CFB insider Josh Pate makes his wishes known over National Signing Day in CFB

National Signing Day just isn't what it used to be. With the emergence of the transfer portal and the drama and excitement that accompanies it, plus the existence of the early period, there aren't nearly as many made-for-TV moments involving highly touted recruits plucking their school's hat off a table in a spirited ceremony.

If CBS Sports' Josh Pate had his way, the excitement of NSD would make its return.

"When I am CFB Commissioner I want National Signing Day back," Pate wrote Wednesday on X/Twitter. "The real one."

High schoolers have begun signing early to ensure themselves a roster spot as the equivalent of a game of musical chairs goes on. Some even graduate and enroll early to get into the mix of spring practice. It all leaves a lot to be desired.

"This day used to be 12 hours live," Tom Luginbill wrote Wednesday in his own post on X/Twitter. "10-12 live commitments, 13-15 college coaches and one bathroom break. Every P5 team covered. ... Such a shame."

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel shared a similar sentiment:

"Put me in the minority of sportswriters apparently: I miss Signing Day. You could always count on 2-3 insane stories. Most famously the kid who held a press conference to announce he was signing with Cal but Cal had never heard of him."

Revisiting some of the best moments National Signing Day had to offer

There's a long list of zany occurrences on National Signing Day. The one Mandel referred to might be the craziest. It involved Kevin Hart — no, not that Kevin Hart — an offensive lineman from a dusty town in Nevada in 2009.

"Hart was the first football prospect from Fernley, NV, to ever receive a Division I football scholarship offer," SB Nation's Spencer Hall wrote in 2017.

"He offered it to himself in a high school gym filled with his peers, choosing a Cal hat over an Oregon cap and thanking the students and staff and his family. There were cameras and microphones and a victory walk. There's footage and everything.

"Hart did not thank himself, and he should have. Without Hart, there would have been no scholarship offers to Hart."

In 2006, Antonio Logan-El shocked Maryland, the school he'd given not one, but two, verbal assurances to. At his commitment ceremony, he held a Florida hat, detalied why he'd considered the Gators, then threw it to the side. Same with a Tennessee cap, and even a Maryland one.

The crowd's reaction was mixed, ranging from applause to jeers, as he pulled on a Penn State hat.

The entertainment value isn't the same anymore. If Pate can pull through on his promise, college football would be better off on National Signing Day.