Bo Pelini wants to get rid of National Signing Day
By Jack Maloney
National Signing Day has turned into quite the spectacle in recent years–especially for college football. It’s broadcast on TV and kids have press conferences to announce where they will be taking their talents. Some have expressed concern that it’s all gone too far.
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Well Nebraska Cornhusker’s coach Bo Pelini agrees with that sentiment, and he’s fed up with the current system. In fact, said that he wants to get rid of National Signing Day all together.
"Nebraska coach Bo Pelini has a solution to slow down the recruiting process: Eliminate national signing day altogether and put greater accountability behind scholarship offers.Pelini thinks high school players should be able to sign with teams as soon as they receive scholarship offers. If coaches choose to offer scholarships to freshmen and sophomores — an increasingly common tactic — they have to be prepared for those players to sign on for the distant future.“If somebody has offered a kid, let him sign, it’s over,” Pelini told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “That will stop some of the things that are happening — people just throwing out offers, some of them with really no intention of taking a kid.”Pelini’s idea attaches more to the offer, whenever it comes.“Make [the offer] mean something,” Pelini said. “People will be like, ‘Whoa, I’ve got to take this kid now.’ It will slow things down for the kids, for the institutions. There will be less mistakes.“Why does there have to be one specific day? And it will get rid of some of the stuff that goes on, kids pulling the hats and so forth.”"
I can definitely understand where Pelini is coming from, as its a bit ridiculous how much coverage is given to 18 year-old kids. But on the other hand, I have a hard time trusting Pelini is doing this all for the kids’ sakes, because when it comes to big time college coaches, they’re usually looking out for themselves first and foremost.