By Jim Weber
As we approach National Signing Day 2012, I can’t help but marvel at the way college football fans have turned this into their Christmas, hoping to unwrap new recruits like WR Dorial Green-Beckham, DT Eddie Goldman and WR Stefon Diggs, just to name a few of the undecideds.
The difference between the coverage of recruiting now and my freshman year at the University of Michigan in 2001 is really hard to fathom.
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I still remember writing my first article for the school’s student newspaper on the decision of the No. 1 recruit in the country, WR Reggie Williams, between Washington and Michigan (he chose the Huskies).
The only reason I was allowed to co-byline the story is that few people paid attention to recruiting and no one had heard of Williams.
It was such a small niche of fans that actually followed recruiting that there were only three real players in the game: Tom Lemming (employed then by ESPN and regarded as the Mel Kiper of college recruiting), Rivals.com and SuperPrep. It tells you about the time that my best friend and I actually got to interview Lemming for our story.
The only real mainstream coverage of recruiting as Lemming’s Top 100 list (akin to Kiper’s Big Board) as fans updated each other on any developments by word of mouth on Rivals’ message boards.
Now just over a decade removed from my freshman year in college, look at where things stand now.
Along with two channels focusing just on college sports, ESPNU and CBS Sports Network (it changed names from CBS College Sports but still has a heavy college tilt), Rivals.com has been joined by Scout.com, ESPN Rise, MaxPreps, National Underclassmen and the newest outlet, 24/7 Sports, which is run by former Rivals founder Shannon Terry.
The U.S. Army All-American Bowl featuring the top recruits in the nation that started in 2000 had an attendance of nearly 40,000 in 2011 and a rating on NBC of 1.7 – almost identical to a college basketball game between brand-name programs Michigan and Kansas. There’s also an Under Armour game broadcast nationally on ESPN as well.
Recruits like Green-Beckham, Jadeveon Clowney and Seantrel Henderson are becoming household names before they step onto a college football field and are announcing their decisions on national TV as they soak up the attention by switching hats to throw off fans and pulling stunts like plucking bulldogs out of thin air.
So what exactly is the appeal of recruiting and National Signing Day in particular?
As Grantland points out, a big recruit can hypothetically fill a team’s need instantly and fans instantly project that one of the top recruits in the nation will eventually become a first-round NFL draft pick, blocking out all the cases of recruits that didn’t pan out (raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Kelly Baraka; I didn’t think so).
But it’s more than that, and I can think of three major factors that have contributed to where things stand now:
#1: We have become even more obsessed with child prodigies in sports.
Ever since Tiger Woods and LeBron James turned out to be even better than advertised (if that’s possible), we are constantly looking for the next teenager who will become a Hall of Famer.
Sydney Crosby and Bryce Harper are the two best examples and their sports are prone to even more speculation because high schoolers get drafted straight to the pros. But recruits are now constantly given labels like the “Next Vince Young” (Cam Newton), the “Next Julius Peppers” (Clowney), the “Next Randy Moss” (which people are already calling Green-Beckham) or the “Next DeMarcus Ware” (the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2013, Robert Nkemdiche).
And every time a comparison like that works out, such as with Newton, our projection obsession only grows.
#2: As also pointed out by Grantland but not not fully explained, recruiting has become reality TV.
The ups-and-downs of college recruiting are unbelievable. There are so many rumors (“I hear his high school coach is close with Coach X”, “Coach Y guaranteed he wouldn’t recruit another QB this year or next if he commits”, “Coach Z offered his mom a brand new house”) and so much speculation that fans can gossip all day about what it all means and which way a recruit is leaning.
For millions of men across America, college football recruiting has become our version of “Real Housewives.”
Even when someone verbally commits to a school, the drama isn’t nearly over until the pen hits the paper on National Signing Day. Exhibit A: Gunner Kiel. The top QB in the nation committed to Indiana, then LSU and finally Notre Dame – all before National Signing Day.
Just take a look at the Arkansas recruiting message board and take a look at how many times “DGB” (Green-Beckham) is mentioned to get a feel of the drama I’m talking about.
#3: Finally and most importantly, National Signing Day is the equivalent of the NFL draft, but there are higher stakes.
Yes, the NFL draft has that Christmas morning feel as well, with bad teams hoping to instantly get better and good teams looking to seal that final hole on the roster. But if the guy you wanted is picked one spot ahead of your team, you still get to pick. It’s not that way in college football.
If Green-Beckham picks Arkansas, Oklahoma or Texas over in-state Missouri, the Tigers won’t get to select Stefon Diggs to take his place at wideout. They will be left empty-handed and feeling like those in Cleveland when LeBron James took his talents to South Beach.
Even worse? Tiger fans may have to watch Green-Beckham terrorize Missouri’s secondary for three or four years if he picks the Razorbacks.
I can already picture Mizzou fans watching DGB’s Wednesday announcement with a brown paper bag in hand.
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Because of these factors, recruiting and National Signing Day have gotten so big I wouldn’t be surprised if, a decade from now, ESPN gathered the top 25 recruits in the nation and had them all announce their college choice on national television like the draft (the nation’s No. 1 recruit would select at the end of the show instead of the beginning to build the drama, of course).
Go ahead and picture the GameDay crew broadcasting the event, a jam-packed audience wearing jerseys, a green room full of recruits and families, bear hugs with conference commissioners after the announcements, photo sessions with hats and jerseys afterward followed by post-decision interviews with Erin Andrews.
Sound crazy? Funny, that’s what they said about the NFL draft 30 years ago.
Jim Weber is the president and founder of LostLettermen.com. His column appears each Monday.
