CHICAGO - On Monday at the Big Ten media days, Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini reiterated his desire to do away with a formal signing day and to allow kids to put pen to paper earlier in the process.

Bo Pelini was very vocal in Chicago for the need to change the recruiting process.

If a recruit is ready to commit then Pelini feels there's no sense waiting to sign. In his model, a player would have the ability to sign the day he commits.

"I think it would change things in a lot of ways," Pelini said. "It would slow down some of the early offers. I think it would slow down some of the ridiculous things that go on on both ends."

One of Pelini's chief concerns is that the recruiting process is so individualized and so personal, that it often comes at the expense of the teachings he and his coach use for the Nebraska program.

"It's not about any individual It's about a team. There's a bigger picture involved. And I think sometimes the way the recruiting process works is contradictory to what we're trying to teach these kids in the long run to be successful - not only as football players an athletes, but beyond, as husbands, as fathers and their professions.

"I think there are some things that could be done, and I think that could be a step in the right direction."

On Tuesday, there were a few allies to that idea. Namely, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, who agreed with Pelini.

"Get rid off the offer and verbal," Fitzgerald said. "It should be legitimate scholarship and sign. Bo's comments I agree with. Make it even easier."

"I'd have a cooling off period to make sure schools don't strong arm kids. We offer and he commits, boom 48-hour window starts. In 48 hours he has to sign. I click the mouse and he shoots me the email as a PDF, I sign it and we're done."

Purdue coach Darrell Hazell said he'd only support a change in the signing process if there was a sufficient "cooling off" period.

The cooling off period was a common thought throughout the Big Ten coaching community. Purdue coach Darrell Hazell doesn't necessarily want to see Pelini's idea come to fruition, but he said in that system he'd prefer that recruits get a chance to come down from a visit high.

"If a kid knows where he wants to go and there's a cooling off period - a lot of time a kid gets to campus, gets wowed and has to make a quick decision - for maybe a week, then they could maybe a make a decision after that," Hazell said. "My personal thing is there has to be some dates like signing day."

Sweeping changes?

Other coaches weren't shy about pitching ideas to change the recruiting landscape. In two cases, Fitzgerald of Northwestern and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, wholesale changes are desired.

The Iowa coach openly laughed at a quick fix.

"Oh my gosh, you got an hour? The whole system really needs an overhaul in my opinion," Ferentz said.

The Iowa coach said among his primary concerns for college football recruiting is that it's negatively impacting the sport. Ferentz likened the situation to professional baseball, creating inequality among teams that are only deepening.

Ferentz offered the change of allowing for an early signing period - not necessarily Pelini's plan - but at least giving recruits the option.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz thinks major changes are needed to the recruiting system.

"On the recruiting front, people resist early signing and they use the out that it's just going to expedite the rate of everything," he said. "Are you kidding me? Is anybody awake here? That train left the station years ago. It's not coming back. That's putting your head in the sand, ludicrous. If we don't adjust to what's going on I think we're foolish."

Fitzgerald wants college recruiting to feel respectable again. He said in order to do that the coaches and NCAA have to start from scratch.

"I'd blow it up," he said. "I'd blow it up and start over. I think it's really antiquated. We need to put integrity back in it."

The Northwestern coach said he thinks the way things are now is dishonest. He cited the idea of a scholarship offer as just on example of how the system has been left behind.

"How about this we technically have not offered any kid in eyes of the NCAA and we have double digit verbal commitments? Give me a break," Fitzgerald said. "What are we doing here? This is a joke. It's an antiquated system. It needs to be looked at. It needs to be evaluated. What's best for the student athletes and their families? What's best for us because we need balance in our lives...Get rid of the nonsense that goes on. On both sides. On the college coaching side I said it earlier I had a kid tell me 'Coach is this a commitable offer?' I have no idea what that meant. It's a joke."

Officials in June

While not every coach would agree on each proposed change, it was apparent after talking with more than half of the conference's coaches that the official visit calendar should be changed.

Unofficial visits have skyrocketed in popularity. The recruiting profession is a year-round thing, with programs hosting visits every weekend - unless specified otherwise by the NCAA calendar.

Jerry Kill said official visits in June would put Minnesota more in the recruiting game.

Several coaches voiced their concerns over the rise of unofficials and that it often leaves programs behind if they're not close to a metro recruiting base.

Jerry Kill said he'd favor an early signing day if it meant Minnesota could pay for official visits in June.

"Then we could be in the game," he said. "Now we can fly those kids up. Not just us but everybody can. Kids are committing on unofficial visits and we never got the chance to show them. July 1 or late June and the visits have to happen in June. Then they sign, and if not then they're open. It'd clean a lot of that mess up. To me that's a perfect model. Of course Texas wouldn't want to do that because they can recruit everyone in their own state."

In just the Big Ten there's been a bigger push then ever to fill classes. Of the conference's 14 teams, just two don't have double digit commits and those programs (Michigan, Minnesota) are at nine.

A total of 179 recruits are already committed and outside of any junior college players, none of them have even started their senior year yet. That number - while large - represents just a fraction of the unofficial visitors that paid their own way to see campuses across the conference. Usually, not just one visit, but multiple ones starting as early as January - which ignores the legion of unofficial visits made during the season to watch teams play.

Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen supports the idea of summer official visits - but not at the sacrifice of a dead period that allows his coaches to feel free to leave the office and be with their family.

"I would love it," he said. “The whole conference would love it. I would like to have that window whether it's in June or July - but I want a small window. I don't want to compromise the only chance our staff gets to be with their kids and have a vacation.

"I would say have the ability for us to bring kids on campus for a period of time in June and July rather than having their parents pay for it or we get to bring them in January. Others don't want that, people don't want recruits to come in Big Ten country in June and July."

Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen favors summer officials if it doesn't come at the cost of down time for his staff.

Most coaches argue that it's also a matter of economics. Fitzgerald said there's a wide number of families that simply can't afford to take trips. That cuts down their early options if they want to commit - forcing them to make decisions before they're educated.

"They are being forced to make a verbal commitment and maybe they haven't had a chance to see the school and really see the school and evaluate it academically, evaluate the support staff and evaluate the coaches," he said. "Most importantly, spend a night with the kids. Get in the dorms. Get in the locker room and be a part of the culture.

To Ferentz and several other coaches the problem needs to be handled or the gap in coach football widens and the game suffers.

"There's a record amount of prospects that travel and incur expenses on their own in June and July and we've done nothing to respond to that," he said. "I think that's silly. If we don't get moving here we're really going to screw up a really good game."