It is a new day and age for recruiting. The enormous appetite for college football in this country has caused National Signing Day to become one of the most anticipated days in the sports world. It has now become almost a sporting event of its own.
Signing Day is now an all day affair. Starting at 6 a.m., the nation’s top recruits hold press conferences to announce where they will be playing college football next fall. As each young prospect sits down at a table with his coaches and loved ones behind him, millions of fans across the country sit glued to their TV sets waiting for the young man to make his choice. Sometimes, I begin to wonder: What makes Signing Day so appealing?
Recruiting in college football is such an inexact science. Trying to predict what an 18-year-old kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders is going to do is extremely difficult. Fans eagerly wait with suspense to see what hat the prospect is going to put on, signifying where he will spend his next four years. It is this suspense that makes National Signing Day such an intriguing day for college football fans.
The moment of elation when a top recruit puts on the hat with your school’s name on it is a feeling of success like no other. Likewise, the anger and disappointment of losing a prospect in what has become known as a “flip” brings out a great amount of emotion among all college football fans.
The national media has played a huge role in the popularity of National Signing Day. ESPN and its family of networks flood into high schools across the country to televise the decisions of top prospects. Putting an 18-year-old kid on national television to announce where he will be playing college sports creates tremendous excitement but also tremendous pressure.
The spotlight is now on that young adult from the moment he signs his letter of intent to the moment he steps on the field the following fall. The access the fans have to recruits through television and social media constantly leaves something to talk about and analyze year round in regards to college football. College football is becoming a year round sporting event, with the peak of the offseason coming on National Signing Day.
Another thing that makes National Signing Day so intriguing is how ironic the process can be at times.
Remember the LeBron James decision a couple of years ago?
The iconic basketball star took harsh criticism when he announced in a television special that he was “taking his talents” to Miami. If you look at signing day, the process really is not that much different. Young talent is lauded and praised for announcing on TV where they will be taking their talents. It has become acceptable and encouraged to announce a signing in this fashion.
Another ironic yet intriguing aspect of National Signing Day is the access that social media gives fans to prospects.
Though by rule it is an NCAA violation to contact a recruit by social media to persuade a prospect, it is hardly enforceable. Fans young and old constantly send tweets to recruits telling them where they should go or what colors they would look best in. In most all other scenarios, an adult tweeting at an 18-year-old kid to tell him what colors he would look best in would be viewed as highly inappropriate; yet in the recruiting process leading up to signing day, it commonly occurs. There really is nothing quite as intriguing and entertaining as National Signing Day.
National Signing Day is without a doubt an important day for college football programs. The national media has taken this day and turned it into a highly entertaining and eventful process to watch play out. It always promises to be one of the craziest days of the year for sports fans and will continue to entertain fans for years to come.
