National Signing Day 2009

[See Red]

Signing day, and the recruiting process as a whole just piss me off. First off, like oddball said, it's ridiculous for a high school kid to announce his college choice in front of cameras and reporters. This, and HS coverage on ESPN and USA Today just plants the seed of entitlement in athletes earlier than ever before. Does the kid that gets the scholarship to study economics or medicine do the same thing? They don't, and the injustice is that the latter kid is the one that's actually going to use what the school provides them for the rest of their life. Even though only a small percentage of athletes will go pro, a great number of them are still only going through the motions of academic life with NFL and NBA dollar signs in their eyes. It's all such a huge waste of educational resources, the business of educating kids being what a school's core purpose is in the first place.

I wish college athletics could go back to a simpler time, when they were just a fun sidebar for the kids that were going to school there anyway. I can even understand offering scholarships for sports, but I hate the idea of schools pursuing kids. I think it should be the other way around. Let them decide where they want to go without all the pressure and corruption, and if they deserve it, they'll go.

When 100,000 people jam into a stadium every week to watch a kid study, or practice, economics or medicine, then yeah, they probably will get to announce their choice of college in front of cameras and reporters. As it is, an elite college football program alone brings over $40-50 million in revenue to a school. Money that goes back into the schools general fund in addition to funding a schools entire athletic program. I saw a Forbes article that a few years ago, the Notre Dame football program contributed $20+ million to the schools Academic fund. I understand that every school's not like Notre Dame, or The Ohio State University, or LSU, USC, etc., but I'd wager that a large number of even the less prestigious college football programs turn a profit, money that goes towards funding other sports and serving the purpose of collegiate athletics, making college life more enjoyable.

[rams80]

Well, I looked at the top recruiting classes by most of the people who know a little bit about it: (espnu, scout.com, rivals.com):

The good: MSU has a mid-to-lower Top 25 recruiting class in virtually everybody's opinion.

The bad: That's good for 7th or 8th best in the SEC.

Mullen better pull a hell of a coaching miracle.

Ten SEC schools made most folks' top-25 recruiting rankings. That's pretty impressive. One thing's for sure.....the competition will sure be fun to watch.

Signing day, and the recruiting process as a whole just piss me off. First off, like oddball said, it's ridiculous for a high school kid to announce his college choice in front of cameras and reporters. This, and HS coverage on ESPN and USA Today just plants the seed of entitlement in athletes earlier than ever before. Does the kid that gets the scholarship to study economics or medicine do the same thing? They don't, and the injustice is that the latter kid is the one that's actually going to use what the school provides them for the rest of their life. Even though only a small percentage of athletes will go pro, a great number of them are still only going through the motions of academic life with NFL and NBA dollar signs in their eyes. It's all such a huge waste of educational resources, the business of educating kids being what a school's core purpose is in the first place.

I wish college athletics could go back to a simpler time, when they were just a fun sidebar for the kids that were going to school there anyway. I can even understand offering scholarships for sports, but I hate the idea of schools pursuing kids. I think it should be the other way around. Let them decide where they want to go without all the pressure and corruption, and if they deserve it, they'll go.

I actually did this as a joke at home. I wish I could find that tape, I put about 5 hats on the table and had a ball under the 'winner'.

This is the best idea I've heard all day.

But, shockingly, I agree with Milo somewhat. Most students have to apply to college. Colleges apply to the best football and basketball players.

Colleges recruit the top academic students in similar ways that they recruit student-athletes. The only difference is that they aren't shown on ESPN juggling hats, and their speaking skills are a hundred times more literate.

I have no problem with this glorification of kids signing with schools. I don't get all that excited about signing day, but I don't have any beefs about it.

Honestly, it is THEIR day. Even when/if they were ever eligible or their life takes a sad downturn, they at least had school stopped, education haulted and a camera in front of them with their Sunday best to see them pick out a hat. I am surprised that school districts still think that this mess is a good thing.

Oh, I dunno....perhaps the school districts think it is a good thing because if you consistently have folks stopping their class for a day, more of these athletes will want to come to your school, and more fans will want to pour money into your school coffers to watch these athletes play on the field.

Besides, it's not like most of the players in question had rigorous courseloads to begin with.

[Milo Meningocele]

Seems like some of you have just thrown up your hands, and resorted to jokes and rationalization. To me, that says that you just love your college football too much to see or care about the bigger picture.

[rams80]

Seems like some of you have just thrown up your hands, and resorted to jokes and rationalization. To me, that says that you just love your college football too much to see or care about the bigger picture.

It's more like I'm too cynical. We had a Division I athlete at my high school when I went there. They never did homework, and the school never cared about any possible disruptions in academic life. It was more important that the basketball team was winning.

