When I was covering sports down South, the joke was that the sports calendar was divided like this: College football season, bowl season, recruiting season and spring football.  That's why way down South, today is as big as Christmas or New Year's Eve as young men across the country commit to the university of their choosing.

We got more calls about recruiting in January than we did anything else.  And having a recruiter tracker on for an hour was the equivalent of radio gold.  People couldn't get enough.  And they all took it so personally.  "Do you think Johnny would really go to Florida State instead of Alabama?" they would ask like they had some say in the kids decision.  And between rivals like Alabama-Auburn or Tennessee-Alabama, it got even more personal.

Like the major league baseball draft, this all means nothing.  A bunch of stat guys rates a bunch of high school kids and then the school's recruiting classes.  But four years from now, even three years from now, how much impact will some of these guys have and will they even be where they are?  These guys all think they are Mel Kuiper Jr. and hound these kids endlessly with phone calls wanting to know where they are going so they can be the one to be the most accurate and get it out in their recruiting guide, which you can own for just $99.95.  I'd rather own a sham wow than one of those, to be honest with you.  At least a sham wow has some value.

I remember being at WJOX in Birmingham for just a couple of  months when I was ordered to grab a tape recorder and head to Rainbow City, AL.  "Why would I want to do that" I asked  Because Brodie Croyle was holding a press conference.   "So?" I said, knowing that Croyle was a high school kid and the son of former Alabama player and all-around good guy John Croyle.  "He's going to announce his school and we need to cover it.  GO!"  And so, I went.  I went to see a high school gym packed to the rafters and a 17 year-old kid holding a news conference to announce that he would be playing at Alabama (and not Florida State as was feared by the state populace.)  I thought then, as I do now, that nothing says exploitation like a high school kid holding a press conference.

We wonder why these college kids and athletes in general have attitudes, are hard to deal with and act like idiots.  It's because we enable them.  We allow these kids to be put up on a pedestal not only by the schools, but by fans and recruiting guys (the guys who track recruiting.)  We let them be on radio shows, on tv shows and we treat them like they are already in the NFL  That's pretty heady stuff for a boy who isn't even a man yet and the treatment continues throughout college and into the pros if they are lucky enough to get there.

This isn't a story about the recruiting process as that is a whole other column for a whole other day, but in certain parts of the country, people have parties on this day.  People track every announcement, every signing, every commitment like it is the most important news on earth.  And, truth be told, while having a great recruiting class is nice, several of these young men will have gotten injured, transfered or kicked out of the program by the time they are supposed to be playing.  Several other will wash out, either being over rated or by just not having the right stuff. 

Hey Arkansas?  Remember when you got Mitch Mustain how happy you were?  How'd that work out for you? 

How about you Tennessee?  Onterio Smith really worked out for you, didn't he? 

The bottom line is we, as media and fans, put way too much pressure on these kids.  Let's treat national signing day for what it is and not like a holiday. Let the kids celebrate their decision without pomp, circumstance or ESPN.