospect an LOI he would be free to sign at any point afterward.

He knows that a radical overhaul like that will take a while for the NCAA to enact. “Any extreme change would get stopped by the conferences,” he said. So he sees the early signing period as only a temporary advancement.

“We’ve got to improve transparency in the process,” he said. “We’ve got to do what’s right for the student athletes coming out of high school, their coaches, their families… It would take a whole lot of pressure off.”

Fitzgerald, however, is solidly behind the early official visits. Currently, a prospect can’t take an official visit until Sept. 1 of his senior year. That doesn’t jive with the current recruiting landscape that has players committing earlier and earlier during their junior years. (Northwestern, as a matter of fact, currently has offers out to at least five Class of 2019 prospects who are just sophomores in high school.)

If those underclassmen want to visit Northwestern, they must do so on an unofficial visit and pay for it themselves. Schools are only allowed to pay for official visits, when they are allowed to provide airfare, hotel accommodations, meals, etc., for the prospects and their families.

That puts lower income prospects that may not be able to afford unofficial visits at a great disadvantage.

“If you’re a family of means financially, you can get around and do unofficial visits to different schools outside of (driving distance),” said Fitzgerald. “For young men from families that don’t have the means, they might not get a chance to go see a Northwestern if they’re in Texas or Georgia or Florida, or outside of the Midwest footprint.”

Northwestern defensive end signee Trevor Kent sees things the same way.

“I was done with my recruitment in my junior year. And I did get to visit quite a few schools my junior year, but all on unofficial (visits), and it would have been very helpful if the schools could have paid for it,” said the three-star prospect from Pittsburg (Kan.). “My only official was to Northwestern because I'd already been committed for so long. I think a lot of kids are in the same boat with their recruiting taking off very early, and you just aren't able to travel and see all the schools who are recruiting you due to cost. Early officials would be a huge get.”

Fitzgerald thinks that the earlier officials will ultimately benefit Northwestern recruiting.

“I think that’s going to give a whole other group of young men an opportunity to get around our players, which is going to be a huge, huge opportunity for us to sign even more young people,” he said.

Fitzgerald expects a spike in the number of official visits. The Wildcats had “23, 24 official visitors” this year, but he thinks Northwestern could use the maximum 56 if the measures are approved.

“I’m excited about the opportunities to bring young people to our campus (with the earlier official visits),” he said.