Sign of the Times

This might be considered slightly off-topic in that the article we are linking doesn't directly mention oversigning, but the point we want to illustrate is that college football recruiting has become as big of a game as the actual game played on the field; it even has its own National Championship ranking on National Signing Day.  We have written about this in the past and this video of Randy Edsall is one of our all-time favorites.

Today, Matt Hinton takes a look back  at Lane Kiffen and Ed Orgeron's recruiting class of 2009 which paints an ugly picture of the recruiting "game."  Oversigning is a byproduct of this game, as is the medical hardship issue and the greyshirting issue, and the one thing they all have in common is that they lead to the exploitation of kids by coaches.  Not all coaches are this way; for every one scumbag coach that only cares about jacking up the recruiting rankings and landing a bonus or another gig because "he's a great recruiter," there are probably 3-4 or more coaches that are really sincere and really care about the future of their kids.  

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Janzen-Jackson-sends-Tennessee-s-Kiffin-class-?urn=ncaaf-318407

That's all for now, back to working on the cup standings.

Update:  Here is another quick read about some of the craziest recruitment stories this year.  Just another example of how much the recruiting process has turned into the game.  Pretty sickening.

http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2011/2/8/1971884/reader-poll-craziest-recruitments-of-2011