"Move it to December": SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey proposes major rule change following conference's alliance with Big Ten

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is proposing a major rule change for college football. Last week, the Southeastern Conference announced an alliance with the rival conference, Big Ten, giving the two leagues the influence to shape the future of college sports.

In an interview with Yahoo Sports on Thursday, Sankey lobbied for an earlier signing day and a recruiting dead period in December.

“Putting signing day in the middle of December with playoff games no longer works,” Sankey said, via On3. “Move it to early December, the Wednesday before championship games. That is the concept. It’s, in part, out of respect to high school football. You’ve heard some want the signing day in June. No one has done any work on what that means for high school football.

“We have a responsibility to listen to the high school coaches. What we’ve heard out of the Texas group is that they do not at all support that. Everybody has to be attentive to that.”

December is already jam-packed for college football, as the transfer portal opened on Dec. 4, and the early signing period commenced just over two weeks later on Dec. 20. Meaning, as college coaches are trying to recruit current players, they are also closing out high school recruits.

In 2024, the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff will also take place in December, as first-round games will be played the weekend of Dec. 20, which is in the same window as the current early signing period format, which has been tough for coaches.

"The hardest thing is there's no time off," Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie recently told CBS Sports. "Christmas Eve from noon until Christmas Day, you're evaluating portal kids, talking to portal kids, visits with portal kids. It just doesn't ever stop. There is no time to turn it off.

"I told our personnel director, 'Don't send any more texts about players in the portal, and leave everybody alone.' That was about the only time you have off."

Whether or not Sankey will get support from other conferences in the NCAA is to be seen, but the SEC commissioner thinks his rule changes make a lot of sense.

Changes to 12-team College Football Playoff

Aside from the rule change that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is proposing, the sport made a major modification earlier this week regarding the playoff.

The College Football Playoff committee unanimously approved a model to guarantee the five highest-ranked conference champions' inclusion in the expanded 12-team field this fall, along with the next seven highest-ranked teams.

Originally, the playoff model was six conference champions and six at-large bids, but that will change to seven at-large bids now.