HARRISONBURG — Last week’s National Signing Day might have been the last of its kind, which James Madison coach Mike Houston said would be “a good thing” for his program.

In January, the American Football Coaches Association announced college coaches were pushing for an early date to ink high school prospects to national letters of intent. USA Today reported Division I coaches want recruits to be able to sign on the third Wednesday of December, which is congruent with the current date used for signing junior college prospects.

The NCAA Division I council could approve the early signing day when it meets in April. If it does, the prospects in the class of 2018 could sign and fax their national letters of intent in mid-December instead of waiting for the traditional first Wednesday of February.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Houston, the AFCA FCS National Coach of the Year, said. “If there’s a December signing day, it would put more stress on us during the summer with having official visits during the summer and during the season, but the thing that happens is that a lot of the junk would get cleared up in December.

“If a [FBS] school is dangling a kid along, at least they’d be able to sign or not sign in December to clean it up for the FCS programs.”

JMU corralled a 25-man class of 2017 last Wednesday and of the 25 Madison-bound signees, at least 10 held scholarship offers from FBS programs. Northwestern High School (Rock Hill, S.C.) quarterback Gage Moloney was a one-time Ohio University commit. Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) offensive lineman Liam Fornadel was offered scholarships from Rutgers and eight other FBS schools.

Moloney flipped his commitment from Ohio University to JMU in December. He was one of 14 signees to verbally commit to JMU in December or earlier.

“And for a school like JMU, we had the bulk of this class committed in December, so it would allow us to sign those players in December,” Houston said. “That way we don’t sweat it into January up until the current signing day.”

Dale Steele, recruiting coordinator for Houston, helped JMU finish its recruiting class strong. He’s had coaching stops at East Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Baylor, Kansas State and Wisconsin, among others.

As someone that has coached at both the FBS and FCS levels, Steele said he’s intrigued to see how the recruiting calendar would change because of an early signing day.

Steele said when he first started coaching, some conferences had early signing dates. He said he remembers it as followed: a prospect could sign with a school, and depending on the school the prospect signed with, other schools in the same conference as that school could no longer recruit the prospect, but schools outside that particular conference could.

“We had a December day — it was an early signing day — for some of the conferences, so I’ve seen it happen,” Steele said. “I think whatever we do, it’s about having a solid relationship, so you as the school can make a decision and the student can make a decision. We certainly need time to build the relationships, so it’ll be interesting to see what the final model for an early signing day looks like.

“I’d like to see what they put forward with the dates and how they’re going to structure it, so that you can still build a relationship with the young man.”

Steele, of course, is referencing the different recruiting periods throughout the year when coaches can contact, visit prospects and when prospects can take official visits to campus.

This past year, at the FCS level, the NCAA recruiting calendar allowed for a contact period — granting six in-person off-campus visits per prospect — between Nov. 27 and Jan. 28. Between Aug. 1 and Nov. 26, there was a dead period with the exception of a 42-day evaluation period, which allowed coaches no more than one visit to a prospective player during that time. JMU had most of its prospects in for official visits during the contact period.

“What are the parameters for when the prospect can visit? When can you start contacting him?” Steele said. “When can you start building that relationship? You need to know about him and he needs to know about you. All of those things have to be taken into consideration, but a December signing day could be beneficial for coaches and the player.”