I have a love-hate relationship with recruiting.
It's my guilty pleasure. Some people love it because it's a great way to fill the gap between the end of bowl season and the beginning of spring practice.
Those people aren't doing it right -- you need to follow recruiting during the regular season, too.
It's a 24/7/365 love to some of us.
There are entire websites dedicated to just recruiting coverage.
Sure, they cover a team during the regular season, but they make their money offering premium insider information on the future of your favorite program.
But there are plenty of times where I hate it.
People start to obsess over the decision-making processes of 18-year-old kids who just so happen to dominate on the high school football field.
Twitter becomes a cesspool of fans lobbing corny tweets at potential targets.
And if his decision doesn't go your way, some fans cross the line and make threats.
C'mon, guys.
As a fan of the sport of college football, I follow recruiting because it has a lot to do with how teams will shake out in the future.
Why was Alabama able to build a dynasty that was unrivaled in the BCS Era?
Why was Auburn able to bounce back from a 3-9 season to a spot in Pasadena?
You bring highly ranked recruiting classes in year after year, and then you develop them to realize their full potential.
(Auburn only had the first half of that formula in the Chizik years, but it looks like Malzahn and Co. could have all of it down.)
But it's not a perfect formula by any means. After winning the 2011 Sugar Bowl, Michigan signed back-to-back Top-5 classes after hanging just outside the Top 10 in the recruiting rankings for several years.
The Wolverines' last two seasons finished 8-5 and 7-6, respectively.
For every Jadeveon Clowney and Cam Newton (two five-star recruits) there are guys like Nick Fairley and Johnny Manziel (two three-star recruits).
You don't know who is going to be a bust or a diamond in the rough.
Let's not even get started on the constant commitments and flips, the fax machine drama and the hat switches.
I believe nothing is for sure until the signee actually puts both feet on the campus after National Signing Day.
So why do we keep following it?
Why will some of us wake up at an ungodly hour next Wednesday morning and lock our eyes to ESPNU until way after the sun goes down?
Because it's college football.
It gives fans hope, no matter what the previous season record turned out to be.
It gives fans of powerhouses even more reasons to be dreaming of a national championship.
And it can be extremely fun to follow.
But like anything else in college football, fandom can turn into a dark obsession.
This past weekend I read an article from Tom Green, the preps reporter for the Opelika-Auburn News.
I helped cover area high school football for him during the fall, and I think he does a great job of telling the stories of these athletes we put under a microscope during recruiting season.
Green had a fantastic interview with Rashaan Evans, the five-star linebacker from Auburn High School who is considering Alabama and Auburn for his football future. In the interview, Evans spoke candidly about the constant pressure he's under as a blue-chip recruit.
"The fact I came out of Auburn High School and I were to go to Auburn, I have no other choice but to be successful," Evans said in the article. "It would almost be like people would see me as a disgrace to Auburn if I were to not be like everybody plans to make me. They're really putting me on a pedestal right now...It's a lot of pressure, man."
As the final week of recruiting rolls on and we prepare for National Signing Day, do these athletes a favor. Hang back and be a quiet observer of the recruiting chaos. A tweet never convinced a high schooler to go to a particular college.
We'll have coverage at our website all day next Wednesday, Feb. 5 -- we'll even cover Evans' highly anticipated decision that morning on location--and you can expect to see a lot of recruiting recap in next week's print issue.
So, fans, let us all enjoy the madness of National Signing Day in a positive way -- for ourselves and for the athletes.
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