There are 365 days in a given year, and the fax machine is a relevant factor in regular life for one of them: National Signing Day. Despite the fact that email rendered the fax machine useless sometime around 1998 and college football programs long ago outfitted themselves with technological equipment that would have left the Star Trek crew green with envy, the fax machine clung to life for that one glorious day a year.
Not anymore.
For tomorrow's festivities, UCLA is moving its entire Signing Day process, like the rest of American life, online.
The Bruins will email the NLI and scholarship contracts to its recruits, where the player and his parent/guardian can sign on their computer, tablet or phone, and then return to the school, the school announced Tuesday. A copy will then be emailed to both UCLA and the freshly-signed Bruin.
"UCLA Football is all about forward thinking and using new technologies to improve efficiency and effectiveness," said UCLA football director of player of personnel Pat Girardi. "Signing a National Letter of Intent electronically will be cutting-edge, and we want this year’s recruits to be able to say they are the first to ever do such a thing. Our goal is to be on the forefront of exciting technology coming down the pipeline. This is just another advancement in the Bruin Revolution."