It’s becoming almost as common as the SEC winning national titles and it could be a part of the reason why.

2013 Sun Devil Football

Instead of waiting until late summer, high school football recruits are graduating high school and opting for spring enrollment to college in record numbers.

According to a USA Today report, 162 players from the 2013 recruiting class headed for BCS automatic-qualifying schools in the spring, electing to enroll a semester early in order to be eligible to participate in spring practices.

The 2013 figure is the highest since USA Today started tracking the number of early enrollees in 2002 and eclipsed the old record of 141 in 2010.

Sun Devil #6, Chans Cox

Of those 162 players that enrolled early, the SEC had by far the most of any conference with 43 recruits coming in the spring. By comparison, the Pac-12 had only 18 early enrollees and linebacker Chans Cox was the only recruit to join ASU in the spring. It is worth noting that Christian Westerman also joined the team this Spring, but he will most likely sit out a year after transferring from Auburn.

At first it seems strange, why would a high school senior pass up on their senior prom and leave behind their friends? Well from a football standpoint it makes a lot of sense

Spring practices are is the best time for new players to get introduced to the college game.

In the spring, coaches are focusing on getting returning players minds back on football and that means refreshing the basics and running less-complex versions of the schemes they’ll run in the fall.

Is a player fresh out of high school going to have any idea what, say, “Gun flip right over hard right 50 flip quick on Seattle on one” means? No but by being exposed to it a few months earlier in the spring, it will help shallow out the learning curve.

But learning the X’s and O’s isn’t the only hurdle a new recruit has to clear; there’s a physical one as well.

Blue-chip recruits especially have always been bigger, faster and stronger than everybody else on the field. That advantage goes bye-bye when they step onto a college field.

Where a top-recruit might be the only player on his team that could run a 4.5 second 40-yard dash, all of the sudden virtually everybody runs that fast. Plays develop faster and players have a fraction of the time they did in high school to react.

Spring practices help the early enrollees adjust to just how dramatic the jump in speed is between high school and college. It also speeds up their chances to play early as a standout spring from a new player can skyrocket them up the depth chart.

Early enrollment means a big sacrifice but its one that a record number of high school seniors are making and that’s not likely to change.