#1 Cochran - PSR Showdown
Has Recruiting Become Over-Hyped?

Don't Believe The Hype
By Kevin Gorman
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

After spending a decade covering high school football, including five-plus years writing a recruiting column, it would be foolish to say that the subject is overblown. Recruiting is the lifeblood for every college program.

It's the recruits who are over hyped.

Because of the media saturation surrounding high school sports, football in particular, prospects become overnight sensations and household names that are expected to be the magical solution to the school they choose. That media spotlight, from internet recruiting sites to televised games to newspaper reports, has intensified the coverage of recruiting to the point where fans are so familiar with the prospects that they pick and choose recruiting wish lists as if it were fantasy football.

Problem is, we have come to recognize prospects not for their abilities but instead their star ratings, national rankings and number of scholarship offers. That is the folly of following recruiting: buying into the hype.

Based on such things, who would have known that Aliquippa's Darrelle Revis would turn out to be the biggest star in the WPIAL Class of 2004? After all, Penn Hills' Anthony Morelli was rated the nation's No. 1 quarterback and North Hills' Andrew Johnson was a Top 10 tailback.

Who would have known that Seton-La Salle quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, who didn't receive a Division I-A scholarship offer until late January, would go on to a record-setting career at Toledo and start as an NFL rookie?

I could give countless examples of surprising stars or big-time busts. It's not fair to those players. Some of them had no business being ranked as high as they were.

Recruiting is an inexact science. Too often, we base our opinions on the wrong principles. We look at measurable numbers like heights and weights, 40-yard dash and 20-yard shuttle times, maximum bench press, vertical leap or padded statistics against high school competition.

The prospects that succeed at the next level have one common characteristic that can't be measured by scale or stopwatch. They share a burning desire to work hard, compete and excel.

They don't believe the hype.

Kevin Gorman covers high school and college sports for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Feed The Beast
By Chris Peak
Rivals.com

Sports, like all entertainment, are controlled by public demand. With 24-hour sports moving past the confines of television to the infinity of the internet, coverage of sports is at an all-time high, and as the Age of Fingertip-Ready Information grows and the concept of "on demand" becomes the norm rather than the rarity, the coverage is bound to continue growing.

Which brings us to the question: is recruiting over hyped? Is it over exposed when a high school student holds a press conference to announce his college choice? Is there really a need for that?

No, there's probably not a need for that, just as there's probably not a need for weekly (and sometimes nightly) interviews with high school students regarding which college coach has sent them a text message most recently. But, as with most things in this world, it's a natural progression, and one that was inevitable: when the NFL Draft became a television event, was it really that hard to see what would come of the trickle-down?

Fans want to see who will be coming to help their team, and the passion of college football fans often surpasses that of pro fans, so you can see how recruiting became such a source of interest. Whether or not high school students should make a show of their college announcements can be debated, but the fact remains that fans want to be informed at every step of the process.

And it goes beyond a need for information. What better way is there to forget about your favorite team's losing season than the promise and potential of successful high school players who have committed to your school? Your team isn't winning now, but when these recruits get there, things will get back on the right track.

People live on the hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow; in college football, that tomorrow is built on recruiting. Would you rather talk about a two-year 11-12 record or how the running back recruit is the next Tony Dorsett? I would wager on the latter.

So as long as fans want to know, the information will be there.

Chris Peak is the editor of Pantherlair.com.