THOMASVILLE- College football signing day is two days away. High School seniors, including those in the Thomas-Grady County areas, will have the opportunity to sign letters-of-intent on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

Between NIL (name, image and likeness), the transfer portal and an extra year of eligibility due to COVID, signing day in 2025 is a lot different than when Justin Rogers was hired as Colquitt County football coach in 2019. College players can relocate every year, putting a strain on high school seniors hoping to get recruited and signed by a college program.

“It’s a flooded market. There’s a lot of pros to it, once you’re in college. There’s a lot of negatives to it when you’re in high school trying to get into college to get an opportunity. The biggest thing you’ve got to take away from it is, if you’ve got those big dreams of playing at these big major colleges, that dream’s never over with now,” said Rogers, who just completed his third season as Thomas County Central’s head coach. “You look at the Tulane quarterback (Darian Mensah). He goes to Tulane and plays good. Now, he’s the highest paid player in college football and they paid him $8 million to go to Duke.

“The genie is not going back in the bottle, but in saying that, the dream’s not really over. If you can just get on to a college roster and play, you’ve still got opportunities to grow. If that’s a big time dream of yours, it’s still a reality.”

The Yellow Jackets already celebrated defensive back Dee Reddick’s signing with USC during the early signing period in December. It plans to hold its signing ceremony Wednesday morning.

“You’re still going to sign some big-time guys to major colleges, but at those major colleges, if you go do really good at a Division II or SoCon conference, FCS, then they’re coming to get you,” Rogers said. “It’s like the starting center at Troy. He’s going to West Virginia and is going to make $400,000 to be the backup center.

“You play well at those levels then the big boys get you. Now Troy has to look to get somebody from FCS, and then FCS will have to look to get somebody from high school. I think it just changes the path or gives opportunity to the path. I think we’ve just got to educate, that’s just going to be part of it.”

Because there is so much player movement across the college football landscape from year to year, finding a collegiate opportunity is harder for high school seniors than it has ever been.

“The recruiting world has completely changed,” said Cairo Athletic Director Sam Holland. “It’s almost scary for high school athletes because the Division II, Division III, 1-AA programs that made a living off of high school athletes; the 5-star, 4-star, 3-star athletes are going to get recruited, but as far as these kids that are able to walk on, kids that are able to get into the smaller schools, it’s completely changed. Division II now makes a living off the transfer portal.

“I’m thankful I’m on the tail-end of all of this.”