Killer Calendar Not Kind To Coaches

COMMENTARY – There are not enough days in the year.

Yes, college football fans would like to see the sport encompass the entirety of the 365-day year, but at what cost?

This past season we saw teams play up to 16 games, encompassing 142 days from August 31^st to January 20^th, the run of both Ohio State and Notre Dame’s seasons.

There are so many more days that go into that with winter conditioning, spring practice and fall practice, nobody believing for a second that football takes up half a calendar year.

But for whatever reason, the NCAA in its ultimate wisdom, or lack thereof, wants to pack as much business as possible in the span of just 52 days (63 to go from the early NSD to the late NSD, but is that even a factor for most programs?)

Now, it may not be 52 days each season, it could be 55, or even maybe 50.

What takes place over the course of those 50-some-odd days?

Well, two signing periods, a portal period and the entirety of the College Football Playoffs along with the remainder of the bowl season.

Throw in the NFL underclassman declaration deadline for good measure.

The ‘late’ signing period was yesterday and nobody talked about it, unless their program was landing one of the few available players.

Coaching always has been about juggling the fate of ‘this season’ along with building towards ‘next season’ but what we have now was never the intention.

Unless the NCAA was led by Torquemada in its early days.

Fortunately, the early signing period (early is a relative term) see the vast majority of business for football signings, relegating the February period null for many programs. But there is no rest for the wicked, fighting tampering is a 365-day-a-year jobs long with going through the January visit period on the next class.

I am not here to offer solutions, if I had them, I would offer them. People far smarter than me have complained about the calendar as well, and I haven’t seen any sort of solution gain any traction.

We get to talk to coaches during the season and they all deliver the same coach speak about how it is a problem but that they are focused on the season at hand. And they are, but you can see a look of exasperation or exhaustion, knowing that is ahead in the mad rush to get from December to February.

There are more than 100 programs where things are not as critical, they won’t compete for a College Football Playoff berth or title. Sure, everyone starts the season at 0-0 and everyone has the same goals.

After the politeness and cordiality all fades, there are fewer than 25 teams that really have a shot at playing in the CFP, and we all know that, even if it is uncouth to say so.

The remaining 100-plus will finish their seasons at the end of November (generally) many will take part in a bowl game, with opt-outs, transfers and the like, and while winning the Winnebago What’s-It Bowl would be nice, it is not going to change the trajectory of the team, so more eyes can be on the portal, more eyes can be focused on other ‘not on the field’ topics.

If this is an attempt at creating parity, by handicapping your top teams with all these extra distractions while your middle and bottom teams don’t have to, you aren’t doing a good job of it.

The 12-team field released in December of 2025 won’t be a carbon copy of the one in 2024, but a lot of the same names will still be there. You can move around your champions, but the at-large field from the power conferences will see a lot of the same participants.

No, what is happening is a case of creating impossible workloads for staffs, and while we saw Ohio State navigate it to win a national title, sign a top five class and come out of the portal relatively unscathed (coupling in some big portal signings). Notre Dame appears to be in good shape as well, despite coming up short of college football’s top prize.

What are the long-term effects of these things?

The NFL deadline really can’t move, and the NFL has shown that it isn’t in the business of really giving an inch to is collegiate brother in arms.

The College Football Playoffs has to take place at the end of the season, so there isn’t much wiggle room there. Sure, you could move the season up a week, maybe do away with conference championship games or start the playoffs a week earlier.

There are some who think that the CFP should have its national championship game on New Year’s Day. I ask them to show their work on how they can compact this calendar even more.

Instead of celebrating college football, you are minimizing it. Trying to hit a date on the calendar to ‘just get things over with’ rather than letting the playoff take the time that it needs.

No, we must look at the two sacred cows (calves, it is not as if either have long histories) on the calendar, Signing Day and the Transfer Portal.

How is December really an early signing day again? Do these 63 days really change anything? Are players being allowed to focus more on their senior season? Are players being able to stop the phone from ringing? Is this allowing coaches to get kids signed so they can stop recruiting them every day to keep outside forces from coming in and flipping players away?

All those reasons were part of the argument for the addition of a second signing period. But getting 130-some-odd programs all on the same page for any legislation is like herding cats, and when you have obvious classes of programs in terms of success, direction, and just hanging around, you will never have a consensus.

And what about the portal?

Obviously, this player empowerment movement is a real thing and there is something to be said for transferring before the start of the academic term and going through spring football with your new team. Having a chance to learn a new system and not fall further behind in a quest to see (more) playing time and a bigger role.

But we saw players transfer out of programs in the College Football Playoff. Sure, some stayed, but there were more than a few who didn’t.

The CFP championship game takes place well after the term starts at most schools, so even players who stayed with their team to the end were not exactly incentivized to do so. Devin Brown stayed with the Buckeyes but saw Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele transfer from Oregon to Berkeley (Calif.) ahead of him.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to get rid of the December portal window and create an agreement that players even on the way out can participate in spring ball at their old school.

There is no installation for ‘next season’ in the spring. There are no secrets being worked on.

Signing Day too, why not move the December date to August, before the start of the season?

I have heard the concerns; a player may opt out of his senior season if they sign somewhere at that point. High school coaches must win games too, I am totally sympathetic to that as well.

It only takes one to become 10 to become a trend, or so they say.

Last I checked, playing games was the fun part of this whole lifestyle. I would prefer players that I signed to play games.

What is not up for debate is that this calendar is unworkable, and you are going to see more coaches leave for the NFL or just call it a career.

And no, I am not crying for the millionaire coaches, you work so hard to get to the top of the industry and have millions of dollars in the bank.

At some point the question is going to be asked of, ‘at what cost’?

The do-nothing NCAA needs to do something now or we are going to have bigger problems than calendars to talk about.

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