National signing day is closing in, and the nation’s premier talent will make their future destinations official soon. 

It’s been a long road to get to this moment. Commitments, decommitments, visits, soft verbals, solid verbals and more unpredictable happenings since last year’s big day have again surfaced, and there will be a few more surprises. This much we can be certain of.

As far as locks—or guarantees when it comes to both recruits along with teams—that’s where we come in. From the No. 1 player in the country to the No. 1 class, here are some national signing day locks.

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Although the walls are still very much intact, you can see the cracks beginning to spider at a hurried pace in the NCAA. 

Slowly but surely, brick by brick, the barriers are beginning to show their wear. The tables are being turned on an organization that’s grown accustomed to being in complete control, and a new era of collegiate athletics could very well be on the horizon.

Still, there is much to be done before it all comes toppling downward. And, for now, it will continue to slowly chip away.

On Tuesday, Judge Claudia Wilken dismissed a motion from the NCAA that intended to keep college basketball and football players from legally pursuing a cut of the television revenue, both past and present, according to ESPN.com.

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National Signing Day is just over a week away, and recruitment has the college football world in a tizzy.

Kids are announcing commitments. Some are taking top secret official visits. Others are getting the big in-home visit from head coaches in an effort to seal the deal.

With the exception of the players who opted to enroll early, drama is peaking. Some kids will remain committed, while others will be swayed another way. Given the fluidity in recruiting, at least until the fax machines start rolling, things are bound to change.

However, right now, a week before the big date, here are my top 10 teams competing for the Recruiting National Championship. It must be noted that getting on the list is an achievement in and of itself. All of these classes are darn good, and the separation between first and 10th boils down to opinion and preference.

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"Don’t hate the player, hate the game."

This tired, overworked expression fits when it comes to recruiting. It applies when we examine how coaches will freely recruit players who have already committed, and it more than fits when we examine the players and their role in making national signing day the spectacle it has become.

Long gone are the days where a signed piece of paper—aka the National Letter of Intent—was the story.

This process of choosing a college and making it official with a signature is still the end game, but it’s how we get there that generates buzz. Some like the scene, others would much rather do without the hoopla, fireworks and (hopefully) live animals.

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After the Senior Bowl and his performance at the wide receiver position, Denard Robinson is still a mystery at the next level. The former Michigan Wolverine flashed and showed some potential, but ultimately did little to prove that he can be a wide receiver in the NFL.

As Matt Miller of Bleacher Report said:

Playing in the NFL is hard, and that's for guys who have spent their entire life training to play just one position. The transition both physically and mentally is a tremendous step. The game is faster, the players are stronger and they are professionals in every sense of the word. It is their job to be better than their opponent, and they take that quite seriously. 

Coaches expect more out of players at the next level. They are not there to teach you how to play football; they are paid to harness the skills players have and maximize production. In the league, they coach little things. They tweak. All of the major work is supposed to be done, and the coaches are there to put the finishing touches on a top-shelf athlete.

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Bob Bowlsby, the commissioner of the Big 12, is looking for a dance partner for his league, as reported by Kirk Bohls from the Austin American-Statesman. While two other unspecified conferences are on the table, it is the ACC that seems to be the clear leader at this stage in the process.

Unfortunately for fans who want this happen, there's no point in putting too much stock in this moving forward. It's just not something that is going to work in the current landscape of the collegiate athletic world. We've already seen the Pac-12 and Big Ten alliance fall apart before it ever had a chance to start, and this Big 12-ACC venture will be no different.

In theory it would be a blessing to fans. They'd get another guaranteed game against a big-time draw from a BCS conference—Florida State-Texas and Clemson-Oklahoma and the like. Those are games that would get fans pumped up and help fill up stadiums. In the current climate of full stands being hard to come by, one would think that would be a deciding factor.

Except that is not the only matrix by which this decision shall be made. Full stadiums are nice; flexibility in scheduling is better. The ACC is a league that already dropped its nine-game conference schedule plan due to the addition of Notre Dame to the conference slate.

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Until a recruit signs is Letter of Intent, he’s fair game.

Forget about your feelings and the fact that you’ve salivated over his highlight video on YouTube since the middle of his junior season. There is no loyalty in this peculiar yearly exercise, which no longer has a down moment. Not from the teams, the coaches or the players.

Recruiting is becoming more and more business-like—a trend that’s nowhere close to swinging back in sanity’s direction—and we should all accept it as such. It’s cutthroat, something we’re all very aware of. Yet, around this time every year, questions of ethics and recruiting code always surface, despite the fact that such a thing doesn’t actually exist beyond a loosely worded rulebook.

The scenarios remain very similar, even some of the faces involved, and 2013 is no exception. The top coaches want the top players, and if they see a chance to get them, they’re going to jump through a wall to do so.

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The spread, a term that in common usage has come to mean everything from shotgun two-wide sets to the Air Raid offense and the zone-read scheme, has taken the college world by storm. The proliferation started in the late 1990s and since then has picked up steam as teams find ways to make use of the innovative offensive schemes.

Here at Your Best 11 we've talked about why the offenses are so difficult to stop.

They put pressure on defenses and stretch teams to their limits—both mentally and physically. Through the air they get bodies in space. On the ground they make linebackers and defensive linemen guess at who will carry the ball.

Stopping these offenses is no small order, and what they have already done to college defenses is remarkable.

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