National Signing Day

It's today, I see.

I know nothing. But I figured there should be a thread.

What can you guys tell me?

 

I don't get Signing Day. It's no NFL draft.

 

The ad ESPN has been running for their coverage, the long pan over the line of hats on the table, is pretty solid.

 

Weird and super creepy that grown men sit around and think deeply about the college choices of teenagers they don't know and will never meet.

That being said, I have a signing day event to cover in an hour. At least I'm being paid to be there.

 

Having spent years in a state where high school/college is the be-all, end-all, I've always been amazed at the obsession with recruiting "news." And to your point, it's disconcerting personally and professionally when journalists hero worship these top recruits -- to the point in at least one instance I know of where a writer got a recruit's autograph.

 

Yeah, but they are teen-agers who can run and throw and tackle and jump.

If you can block out the circus aspect, it's not different than keeping up with minor league baseball prospects or the NFL and NBA drafts.

Working for a newspaper, I was fortunate that we never really had to deal with keeping up with recruiting other than calling kids and doing stories after verbally committed. They were typically pleasant kids, not bad to talk to, and it was nice to chat them up a little bit before they got to campus.

You also then had their cell phone number for later.

 

I used to help cover National Signing Day for a paper that covered a major SEC program. Fans would almost treat it as a game, tailgating outside the athletic building, going to sports bars to wait on letters of intent news, hanging around the athletic building.

All in celebration of the whims of boys not old enough to drink yet. I always found it creepy how much grown men cared/knew about these high school players who may one day take a snap for their alma mater but who were also just as likely to wash out, flunk out or get kicked out.

 

Most minor-league players, with very few exceptions, are high school graduates and 18 or older.

And have already experienced a certain amount of professional pride. They are getting paid, they are getting signing bonuses, they've hit at least four of the six numbers on the lottery.

College recruiting is more like they get the chance to buy the lottery ticket.

But what a weird and trippy experience to be 17 or 18, and have grown men, millionaires several times over, hanging out at their house. Talking to them every day. Getting their every whim catered to on recruiting visits up to and including the use of the stable of whores every major college keeps. Under the table promises of money and jobs for their parents.

The bag men with their sacks of cash.

 

I'm just saying I don't think that most of the fans who follow it are "creepy" or "weird." I just don't think they think about it that deeply.

 

Hell, this is a Web site where 90 percent of us probably spent at least 5-10 years of our professional lives covering teen-agers' athletic exploits.

 

Shut it down. We've already got our highlight for the day:


SOMI JaMITCHELL ‏@Soso_Jamabo1
Officially Committed...Asian Girls Everywhere...UCLA

 

Yep. Don't see how anything can top that.