What to watch during the Early Signing Period:Projected Missouri signees, commitments, live updates

Welcome to the first-ever Early Signing Period for college football recruiting. If you don’t know what to expect, that’s OK. Neither do the college coaches going through it and neither do the high school prospects doing the signing. This is new to all of us. But to get you ready, the least we can do is preview a few of the most compelling stories to keep an eye out for over the course of the next 72 hours.

Who’s No. 1?

According to the 247Sports Composite Team Recruiting Rankings, Ohio State has the No. 1 class in the country as the early signing period begins. Will it finish with the No. 1 class at the end of the early signing period? If they don't, the Buckeyes gives up their spot as the odds-on favorite to land the No. 1 class in February.

There are some candidates to put together furious finishes in January that would challenge the Buckeyes for the No. 1 class but only one team looks like it has the juice to top Ohio State during the early signing period, and that’s the Georgia Bulldogs. Ohio State is in danger of losing safety Jaiden Woodbey and quarterback Emory Jones from its commit list on Wednesday and it’s in a dog fight for uncommitted No. 1 offensive tackle Jackson Carman.

Meanwhile Georgia, sitting at No. 3 in the rankings at the start of the week, could close with five-star names like Cade Mays, Jamaree Salyer and Brenton Cox. Assuming Justin Fields signs with Georgia as expected and there are no other surprise decommitments on Wednesday from someone like running back James Cook, a Georgia close with those three prospects would give it 300.42 points in the team rankings.

RELATED: Mays one of four to announce Dec. 20 on ESPNU

Meanwhile, if Woodbey and Jones decommit from Ohio State and it misses on Carman but is still able to flip Cameron Brown from Nebraska, the Buckeyes would close the signing period with 300.37 points in the team rankings. That would give Georgia a .05 point lead heading into January.

If you throw in Divaad Wilson, another Georgia target, that could extend the Kirby’s lead to a whopping 2.08 points.

Early signing period closers

Georgia is expected to close strong but if it doesn’t, Clemson will be the reason why. The Tigers have a shot at landing Mays, Salyer, Carman and five-star defensive end KJ Henry. At one point, the Tigers were looking like favorites to land all four. As Wednesday has drawn nearer, only Henry remained as a likely signee but Dabo’s staff has kept battling for all four. If Clemson were to somehow score a sweep of that group, it would push the Tigers from No. 15 in the rankings to all the way up into the top three depending on what else happens.

How does the early signing period work?

Much like the traditional National Signing Day, beginning on Wednesday, Dec. 20 at 7 a.m. ET, high school recruits will have the opportunity to sign their National Letters of Intent and fax them into the school of their choice. (Yes, it’s 2017 and they are still using fax machines.) This signals the ultimate commitment to that program and will officially close their recruiting.

Why is this happening?

The NCAA wanted to allow some players and coaches to lock in signatures ahead of time, without every recruit needing to wait until February, perhaps cutting down on traditional NSD drama. College basketball and other sports already have early signing periods.

But in football’s first year with a mid-December signing period, there’s plenty of debate as to the timing, with particular concern regarding how this will impact athletes.

Those who have not made enough academic progress to qualify might not be able to sign early with their schools of choice and could see their spots go to less-talented players who are more certain to qualify.

Options could also be limited for prospects who are late bloomers.

Sometimes, prospects are not discovered until December or January, as programs review senior film. Under the old system, scholarships were not being filled en masse until February. With the new early date, the number of options for late bloomers could decrease.

Prospects who feel pressured to sign early could also lose out on offers from bigger schools, if they sign and foreclose the opportunity to wait for better options.

How many players are expected to sign early?

Many programs are expecting up to 80 percent of their incoming 2018 classes to sign during the early signing period. Some coaches told SB Nation’s Bud Elliott that this ultimately serves as a test to the strength of a prospect’s verbal commitment, with most who have already made pledges looking forward to putting pen to paper and making things official.

How is recruiting affected by the early signing period?

With a month less of time for schools to meet and talk to high school prospects, things are bit more rushed following the final regular season game of the year. While some coaches hit the recruiting trail right away, others were delayed a week with conference titles to compete for, and some programs didn’t have a coaching staff to send out anyway.

Some big programs either decided or were forced to undergo new coaching hires at season’s end, and it directly impacted the state of the 2018 recruiting class. Several incoming freshman decommitted from these programs in flux, and others have decided to wait until the traditional National Signing Day to make their final decision.

Teams in pre-Christmas bowl games are also at a disadvantage, having to navigate both preparing their teams for postseason play and trying to finalize things on the recruiting trail.

Which pledges might wait for National Signing Day?

There are a host of reasons that 2018 targets might wait until the traditional National Signing Day on Feb. 1 to sign on the dotted line. Not only are coaching changes a big factor, but some players might need time to take additional visits, while others might need time to be academically eligible for their top landing spots.

Having an Early Signing Period also gives players on the fence an opportunity to see how some of the classes fill at their top programs, to see which roster they might best fit with or succeed with.

It also might not be the players decision to wait. Coaches could ask prospects to hold off until early-February to ensure they still have a scholarship spot for them.