Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Thought on National Signing Day

I can't be seduced by the coolness.

I refuse to get swept away in the hype and the drama.

Look, I love college football as much as the next person. Even though I didn't grow up watching the sport, I fell in love with it when I set foot on campus 14 years ago.

But this whole National Signing Day frenzy?

It makes absolutely no sense to me.

There are lots of writers that I admire that cover college football and I'm following on Twitter. Most of the action on my CFB Twitter feed today is about National Signing Day and the reports of where kids have faxed their letters of intent.

If someone gets off a good line I'll comment.

But I find it hard to get breathless about where someone is going to school.

I think I'm more of games person. I want to see them play before I have any man crushes develop.

Perhaps it is because my high school didn't have football that I find it hard to feel the excitement.

Maybe it's because I find it hard to get inside the heads of 17-19 year olds, some who flip flop more than a fish on a hot dock.

Or maybe I'm just cynical about the whole industrial complex that, again, is treating 17 to 19 year olds like the second coming for some of these colleges and universities, and continues to cocoon and coddle some (not all) of these kids, sheltering them from the realities of what they truly need to be successful in college and in life.

Okay, enough of my grumpy old man rant.

I'll go back to bitching about the BCS soon enough.