The first Wednesday in February was once a recruiting madhouse. Those days are over. The early signing date in December has dramatically altered the recruiting landscape to where the wide majority of Bowl Subdivision programs add just a handful of prospects, if any, during the traditional signing period.
"The second recruiting cycle, there's not much going on, typically," said SMU coach Sonny Dykes.
We should change the nomenclature. The early signing day should be known as signing day, period. The February date should be called the "late signing day," both as a result of the small number of uncommitted prospects and how coaches increasingly use the evaluation period in January to identify underclassmen recruits to get ahead on future signing classes.