NATIONAL SIGNING DAY

As Wednesday unfolds, countless young men across the United States will fax documents (yes, they really will fax them) to fine academic institutions, declaring their undying loyalty.

Yes, it’s National Signing Day (though the Associated Press stylebook says it should be capitalized). Feh. It’s another great American holiday.

Recruiting has always been a bit of a repulsive affair. Coaches sit in living rooms, snowing children about the glamor and glory of a program they’ll be leaving in a year for the glamor and glory of another program. They get a kid’s word, but it doesn’t mean anything until the paperwork is done. Kids appear on TV to announce their commitment (interesting choice of word there). The big business of college sports gets fresh bodies to feed its ever-churning engine. And people hang on every item.

ESPN will be running news steadily of the decisions. Newspapers will tweet, bleat, update and rewrite. Analysts who specialize in high school recruiting (there goes the Republic) will tell us how well or how poorly our favorite programs have done.

Joe Shlabotnik decommitted (yes, it is apparently a word) from Snodgrass State. Peagreen University flipped him (that’s the term). Now Peagreen has a four-star recruit and Snodgrass has to find another kid to offer.

Fan hunger fed media madness and here we are, staking out high school kids whose bodies will be used while their minds remain unfilled vessels. If it’s not exactly ugly, it certainly is unseemly. Sign on the dotted line, lads. You’ll be practicing for a month before you see the inside of a classroom.

That’s the business. We’re all in it, as supporters of college programs, as football fans, as voyeurs.

If only this much attention would be paid four years hence to the actual graduation rate of Wednesday’s heroes. But that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. It would, in fact, be sad.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .