Two years from now, will we remember more than half a dozen of the high school football studs whose college choices were dissected with breathless eagerness Wednesday on ESPN, Rivals.com, Scout.com and Internet message boards across the country?
Will we recall that running back Darrell Scott of Ventura St. Bonaventure High wore a fashionable, three-piece tan suit to appear on ESPNU for a few seconds to say he chose Colorado over Texas?
Will it be forgotten or part of a budding legend that he was tempted to stay near home and play for UCLA but decided to join his uncle, receiver Josh Smith, with the Buffaloes?
That his mother, Alexis, was touchingly and justifiably proud of her son's ability to stay grounded while recruiters swarmed around him and told him how great he could be at their school?
Fueled by the immediacy of the Internet and cable TV's ravenous appetite for content, national signing day has become a soap opera on a grand scale.
Clearly, it's the height of absurdity to ask even the most diligent expert to project the potential of 17- and 18-year-old kids who are still growing and, in many cases, have yet to face a sizable defensive line.
Or live away from home and eat anything other than Mom's cooking.
"Absolutely, this is not an exact science," said Patrick Stiegman, executive editor and producer of ESPN.com. "Nor is the NFL draft or the NBA draft. You're going to see just as many first-round flops as sixth-round Tom Bradys in the NFL draft."
No matter. The airwaves on Wednesday were filled with talk about Miami's great recruiting class and who had the best day in the SEC and which school had stolen which kid from under a rival's nose.
"There will be coaches fired three or four years down the line in part because of decisions made today," Stiegman said. "And there will be coaches who win a national championship three or four years down the line because of decisions made today and you can't tell which is which. But it clearly has a major impact."
It was entertaining. Sometimes, it was dramatic: T.J. Lawrence, a wide receiver ranked 11th among the 7,500 players evaluated by ESPNU, had three schools' caps on a table in front of him and pretended to pick up each one before he jammed an orange-and-blue Florida Gators cap on his head.
Fans apparently devoured every image and every word.
