National Signing Day - History

History

National signing day is usually on the first Wednesday in February. Until 1981, several college football conferences, including the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), held conference signing days on the second Saturday in December to have recruits sign conference letters-of-intent. The College Football Association, led by several prominent college head football coaches, proposed a resolution to eliminate conference signing days during their 1980 convention, and have a singular signing day in their places, called a National Signing Day.ews]] |date=June 2, 1980 |accessdate=2012-02-23}} In 1981, the last year for conference signing days, recruits had to sign both conference and national letters-of-intent if their school was in the Big East or Southwest Conferences. The conference letters-of-intent restricted a recruit to signing with only one school in a conference, but was unrestricted to signing with a school outside of the conference. The national letters-of-intent restricted a recruit to signing with only one school in the NCAA. The NCAA ruled in January 1981 to abolish early signing days and have a National Signing Day on the third Wednesday in February. National Signing Day has since typically been on the first Wednesday in February.