You want the big picture? The big picture is that our public schools are underfunded, and will try to do just about anything to increase the amount of money flowing into their coffers. The big picture is that a successful football team likely can pay the entire athletic department budget by itself through game revenue and alumni donations....and have some left over for the rest of the school.

"Education" takes a back seat to the almighty dollar in cases such as this. It's sad, but that's the way of the world.

[The_Admiral]

I have no problem with this glorification of kids signing with schools. I don't get all that excited about signing day, but I don't have any beefs about it.

Don't you worry that this sets the stage for more generations of selfish athletes, though? One of the problems I have is that not all of these highly touted kids are going to make it, and I'm not talking about the pros, I just mean getting through the first couple of practices and scrimmages. I have reservations about treating these 17- and 18-year-olds as stars when they could turn out to be nothing, not because I'll feel misled as a fan of college sports (which I am not), but because of how it must feel for them.

It's a systemic problem that has snowballed out of control, really. An overabundance of available programming hours has created a market for these sorts of ancillary events, and now it's not going to go away. It'll just get worse. Even as recently as five years ago I don't recall such interest in this.

[sc49erfan15]

Winthrop didn't sign anyone.

I'm uninterested.

[HedleyLamarr]

I have no problem with this glorification of kids signing with schools. I don't get all that excited about signing day, but I don't have any beefs about it.

Don't you worry that this sets the stage for more generations of selfish athletes, though? One of the problems I have is that not all of these highly touted kids are going to make it, and I'm not talking about the pros, I just mean getting through the first couple of practices and scrimmages. I have reservations about treating these 17- and 18-year-olds as stars when they could turn out to be nothing, not because I'll feel misled as a fan of college sports (which I am not), but because of how it must feel for them.

It's a systemic problem that has snowballed out of control, really. An overabundance of available programming hours has created a market for these sorts of ancillary events, and now it's not going to go away. It'll just get worse. Even as recently as five years ago I don't recall such interest in this.

ESPN knows what butters their bread: Football. Any sort of football programming, whether it be high school or college or pro, ESPN knows will draw in sports viewers. What's even more ridiculous? ESPN will be airing UGA's G-Day Game (Spring intrasquad game that concludes spring practice) this April. A glorified practice/scrimmage will be getting air-time on ESPN. But it's football (and it's live).....

These kids are getting their day in the sun....they're making the most of their current opportunities. Isn't that what parents want their kids to do?

[rams80]

Winthrop didn't sign anyone.

I'm uninterested.

Is this where you break out a "Winthrop football, undefeated" T-Shirt?

[sc49erfan15]

Winthrop didn't sign anyone.

I'm uninterested.

Is this where you break out a "Winthrop football, undefeated" T-Shirt?

[The_Admiral]

These kids are getting their day in the sun....they're making the most of their current opportunities. Isn't that what parents want their kids to do?

I don't know if parents want their kids to act like entitled twits, though.

[Thad]

Why are people saying that no one gets recruited for academically? I know plenty of kids that did.

I have friends who had people from Harvard, Princeton, UNC come to their doors. Even I was getting letters from many school's Business Schools asking me to consider going there. If a "regular student" wants to get recruited like that they can, you just have to get your name out there.

[TFoA]

Why are people saying that no one gets recruited for academically? I know plenty of kids that did.

I have friends who had people from Harvard, Princeton, UNC come to their doors. Even I was getting letters from many school's Business Schools asking me to consider going there. If a "regular student" wants to get recruited like that they can, you just have to get your name out there.

Exactly. I cant tell you how many letters, calls, and invitations to "prospective student" meetings that I got from pretty much any school you can name after I sent my SAT scores out. I know I didn't get free shoes, fancy caps to put on, and school stopped just to announce which school I decided to go to, but there was damn sure some recruiting involved. Hell, a rep from Morehouse came into my house and talked with my family, so it can happen to anyone with good grades and a nice SAT score, you've just got to put yourself out there. So basically most of the talk of recruiting being limited to athletes is kinda wrong, since it happens to everyone.

[Drew22]

Why are people saying that no one gets recruited for academically? I know plenty of kids that did.

I have friends who had people from Harvard, Princeton, UNC come to their doors. Even I was getting letters from many school's Business Schools asking me to consider going there. If a "regular student" wants to get recruited like that they can, you just have to get your name out there.

