College Football: Winners and losers from Day 1 of early signing period

The first day of college football’s early signing period is behind us. Who had the best early Christmas presents and who had the worst starts?

College football decided to make an unnecessary change and add an early signing period that starts Dec. 20 and runs through Dec. 22 for the 2018 recruiting class. That’s right in the middle of bowl preparation for almost every FBS team. With 41 bowls, including the Playoff, that means 80 of the 129 teams are hard at work game planning for their bowl opponents in the middle of this signing period. The coaching carousel is also under way and believe it or not student-athletes do sign with schools based on their relationships with the assistant coaches that recruit them.

Using 247 Sports, the top five signing classes as of Dec. 20, 2017 are Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Penn State and Alabama. All five are Power 5 programs with long reputations for excellence in college football.

The next five to round out the top 10 are Miami, Clemson, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Auburn. All four College Football Playoff programs are represented in the top 10. Nine of the top 10 recruits have signed early per 247 Sports’ rankings. Clemson grabbed two of the top three players and the only top 10 player to not sign is Patrick Surtain Jr, the son of the former Miami Dolphins legend.

With the first day in the books, here are the winners and losers.