signing day

It's not a dramatic one, we hope, but welcome to Early Signing Day for the 2024 class. Our recruiting board lives here. Our Signing Day Livepod with Steve Lorenz of 247 will be at noon. Tune in on Youtube or catch the podcast version afterwards. We'll have this page stickied most of the day so scroll down for news that posts.

OTHER THINGS POSTED TODAY THAT GOT BUMPED:

• MGoRadio 9:13: Signing Day Espectaculo. With Steve Lorenz of 247. Podcast runs through the entire class, including those we forgot.
• Hello: Lugard Edokpayi. Picked up a freaky high ceiling at edge at the buzzer.
• Maryland LB Jaishawn Barham committed. Yoinked a highly productive LB from a conference rival.

THE CLASS AS IT STANDS

This section will be updated as the faxes come in. Last update: 3:13 PM.

WHAT WE'RE WAITING ON

Edge prospect Lugard Edokpayi is choosing between Michigan and closer-to-home Maryland today. Announcement is at noon. The crystal balls point to Michigan after Edokpayi canceled an FSU trip to extend his Ann Arbor visit.

PROBABLY NOT SIGNING TODAY

Idaho WR Gatlin Bair is also still on the table, but is reportedly waiting until February. Michigan has led at several points to either side of his commitment and decommitment from Boise State, but Oregon has made up ground. He's also taking a Mormon mission for two years after he graduates so that's more of a 2026 class thing.

Michigan was still trying to pluck a receiver but IN 5* Nitro Tuggle signed with Georgia this morning, and Virginian 3-stars Mekhai White and Chanz Wiggins are expected to stick [update: stuck] with Maryland and Virginia Tech, respectively.

That's it. Sit back and watch Ohio State's class try to stay together, and we'll see you at noon.

wsg Steve Lorenz.

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musicians: Champagne Saints

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

As the Harbaugh turns. UPDATE

We are in full support of Coach Harbaugh’s statement of support of President Ono’s comments supporting Coach Harbaugh and the Michigan Football Team and look forward to continuing to support Coach Harbaugh who is in full support of President Ono’s support of Coach Harbaugh and https://t.co/jOHBu6h1vc

— Shapiro Undergraduate Library (@UMichUGLI) January 13, 2023

More seriously, John U Bacon asserted yesterday that the chances he stays are "growing by the hour" after Santa Ono got directly involved. I do not buy for one second that Pete Thamel report that Michigan might not be able to get Harbaugh signed for "weeks" because of the NCAA whatever. It's 2023 and the president of the university appears to have an idea of how the world works.

Yes, please. There's been some rumbling about changes to Signing Day coming up. I find myself in a somewhat unusual position of feverishly agreeing with the SEC commissioner:

"We're crushing coaches in December," Sankey told The Athletic. "We're going to add playoff games (in December). We have to change early signing."

Sankey elaborated on the issue during a gathering with reporters on Sunday in Los Angeles, noting that with coaches voicing their concerns about the overload of activity in December, conferences "have a responsibility to take another look at it."

"From a remedy standpoint, I don't think you can go back to just the first Wednesday in February," Sankey said.

December Signing Day is dumb from a media standpoint—February was a much bigger deal—and it is now very dumb because nobody has any idea who's going to be on their roster. I get concerns that committed players keep getting recruited when they have no interest in being recruited, so let's resurrect an idea this site has promoted previously:

• Players can sign a non-binding LOI basically whenever, but let's say starting a year before a restored February signing day.
• Players in the LOI database cannot take official visits to other schools.
• Coaches from other schools cannot contact players in the database.
• The LOIs become binding on the first week in February.

This does a lot to cut down on useless attempts to get guys to flip, benefiting both players who don't want to be hassled and coaches who might like to see their kids faces, without locking either school or player in until most of the portal madness has settled.