Armstrong High School running back Kevon Johnson, the Star Tribune's High School Football Player of the Year, suspects the scholarship offers he was expecting have instead gone to more experienced players in transfer portal. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The college football recruiting landscape has undergone seismic changes the past few years. What used to be a very straightforward, easily navigated stream — commit, sign, attend — has become a swirling morass of uncertainty and constant change.

The reasons are plenty, but can largely be traced to the advent of the transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money.

Wednesday marks the beginning of the NCAA’s regular signing period for football. Until 2017, the first Wednesday in February was the biggest single day in the college football recruiting cycle. It marked the first date when players would make their commitments official by signing an official National Letter of Intent.

Things changed in 2017, when the NCAA enacted the early signing period, starting on the third Wednesday in December.

That date was originally intended to allow early commits to make their future college homes official and not be subject to nearly two more months of recruiting pressure and speculation. It quickly became the primary football signing date, so much so that the NCAA recently moved the early signing period up two weeks to the first Wednesday in December.

Meanwhile, the importance of the February signing period has diminished. College scouts have shifted their focus to signing players through the transfer portal.

For some Minnesotans, they’ve had to accept February as the moment their plan of playing for a major college program had not fully materialized.

For more on athletes impacted by this change, click here to read this story on startribune.com.