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If you're like me -- six-feet tall, named Matt, and so devastatingly handsome that the United States military has contacted you about potentially weaponizing your good looks -- you had no idea that today was "National Letter of Intent Day"/"Signing Day"/"Gives Us Your Free Labor for Exploitation Day." This is apparently an important time for prospects and colleges across the country, but here's the thing: The NCAA are a bunch of knuckleheads about the whole thing:
Damn, NCAA coaches can't attend #NLI signings or name names in social media congrats? When they've been talking for YEARS ?! Ridic.
— clochary (@clochary) November 14, 2012
Dumb. Why wouldn't you want to make a thing of all this? Let the schools participate in the process, allowing them to throw an event or something and distribute some operative knowledge. There's no use in pretending that this is all anonymous; the reports are already out there. Instead, the NCAA allows Scout.com and Rivals.com and every other website that in some fashion covers recruiting to dominate the day. That's silly. I don't care what [Writer A] at [Website B] thinks about [Player X]; I care about what [Coach Y] thinks about [Player X]. Make this not stupid, NCAA.
Anyway, I don't know a hell of a lot about recruiting. Some people do, apparently, and you should probably read that stuff if you actually want to learn something other than nothing. I'll point you in the direction of Inside Lacrosse and LaxLessons, only because they seem to pretend the best that they have a handle on all this. If you know of any other site that is covering recruiting now -- or in the overall -- leave a comment and I'll add it to the list.
Happy hands-off stalking, everyone!