Pretty much from the time that the NCAA Division I Council gave the thumbs' up to the creation of an early signing period for Division I football, it was merely a matter of when and not if it would officially be instituted.

Today was that day as there will be an early signing period from Dec. 20-22. Players can still wait until early February to sign as in past years but the early signing period is expected to cut down on the flipping of commitments in late January and early February until the players make it official. The drawback of the timing is it throws things into disarray for programs who went through what UConn experienced as Bob Diaco was fired at a time when the buyout price went down. When that happens and players who signed early want out of that commitment, it could be a little more complicated than in past years when new coaches simply had to try to hold onto the committed players and not have to deal with the red tape coming from players who have signed their National Letters of Intent. I also have to wonder if schools will be more willing to cut loose a coach in the middle of the season with an eye of minimizing the damage during the early signing period.

During spring practice I asked UConn coach Randy Edsall about the new legislation and here are some of his thoughts:

"I think they got it right, I think there are more things that they can do. I was pleased that the proposal got passed," Edsall said. "It is steps in the right direction, I do like the early signing period. We were getting to a point where people were just throwing offers out there because other people offered kids and now what happens, it will be interesting to see how many kids want to sign or commit to a school that offered and say, 'no you can't commit.'

"They just have to get back to civility in recruiting, let these kids be kids, tell them the truth, don't fill them with things that aren't there. Now I wish they would stop where you couldn't offer kids early enough. Having official visits in April, May and June, that will be different especially when they talk about the academic part when you bring kids in when you don't even have six semesters in of grades on them. That will be interesting to see how those things turned out."