Think back to applying to college. The time was stressful enough with applications, campus visits and deciding where you would live for the next four years.
Now remember all that pressure, and add in a number of older men trying to get you to come to their school, and unknown strangers discussing your future over the internet. Welcome to the world of college football recruiting.
In recent years, recruiting popularity has taken off and has become a phenomenon that borders on ridiculousness. Two large media networks offer extensive recruiting coverage with rankings, video and regular updates on players. High school all-star games have sprung up, and some die-hard fans even begin following prospects when they are sophomores.
The world of recruiting also has an infatuation with players from Florida, Texas and California, who are deemed to be faster"" and ""more athletic"" than other states by nature.
Aside from being rather troubling (so many anonymous people following the stories of 16 to 18-year-olds), the world of recruiting coverage has one big problem. The seas of rankings and ratings are not reflected much in college football.
Some will point out that college teams with high rankings tend to do better than teams with low rankings. There are a few explanations for this.
First, college football teams tend to play around the same level for given periods of time. Texas, USC and Florida are usually good, and the rankings reflect that. Do the rankings really show that those schools have brought in good talent, or is it simply that we know those schools have good coaches and will get good players?
Furthermore, player rankings are affected by what schools recruit them. When a recruiting service sees that Florida or Notre Dame is recruiting a player, that player is thus rated higher because those coaches usually get talent, so it's a safe bet that the player is talented in theory.
The Michigan Wolverines have five consecutive top-10 recruiting classes entering this season, and yet they went 3-9. Somehow Northwestern won nine games while recruiting quite poorly.
A look at the player rankings from
Rivals.com shows that the rankings of individual players are also flawed. Former Badger Tyler Donovan was a fine quarterback for one season, but out of high school was rated above Joe Thomas, Jake Long, Paul Posluszny and Matt Ryan.
Any idea who the highest rated Badger recruit since 2002 was? That would be lineman Justin Ostrowski, who was considered one of the top 100 players in the country, but finished with fewer than 15 tackles as a Badger.
Some fans will call for Curt Phillips to start at quarterback next season for Wisconsin and point out that he was rated the No.7 dual-threat quarterback in the nation (it is not as great as it sounds since there are two categories for quarterback recruits).
The problem is, those same fans, who wretch at the idea of Dustin Sherer starting, forget that he was rated one spot ahead of Heisman Trophy runner-up Colt McCoy. Oops.
In the world of sports, there is obsession with the possibility in an unseen player. It's like a Christmas present that could be so many things before it is opened, but in the end there is something real, which probably can't live up to expectations.
With the announcement of Wisconsin's recruiting class, do not overrate the importance of the day. Recruiting holds an important place in the world of college football, but it does not matter if they don't perform on the field.
After watching P.J. Hill and Jack Ikegwuonu play real games, does it matter that they were rated below Deon Foster and Sean Lewis?
No? Then just relax, hope for the best and don't waste time obsessing over how many Texans and Floridians choase to come to Madison.
Still excited for the arrival of top-25 wide receiver Kraig Appleton? Remind Ben that highly rated classes are the lifeblood of a successful program at breiner@wisc.edu.
