DaytonDailyNews.com

National Signing Day has its place, but this is getting ridiculous.

On television Wednesday night you could see the absurdity of grown men instantly over-analyzing and talking about how certain college football teams either met or didn't meet their "needs."

I'm not saying these guys don't know what they're talking about. They do. But they don't know as much as they pretend. Nobody does.

Let's not talk about the 2008 recruiting class grades, let's look at the 2003 grades (factoring in some red-shirts). There are so many variables and yet some of these "experts" talk in absolutes.

At first glance, one service's 2003 grades look like gold. There at No. 1 is Louisiana State University, which won this past season's mythical national title game over Ohio State.

The Buckeyes? They were right behind at, uh, um, down the page, uh, next page. There. OSU was right behind LSU at No. 42. Minnesota was at No. 37 and Notre Dame was No. 12. Kansas and Missouri weren't ranked highly. Hmmm.

The growth of sports journalism, TV and the Internet have led to even more niche audiences — a big one being college football recruiting.

One coach told me a recruit gets a star added to his name when he gets certain offers. So, naturally, the top schools get the top guys.

I'm not ripping the Web sites. They found an audience willing to pony up cash to read about what-ifs and rankings that don't necessarily mean anything.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or

mgokavi@DaytonDailyNews.com.