Apr 17, 2017 12:02 PM EDT By Chris Brandt, UniversityHerald Reporter

The National Collegiate Athletics Association or NCAA has made some big changes in how college football is going to be handled in the coming years. The reform has been considered by many to be a landmark since some of these changes had been expected a few years ago. Here are some of the new football rules in the NCAA.

Early Signing Day

The early signing period has been finally made official and it will be in June. With this in place, recruits will have three days to sign Letters of Intent around Christmas - December 20 - 23 this year. Just like any changes that occur, some criticized it while others expressed their support. One happy coach was New Mexico State's Doug Martin who said the early signing day will give him and his team an idea what to get for the next signing day which is in February.

The change also stated that athletes who have not shown any progress in their academic grades won't be able to sign early and choose the schools they want to sign in.

Once-A-Day Full Contact Practice

Another significant change made by the new football rules in NCAA is making full-contact practice only once a day instead of the usual two. Observers, however, said that this rule is a long time coming as other teams had requested to phase out such practice a long time ago. Therefore, if teams want to practice more, it should only be a walkthrough or through film.

Early Official Visits

This rule allows high schoolers and their parents to take their five expenses-paid college visits in the summer instead of the usual first day of classes during their senior year. The NCAA said that the visits will start April 1 of the students' junior year and ends before the last Wednesday of June the same year.

10 Assistants

The NCAA now also allows teams to have 10 assistant coaches instead of nine as was in the past. This new rule, however, will take into effect on January 9,2018 to give schools ample time to figure out their budgets.

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