One year after SEC football coaches struck down the thought of an early signing day, they reversed course and voted 9-3 to install such a day. Irony!

The three “against” votes were from Arkansas’s Bobby Petrino (snake!) Florida’s Urban Meyer and South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier (snake!). Sorry boys, you’re outnumbered! Give it up!.

The vote doesn’t exactly immediately install such a day. League AD’s and school presidents have to vote for it and then the SEC has to lobby for it nationally (and no offense, but that national lobby for a plus-one didn’t work so well…).

Here’s the little pretty details–the day would normally be during the week of Thanksgiving, right before the start of the contact period. SEC coaches view it as a time where kids who absolutely know they are going to a certain school can commit and coaches don’t have to worry about “baby-sitting” them until February signing day, making check-up, maintenance calls to these recruits instead of aggressive, recruiting ones to others. Also, any recruit who takes an official visit to any school COULD NOT sign during this early period. They would be forced to sign in Feb. Unofficial visits do not apply.

And hey, why not for this rule? It sounds good to me. Example, people knew E.J. Fields was coming to UK early last season. Under this new early signing day, he would have been signed in November and Brooks wouldn’t have had to call Fields anymore and battle other programs attempting to sway him, instead focusing more time on other prospects. This could also help cut down (although not much) on players who pull signing day switcharoos.

Sounds like a good idea to me, now let’s just pass this through to the top! Turkey and Letters of Intent seem like the perfect Thanksgiving to me.