Exactly. I cant tell you how many letters, calls, and invitations to "prospective student" meetings that I got from pretty much any school you can name after I sent my SAT scores out. I know I didn't get free shoes, fancy caps to put on, and school stopped just to announce which school I decided to go to, but there was damn sure some recruiting involved. Hell, a rep from Morehouse came into my house and talked with my family, so it can happen to anyone with good grades and a nice SAT score, you've just got to put yourself out there. So basically most of the talk of recruiting being limited to athletes is kinda wrong, since it happens to everyone.

I get a bunch of emails about colleges after my PSATs, similar to what you describe.

[lbr218]

Why are people saying that no one gets recruited for academically? I know plenty of kids that did.

I have friends who had people from Harvard, Princeton, UNC come to their doors. Even I was getting letters from many school's Business Schools asking me to consider going there. If a "regular student" wants to get recruited like that they can, you just have to get your name out there.

Exactly. I cant tell you how many letters, calls, and invitations to "prospective student" meetings that I got from pretty much any school you can name after I sent my SAT scores out. I know I didn't get free shoes, fancy caps to put on, and school stopped just to announce which school I decided to go to, but there was damn sure some recruiting involved. Hell, a rep from Morehouse came into my house and talked with my family, so it can happen to anyone with good grades and a nice SAT score, you've just got to put yourself out there. So basically most of the talk of recruiting being limited to athletes is kinda wrong, since it happens to everyone.

I get a bunch of emails about colleges after my PSATs, similar to what you describe.

I also got recruited academically, but I was not a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, like some of the kids in my school, who got ten times more letters than anyone else did.

[cappital92]

Why are people saying that no one gets recruited for academically? I know plenty of kids that did.

I have friends who had people from Harvard, Princeton, UNC come to their doors. Even I was getting letters from many school's Business Schools asking me to consider going there. If a "regular student" wants to get recruited like that they can, you just have to get your name out there.

Exactly. I cant tell you how many letters, calls, and invitations to "prospective student" meetings that I got from pretty much any school you can name after I sent my SAT scores out. I know I didn't get free shoes, fancy caps to put on, and school stopped just to announce which school I decided to go to, but there was damn sure some recruiting involved. Hell, a rep from Morehouse came into my house and talked with my family, so it can happen to anyone with good grades and a nice SAT score, you've just got to put yourself out there. So basically most of the talk of recruiting being limited to athletes is kinda wrong, since it happens to everyone.

I get a bunch of emails about colleges after my PSATs, similar to what you describe.

I got two letters from the Army after my PSATs.

I didn't do too well.

[Drew22]

Why are people saying that no one gets recruited for academically? I know plenty of kids that did.

I have friends who had people from Harvard, Princeton, UNC come to their doors. Even I was getting letters from many school's Business Schools asking me to consider going there. If a "regular student" wants to get recruited like that they can, you just have to get your name out there.

Exactly. I cant tell you how many letters, calls, and invitations to "prospective student" meetings that I got from pretty much any school you can name after I sent my SAT scores out. I know I didn't get free shoes, fancy caps to put on, and school stopped just to announce which school I decided to go to, but there was damn sure some recruiting involved. Hell, a rep from Morehouse came into my house and talked with my family, so it can happen to anyone with good grades and a nice SAT score, you've just got to put yourself out there. So basically most of the talk of recruiting being limited to athletes is kinda wrong, since it happens to everyone.

I get a bunch of emails about colleges after my PSATs, similar to what you describe.

I got two letters from the Army after my PSATs.

I didn't do too well.

Ouch. I've gotten multiple letters from some good schools. A few BCS schools.

[RyanMcD29]

Ehh I got a ton of letters after the PSAT, but the majority of them are from places I've never heard of. Of course, I also got some good ones as well, including some SUNY schools I applied to. Of course, the mail becomes a nusance your senior year as I check my mail and when I'm expecting something outta one of the 6 SUNYs I got into or hearing back from Syracuse, I'm getting crap from some no-name school out in the middle of Pennsylvania

[Thad]

Ehh I got a ton of letters after the PSAT, but the majority of them are from places I've never heard of. Of course, I also got some good ones as well, including some SUNY schools I applied to. Of course, the mail becomes a nusance your senior year as I check my mail and when I'm expecting something outta one of the 6 SUNYs I got into or hearing back from Syracuse, I'm getting crap from some no-name school out in the middle of Pennsylvania

The colleges that sent at least a letter a week

- NYU

- Miami (Fl)

- Randolph Mason (or Macon, one of those two)

- Washington and Lee

- Washington University of St. Louis

After a while I almost got the the point where I threw the letters from these schools away before I read them.

[Drew22]

I get weekly letters from Miami and NYU too.

[RyanMcD29]

Oh yeah, I got a letter a week from NYU, too. And as someone who's top choice is Syracuse, quite an expensive school, even I think NYU's a rip-off haha