Well today is the day.
Today is Christmas for college coaches and recruiting sites around the nation. What am I talking about?
It's National Signing Day!!
For those of you who don't know what today is here is a little recap. Throughout the year football coaches recruit players to come and play for their college. A player may have one scholarship offer too booku scholarship offers. Either way once today hits they make a decision on where they'll be playing their college football next year. Now during the recruiting season a player can "commit" to a school meaning that he tells the coaches he'll sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) to play there next year, but until he signs that LOI he can go play anywhere he wants. Some kids commit and then decommit and then commit to another school 1, 2, and even 3 times during this whole process. A letter of intent is basically the equivalent of a professional athlete signing a contract. The recruits then fax in the signed letters to the coaches and it makes it official. Recruiting experts will give an athlete anywhere from 1 to 5 stars. One being able to walk and being able to utter a sensible sentence at the same time, and 5 for being gifted with extreme athleticism and very talented at their position. Now these experts are always right. Who can argue with an inexact science? There are so many factors that go into how a recruit will turn out. Like injuries, school, home sickness, etc. You're better off looking into a crystal ball sometimes then trying to predict what a recruit will do 4 years down the line for your program.
Now why has today turned into such a special day? Well because some people view today as a day of foreshadowing for the things to come. Many believe that if you get the best recruiting class then you have the best chance to win the national championship. Although the last time that the team that had the number one recruiting class won the national championship was back in 2006 with the Florida Gators. Many coaches say that they put little to no weight in the recruiting rankings and that they focus more on the types of players that best fit their system. So why then does today turn into such a big day? Well that easy, it's one word. Us. We make it a big day. It's all about supply and demand. "We" the fan want another thing to brag about. We tell ourselves "Okay, so we didn't win the National Championship (or the conference) but its okay because we beat our (insert rival here) in recruiting".
If you have ESPNU there is no use in looking for basketball games or highlights at all today. It's been taken over by National Signing Day, They've had coverage going since about 9 A.M. Eastern time on recruits choosing their schools. Who knew that high school gyms or living rooms could be changed into press conference rooms so fast. The lights, cameras, reporters, and all of the attention can all be very alluring for some of these kids that just want some attention. In 2008 one kid got a little too wrapped up in the whole idea of being recruited. His name was Kevin Hart and he always wanted to play college football. So with news crews, T.V. cameras, and reporters there he made his decision. He was going to play college football at the University of California! Everyone was ecstatic for him. This was a dream come true for him. There was just one little problem for him. No, it wasn't grades. It was that Cal had never offered him a scholarship to play there. It was a hoax and everyone bit hook, line, and sinker. Kevin later issued a public apology to everyone about the hoax and the mayhem that he had caused. Recently Kevin did sign an actual letter of intent to play for Missouri Western State. To read an update on his story you can check out this link on ESPN.
All in all today is a media frenzy of these high school athletes who have done what? Nothing, really.... Sure a lot of them are great kids and are active in helping out their communities but all in all they haven't really done anything to garner this much attention besides being athletic. So what do you get with the media crowning you as having the best recruiting class of the year? Just bragging rights for that year. No extra points in the polls, no free 'W' in the win column, just bragging rights. So how will this recruiting class turn out for your favorite team? Well I guess we'll have to check back in a couple of years and see how these recruits turned out.
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