NCAA needs an early signing period

By Mike Gibson
Five minutes after Daryl Robinson's high school career ended, a man leaned on that two foot fence that surrounds Frankford High's field and kept yelling one thing over and over again in the direction of Robinson.
"YOOOO Daryl," the man said, "Notre Dame, Daryl. Notre Dame."
He was like so many Notre Dame fans in Philadelphia: Big and fat and obnoxious. So many of them look the same, it is eerie. Middle aged white men with white hair about 100 pounds overweight and wearing Notre Dame gear from head to toe. You could pen a cartoon about this guy and everybody would recognize the type immediately.
He looks like mayoral candidate Bob Brady, but wasn't Bob Brady.
A Philadelphian, probably an Eagles' fan, latching onto a Division IA team 500 miles west of a town where there already is a Division IA team that desperately needs his support.
"Yooo Daryl," the man kept saying while Daryl was being interviewed, "Notre Dame. Notre Dame."
Daryl just shook his head from side to side, indicating no, and smiled.
It had gotten around the school the weeks before that Notre Dame was in town trying to woo Robinson from his Temple commitment.
This seemed to excite all of the big, fat Notre Dame fans who were North Catholic alumni.
They pressured Robinson with yells and less subtle means.
In a move that speaks volumes for his character and his future, Robinson kept his word to Temple.
The big, fat guys represent what is wrong with college sports, specifically football, these days.
A school works hard to get a verbal, then other schools come in late and are the beneficiary of the hard work of the initial school. In other words, the stealing of verbals. Temple had at least two stolen this recruiting season.
This only hurts the mid-majors and the up-and-coming programs. The established programs feed off the work of younger, more hungry, coaching staffs and the cycle of the same teams having success repeats itself.
This cycle needs to be broken now.
Temple coach Al Golden talked about it on a radio show.
He's in favor of an early signing period.
So is Villanova head coach Andy Talley, who had three of his verbals stolen by Division IA schools as well.
So am I.
So should any fair-minded fan.
More importantly, so should the NCAA.