National Signing Day 2012: Why Hype Destroys High School Superstars

It is terribly difficult to know what you want to do with your life at the age of 18.

The top recruits in college football, however, don't have much of a choice.

Accompanied with the pressure and workload of being a scholarship athlete, these kids also have to live up to an entirely uncontrollable animal: hype.

In this technology-driven era of anything and everything recordable, highlights from high school superstars can go viral in a matter of minutes.

College students and alumni who are heavily invested in their respective football programs always want to know about the next big thing coming their way. It simply doesn't get much easier than YouTube.

Before a kid even steps on campus he's looked at as a savior, or the one missing piece that can put a program over the top.

This doesn't just happen all of a sudden either.

Colleges nab commitments so early in the process that it is astonishing how so many kids make it through their senior year unfazed.

Throughout all of this is the fact that these kids don't even get the opportunity to be kids at all either.

The recruiting process alone consumes their final two years of high school, and the minute they arrive on campus they're scrutinized for their every move.

When all is said and done, the hype and pressure placed on top recruits from the minute they leave Pee Wee football is overwhelming to say the least.

They're expected to give the world before they even decide what they want to study in college. 

The hype machine does a lot of things, and unfortunately destroying top recruits is one of them.