What does sign and place mean in football?

Answer 1

its has to do with when, a school will recruit and sign a player who has great upside but will probably not academically qualify immediately. the school will "sign" the player, (which usually helps their national recruiting ranking, which helps the prestige of the school with other recruits... coaching bonuses etc...) and then "place" the player with a junior college for a year or two to get his grades up. it gives the major university time to continue to evaluate the player, if he turns out to be a stud, he has a spot on the team once his academics are in line.. if it is a dud the university can forget about him. it works kind of like a farm system for collegiate football