In 33 days, the majority of Power 5 programs -- indeed, many Football Bowls Subdivision programs in general -- will open early signing period Dec. 20 by inking the nucleus of their classes.
Multiple sitting P-5 player personnel directors have told FootballScoop in recent weeks that, if all goes well, their programs will essentially be done with their 2024 recruiting classes -- well before the calendar actually flips into the new year.
This element, along with the NCAA Transfer Portal and the ongoing, ever-expanding, still-nebulous Name, Image and Likeness marketplace, creates greater urgency and less time for any margin of error.
Programs and institutions definitively already in the market -- through need or want -- such as Texas A&M, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Boise State among others stand positioned to find their next head coach first and therefore have the potential to either keep together and quickly reassemble a signing class, protect the current roster against unwanted Portal departures and, potentially, help energize a school's NIL coffers.
Jimbo Fisher may not remotely have supplied enough wins atop Texas A&M, but Fisher & Co. recruited among the nation's best in recent years. Holding that roster largely intact plus keeping together a '24 recruiting class that -- nearly a week after Fisher's firing -- still sits No. 10 nationally in the 247Sports team rankings are crucial flashpoints in how quickly the Aggies fall further behind or begin to climb forward.
Too, this year marks the first significant change to the duration of the upcoming NCAA Transfer Portal window. Now set to open Monday, Dec. 4, this Portal timeframe is 30 days -- down from the 45 it previously had been under its initial deployment.
The Portal opens in December a day after the College Football Playoff field is set and all postseason bowl bids are formally extended.
FootballScoop's Doug Samuels, Scott Roussel and John Brice explore all these elements in greater depth, share direct anecdotal evidence of this new world and provide insight into the coaching carousel's ingoing impact on recruiting in this latest FootballScoop Podcast.
Additionally, there's discussion on the cascading effect sure to be unfolding in the coming weeks -- and just how much pressure that points on schools likely to lose sitting head coaches to act in an urgent manner.
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