July and August have become college football’s talking season. With events like media days and the Personnel and Recruiting Symposium, among other availabilities, these events allow coaches and personnel staffs to discuss the upcoming season and larger issues.
This summer’s 5-for-5 eligibility ruling checked a large box for college football personnel. Since the COVID season in 2020, roster management has been a nightmare with some players reaching seven years of eligibility.
“I don’t think you’re going to find many coaches, if any, who are going to say they don’t like it,” UTEP coach Scotty Walden told 247Sports. “It cleans everything up. It cleans the roster management up. It eliminates guys quitting midyear to save eligibility. It eliminates that whole dynamic. We’ve always been about the best players playing, and now we aren’t worried about burning a redshirt.”
It’s rare that one policy earns near-universal praise from the coaching world, but it was difficult to find anyone who opposed the 5-for-5 ruling on the college side. Power Four programs like it because they can play their freshmen without fear of burning redshirts while Group of Six staffs can do the same and take a longer development track with their players.
It’s the rare ruling that doesn’t just serve one type of program.
“I think the 5-for-5 thing affects different programs at different levels differently,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko told 247Sports. “I think we’ve lived in a world where we’ve been trying to get them for year four and haven’t had a ton of guys wanting to stick around for Year 5.
“I think what it will do is maybe enhance some of the developmental kids and create more success for those types of program, and obviously we’ll see an influx in the (transfer) portal of guys going into their fifth year trying to find different stages and different opportunities.”
With those concerns out of the picture, the focus now turns to the overall calendar. It’s a major talking point in every college football circle.
While speaking with coaches and personnel staffs at the THSCA coaching convention in July and NCAA recruiting and personnel symposium in August, we surveyed several of the sport’s top voices to see what the biggest problem on the horizon was.
