…and I hardly care. Posting a link to this article (AP/CDT) about Penn State’s recruits and Joe Paterno’s remarks about the process is as much as I will follow recruiting.

I don’t get it when it comes to following recruiting. There are some fans (and a certain publisher) who, based on message boards I used to visit, get more excited about recruiting than the actual games. Why fans spend get so worked up over which 17 or 18 year old high school football players are going to play for their favorite football team is beyond me, because after all we are talking about CHILDREN for the most part. No one knows how well they are going to react to being away from their mother or being a just another number after years of being “the man” in high school. Then again, as proven with poker, if you put ANYTHING on ESPN, which is largely responsible for making recruiting a big deal, people will really get into it.

For fans, there are plenty of other things to do than follow recruiting like lemmings. In fact, without leaving the comforts of the sporting world there are plenty of sports in season — basketball and hockey in the winter and baseball and even soccer in the spring and summer to pay attention to. Heaven forbid, a fan could even get involved in a sport recreationally or *gasp* direct attention to something that isn’t sports. Even I manage that (quite a bit in fact), even if it is not reflected in this blog a whole lot.

If you want some insight on recruiting (and college football in general), read Ken Denlinger’s For the Glory. In it he follows the Penn State freshman football class of 1988. Of the 28 who showed up, less than ten were their for senior day five seasons later. In other words, it is ultimately a big crapshoot. Also, William Gildea had a great column about it recruiting in The Post last year. Lastly, in the end the biggest Penn State recruit is not a high schooler, but someone who announced he is returning for one more year.