Four Reasons Why Not To Follow College Football Recruiting

There are many reasons why I like college football. The large number of teams and disparity in talent among them breeds an incredible variety of styles to both offense and defense that you just can’t get in the NFL.

College games have more excitement too, and to me, campus stadiums just have a better feel than the large, impersonal corporate palaces of the NFL.

One thing I can’t stand, though, is recruiting. More specifically, I can’t stand the huge amount of attention placed on recruiting from outside observers.

I can understand why people like it. It has the same kind of speculative feel as picking small cap stocks does. It’s the closest thing we have to a draft for colleges in today’s sporting culture that pays huge amounts of attention to the NFL and NBA drafts. The focus on it just rubs me the wrong way though.

To explain myself, I have made a list of four reasons why I don’t follow recruiting.

1. Commitments Aren’t Binding

Until a player signs on the dotted line on National Signing Day, no commitment is binding. A recruit can decide to change his mind up until the moment he puts the pen to the paper.

Plenty of players every year change their minds, which is perfectly fine. It is a huge decision, and they should be able to make up their mind whenever and however they want. However, it does mean that the big recruitniks get their feelings hurt every year when Jimmy Fivestars decides to reverse his oral commitment and switch from their school to another.

Just let me know who’s on the list once they’ve signed. I have better things to do than worry about whether a 17-year-old is wavering on his college choice or not. He owes nothing to anyone until he has put his commitment on paper.

2. Information Quality is Dodgy

Stan heard from his friend close to the Juggernaut University Bakery Raiders that Jimmy Fivestars is leaning towards an oral commitment. However, Joe knows a guy who knows Jimmy’s best friend and he says that Jimmy didn’t like the Raiders’ locker room on his official visit and might be looking elsewhere.

Meanwhile Mike said that a rival coach is spreading misinformation about JU’s academics, while Larry heard that another rival coach is telling recruits that the Raiders’ coach might be out after this year if he doesn’t win a bowl.

Frank’s source says that Jimmy might not come if Hugh Positioncoach takes a job elsewhere, and it also says the JU coaching staff is lying about Hugh’s obvious interest in that coordinator opening at Directional State University.

I run across stuff like that all the time, and you know what? All of it may be true, or none of it may be true. So much misinformation gets spread around officially and unofficially through coaches, the media, message boards, and the recruiting services that you don’t know what to believe.

One guy swears something is true, while someone else promises you it’s not. It’s like people have forgotten that you really can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

3. The Recruiting Services

The idea of grown adults contacting high school kids they don’t know on a regular basis just weirds me out. The idea of more grown adults paying money to see the information they get in real time creeps me out.

College coaches have a legitimate reason for contacting the kids, of course, so that’s fine. They have to sell their programs and get to know the athletes to make sure they want them on their teams.

On the other hand, reporters for recruiting services doing that really bothers me. Being 23 years old myself, I can remember high school and what it was like pretty vividly. While I wasn’t on the football team, I was still pretty busy with all of my commitments.

High school football players are busy enough between school, homework, practice, recruiting calls from coaches, and their social lives. They don’t need even more bother from reporters from websites who are just going to turn around and sell the information to their subscribers.

4. Busts

Not every highly touted high school player comes in and excels in college. Some low-rated players come in and become stars. The rating someone gets usually predicts how well the player does, but it is by no means perfect.

I’d rather go by what the head coach says after seeing the incoming freshmen in practice. If you set your expectations by what the coaches say after seeing a player go against real collegiate competition, you’re less likely to see someone as a bust.

In Florida’s case, the recruitniks said that getting RB Markus Manson out of Alabama was a huge coup and that he’d make a big difference. The coaches said he doesn’t run hard enough, and as a result Manson hasn’t played much.

The recruitniks said DE Carlos Dunlap could come in right away and contribute with his freakish build. The coaches said he learned no technique at all in high school, and it really showed when Dunlap came in during mop-up time.

By listening to the coaches, I am less likely to be upset over the way a guy performs (or doesn’t, as the case may be).  I see Manson as a career backup rather than a colossal bust.

This keeps me from getting angry at Manson for not producing more, like some Gator fans I have seen get. That in turn makes my disposition towards the team a little sunnier, which is perfect for me since I like to enjoy football as much as possible.

To conclude, if you’re one of those recruitniks and you just have to have that latest information, I don’t know what to say to you. If you really want to get emotionally invested in high schoolers you don’t know because they might (might!) be interested in playing a sport for your favorite college, there’s probably nothing I can say to you to change that.

Just don’t expect me to jump in the middle of any arguments over recruiting with you.