Steve Sarkisian argued for two changes to the December calendar, one of which has already happened and another that likely never will.
Speaking with Joel Klatt in his Big Noon Conversations show, Sarkisian detailed just how impossible navigating the month of December has become with the early signing period combining with the transfer portal.
"As an offensive head coach and a play-caller, I want to game plan. We wanted to solidify this (recruiting) class. I wanted to go on in-home visits, I think that's a sign of respect to go in the homes of the kids we're signing. You're giving your son to us, we're going to take what you've done and we're going to try to continue to build him up. Oh by the way, every morning I wake up and there's 150, 200, 300, 400 more kids in the portal that day.
"And practice with our team," Sarkisian adds, almost as an afterthought. "That month was a little difficult, and quite frankly out of control."
Sarkisian was more polite than he had to be when describing what December has become in college football. It's completely ridiculous, and there's a reason for that: it's a system that no one person or entity designed, that no one person has the power to fix, and shaped partly by forces outside of college football's control. It starts, quite literally, with the inaugural Rose Bowl Game staged way back on Jan. 1, 1902.
The good news for Sark is that his first suggestion -- to put the draft ahead of free agency -- has already been implemented. In 2024, the regular season will conclude Nov. 30, the December signing period will run Dec. 4-6, conference championship games will be played Dec. 6-7, Selection Sunday follows on Dec. 8, and the portal opens Dec. 9.
This much-needed change will bring some order to coaching staffs while also preventing transfers from taking recruits' scholarships. In 2023, the portal opened Dec. 4, and the early signing period didn't begin until Dec. 20.
Sark's second suggestion would be a much tougher sell.
"What I would say, you can't enter the portal as long as your team is in the College Football Playoff," he said. "I just don't know how you have those conversations with your kids as you're trying to get ready to play a game that next weekend. Who's gonna be in, who's not? The four, five, six kids that you're talking to, that's taking away from the 114 kids on your roster."
Seven Longhorns entered the portal before Texas's date with Washington in the College Football Playoff, most notably backup quarterback Maalik Murphy.
Texas entered the Sugar Bowl with only true freshman Arch Manning (having thrown all of five college passes) behind Quinn Ewers, because its backup quarterback -- who'd started two games that season, and finished off another -- had left the team, full stop. In the Big 12 Championship, Murphy was a heartbeat away from seeing the field. The next time Texas took the field, Murphy was a Duke Blue Devil.
All ended up being well for Texas on the quarterback health front, but the mind doesn't have to wander far to envision a catastrophe for some Playoff-bound team. And with 12 teams now entering the field and up to four games required to win a national championship, catastrophe is bound to strike someone sooner or later.
And that's part of the problem with Sarkisian's proposal.
The 2024 national championship game won't be played until Jan. 20, 2025. To close the portal until Jan. 21 for two teams would be painted as anti-player in many corners of the college football universe, even if that's not the intention.
The ultimate problem with the calendar in college football is the whole "college" part.
To win a job, especially at quarterback, a player typically has to compete in spring football. To compete in spring football, one must be enrolled in school. To enroll in school, one must usually know their destination by early January.
In Murphy's case, he entered the portal Dec. 13 and committed to Duke nine days later. Duke's starting quarterback job likely wouldn't have been available had he been locked out of the portal until Jan. 2.
Teams locked out of the portal until their playoff run ends are, essentially, punished for their success. The other 122 teams aren't waiting to do business until the 12 finish their respective Playoff runs, which takes roster spots away from outgoing players on Playoff teams and, equally important, slows the CFP teams in their own portal shopping.
As Sarkisian mentions above, his staff was evaluating portal targets along with the rest of college football. And as big a headache it may be to pull off, hosting portal recruits while their prospective future teammates prepared for, or played, in a College Football Playoff game is a helluva recruiting pitch.
One could argue then that the portal should be closed for everybody until after the CFP concludes. After all, the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL don't hold free agency during their playoffs, and for good reason.
Again, though, we fall back on the "college" part of college football. And even then... 12 FBS teams will compete in the College Football Playoff, and 122 will not. In basketball, Selection Sunday was March 17, and the portal opened Monday, March 18. In baseball, the College World Series is underway right now, but the portal has been open since June 3.
Chaos has always ruled in college athletics, for better or worse.
December 2024 will be a tad bit more orderly than December 2023 thanks to the new, earlier early signing period. But with the Playoff now running two rounds longer... might I suggest spending July in a medically-induced coma?