National Signing Day

Thanks for ruining it, ESPN.

I remember a time when admitting I paid any amount of money to watch videos of high school boys play football garnered some suspicious glances. Now, it seems everyone is in on it.

Today, for the non-obsessed college football fan, was national signing day. The day where high school standouts fax in letters of intent to play for college football programs which have recruited them for the better part of the last 18 months.

It’s the big payoff for those, myself included, who will watch video of prospects, read articles out of football camps and give their take on a message board, most likely one belonging to their favorite team. It sounds silly, and it probably is.  Thirty year old guys should be worrying about climbing the corporate ladder, joining the PTA and becoming uncool. Not worrying about some 17-year-old in Mississippi and his 40 yard dash time.

It wasn’t always like this. The valuation of high school athletes was largely left to coaches and a scant amount of media. Even when I started paying attention to the recruiting craze back in 2001 (when I opened my own Rivals account) it was already commercialized. Since Snowmageddon: Day 2 had me marooned at casa de Swalley, it afforded me an opportunity I haven’t experienced.

I watched a small amount of ESPNU’s ten (yes, ten) hours worth of coverage on National Signing Day. Just long enough to see where ESPN ranked Nebraska (number 14, Rivals.com ranked them 15) in terms of prospective talent. This must be what it’s like to watch CNBC or Bloomberg, right?

What struck me, apart from the fact ESPN needed ten hours to cover about four hours worth of “action,” was the amount of depth and information compiled on even the most unranked of unranked athletes. With our nation fully engrossed in football madness, and in the age of communication we now find ourselves in, how much longer before we know who they are taking, or worse yet interested in who they are taking, to prom?

I wonder how long it will be before we are looking a little too deep into the lives of minors. Just as an example, an Ohio State recruit was arrested for allegedly fondling “as many as” eight girls. I love they reported that “as many as” part. Not that he shouldn’t be reprimanded if the allegations are true, but wow. It gives you some perspective.

I’ve always struggled a little bit with paying as much attention as I do, and my wife makes fun of me about it whenever she catches me in a heated debate on why an offensive lineman didn’t get a fourth star but clearly should have. Usually the day of signing or the weeks following I find myself wondering why I spend so much time following the recruiting process. Which is probably why I have my account renew in January.

College Football is Over

Cecil and Cam Newton share a hug after the title game. Photo/Opelika-Auburn News

Say what you will about the BCS Champion Auburn Tigers and their exiting quarterback, Cam Newton.  The SEC champions are also winners of the BCS trophy.  With that, college football is over.  Not because of Cam’s season which was clouded with speculation over his father, Cecil Newton’s pay for play scandal with Mississippi State, but because it is technically in the books which is a giant relief, at least for my wife.

Football is the clear runaway sport in terms of television ratings and advertising revenue in this country, and it’s not even close.  With all the coverage of 30 plus bowl games, postseason awards and my own unhealthy obsession with my favorite team the stimulation from it all is staggering.

Cam Newton is on his way to the NFL, which in terms of ratings, money and fan support is becoming a giant among midgets in the sports world.  Last weekend the NFL Wildcard playoffs were watched by over 30 million viewers and overall, the NFL brought in over 200 million unique viewers over the course of the season.  The World Series this year lost out to a rerun of Will and Grace.

Not that I mind, I love watching the NFL.  And by all practical purposes, football is a built for television sport.  Of course going to the game is an “experience” but it’s almost better to watch on your couch than at the top of the stadium while you get rain/snow/beer spilled on you.  Baseball is all about going to the stadium, which shows why it struggles to even come near the NFL in terms of viewership.  The model is great in the pros, but will division 1-A ever take a page out of their book?

It almost makes you wonder where the breaking point is with amateur football.  How long before people stage some sort of boycott with the college game (FBS, specifically) because of incidents like Cam Newton?  Or just because not having a playoff makes the sport a total joke?  But how can there be any change with the status quo when more people show up to games and tune in to games in record numbers year over year?  Even during the last couple years when the economy was in the tank?

The fact is that we’ll never see a playoff in college football.  At least not like it is in the NFL or any other level of college football, which for the record is way more exciting.  People in charge of college ball and media pundits act like creating a playoff system is like splitting the atom, when any Joe sports fan has constructed a playoff with his buddies on a Saturday afternoon at the bar on a cocktail napkin.  And you know what?  It would probably work.

Auburn will go down in the history books as the 2010 national champion (well, until the NCAA takes it away in four or five years, along with Cam’s Heisman), but everyone knows it will always be a mythical national championship.  And the teams that came before the Tigers have the same claim.  Until a team like TCU or Ohio State can play Auburn next in a plus one system or have a full on postseason playoff, it’s all an exhibition.

An Embarrassment

Nebraska head football coach Bo Pelini. Photo/ESPN.com

Nebraska fans knew what they were getting into with head coach Bo Pelini when he was hired in 2007.  Now, Taylor Martinez is rumored to have quit the team.

Last night’s loss to Texas A&M illustrated it to the most severe degree in his tenure as head coach at Nebraska.  It will no doubt go down as another transgression against the image of the university and athletic department, which is only matched by his post game tirade against Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder in 2003 as defensive coordinator under Frank Solich.

Whatever Taylor Martinez did to provoke the now infamous tongue lashing at the hands of Pelini did not necessarily justify Pelini’s public and outrageous response on the sideline last night.  The word around the campfire varies from texting or calling his father while in the locker room to going off on teammate and center Mike Caputo for causing the injury.

The only thing that has been “confirmed” is Martinez was not present for this afternoon’s player meeting.  Right now it can still be chalked up to a rumor until the athletic department confirms the absence.

For those outside the Husker fan base, Martinez has been nothing short of a little flaky.  What they don’t tell you on ESPN is how he tried to bolt during spring ball because of the wide open competition Pelini and staff implemented at a position he was yet to earn a start at.  Also important to this situation is the fact he transferred to three different high schools in four years in California while his family didn’t change their address once.  Not a smoking gun, but it shows a propensity for looking out for number one.

There is a ton of blame to go around and no doubt there is plenty of Sunday morning “quarterbacking” going on.  With the last ten years, the Husker fan base is also as fragile as a type two diabetics blood sugar level at a Hostess factory.  So until Martinez steps foot on the practice field the rumor mill will be churning.

Whatever the case may be, Pelini was an absolute embarrassment last night.  There is a sect of fans who honestly believe in a Big 12 conspiracy against Nebraska for leaving for the Big 10 and not being shy about it being a better situation across the board.  To this theory, I say so what?

As a championship contender, you have to and should rise above it.  Clearly, from the top down things are chaotic and manic at times with Pelini at the helm.  Penalties have been an issue with this version of the Huskers since Pelini’s arrival, before the announced move to the Big 10.  After watching him prowl the sidelines last night while viciously and repeatedly attacking officials it is not hard to understand why this team is as undisciplined as it is on the field.

To make things worse, University of Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman gave a statement to the Associated Press this morning calling Bo’s actions “unfortunate.”  Keeping things in-house is always the preferred method, but Perlman seems more apt to clear the university and himself from Pelini’s actions rather than having the issue dealt with.  With athletic director Tom Osborne on his way out in the near future, it will be interesting to see what Nebraska’s move is in a new conference if Martinez departs.

Within the last 24 hours the team seems to be crumbling, and with the Big 12 North hanging in the balance the Huskers can ill afford this amount of disruption.