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CHAPEL HILL – Should the NCAA adjust its early signing period for football, perhaps moving up the initial signing period to the summer?

That debate has gained steam with the ever-changing recruiting process that now sees most prospects taking official visits in June prior to their senior seasons, and many announcing their commitments not long after. Yet, they still have half a year before formally binding themselves to a school.

In 2016, the NCAA approved a December signing period, up nearly two months from the first Wednesday in February, long the traditional date for football prospects to ink with college programs. The December period launched in 2017.

It allowed kids that were solid with their commitments to sign, freeing them from an additional six weeks of contact and attempts at poaching by other schools.

But like with just about everything else along the college athletics landscape, swift changes are regularly taking place, and some elements of how things are done also need altering, says North Carolina General Manager Patrick Suddes.

“Right now, they can sign a grant-in-aid with your school that binds you to the kid but not the kid to you in August,” Suddes recently said in an interview inside the Kenan Football Center. “So, I would like that to be both ways. If a kid knows where he wants to go and wants to get it out of the way, let him sign in August or September and get it over with.

“And if there’s a coaching change, then that breaks – he can look around and go to a different school.”

Suddes arrived at UNC in February, but he wasn’t unfamiliar with the way the Tar Heels’ approach on the recruiting trail. He worked for Carolina Coach Mack Brown at Texas in 2013, but has also spent six seasons under Nick Saban at Alabama, plus time at Auburn, Arizona State, and Georgia Tech. In addition, Suddes had a stint in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins serving as an assistant on both sides of the ball.

His experience in the sport is extensive, and his views are rather concrete, especially when it comes to adjusting the recruiting process.

Once the December period was added, it didn’t take long for it to become the primary target date, thus changing how coaches approached January, moving recruiting the following class more into the winter period.

“I think when they came out with the new signing day in December, their intent was that’s for the kids that know where they’re going, they grew up UNC fans, their dad went to school there, whatever,” said Suddes. “They just lock in their spot and they figured most of the kids would sign in February.

“Well, now everybody signs in December, there’s maybe three or four in February, and now January has become junior recruiting plus portal recruiting.”

The early signing period each December quickly became the de facto “National Signing Day,” even though the February date still carries the moniker. UNC landed 17 high school prospects in its class of 2022 (currently true freshmen), all of which signed letters of intent last December. The traditional NSD was silent in Chapel Hill.

The next phase of this always changing process allowed rising seniors to take official visits in June, which is now the most active month on the calendar for OVs. UNC had 35 kids in for officials last month, and went from three commits in its class of 2023 at the end of May to 14 by July 4. Yet, those kids still must wait until December 15 to make their pledges to the Tar Heels a formality.

Other schools can still relentlessly pursue them, and they will. It happens everywhere. So, there is a push to move up the signing day again to late summer so seniors can enjoy their final seasons in high school without essentially being harassed by college coaches, like what basketball players who sign in November enjoy.

Suddes believes this is necessary because most kids know where they want to go before high school football practice begins in late July across the landscape.

“There’s got to be something because every school is now doing the majority of their official visits in June,” Suddes said. “This (June) feels like December right now. But we still have six months until signing day. A verbal commit means nothing until they sign.”

With a movement in college athletics geared toward making things easier and more available to the athletes, adding a summer signing period could be one of the next alterations to the cycle. Suddess would certainly like to see that happen.