With football signing day just two days away, the co-chairmen of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics are calling on the NCAA and its member institutions to improve the recruiting process, according to an opinion article in Sunday’s Miami Herald.

R. Gerald Turner, president of Southern Methodist University, and Clifton R. Wharton Jr., a former president of Michigan State University, say in the essay that although colleges and universities cannot control fan interest in learning about the hottest high-school prospects, and cannot regulate the news media’s reporting on recruits, the institutions can control how athletes are recruited.

Among their suggestions are for universities to have recruits make campus visits on weekdays, not game days, and to find additional ways to bring academic, admissions, and athletics officials together during the recruitment of athletes.

At several universities, for example, admissions applications for at-risk prospects come before a faculty committee, and head coaches are required to explain why they believe a recruit will succeed academically on the campus.