Athletic Recruiting

On the day Renardo Sidney announced his college choice, the gymnasium floor at Los Angeles Fairfax High was filled with 13 tables decorated in white linen with rose centerpieces, where more than 100 family members and friends dined on a catered meal of chicken and ribs. "Back in the South, this is what we do," Sidney's mother, Patricia, said proudly. "We celebrate big." The Sidney family had left Mississippi for the Los Angeles area to further his basketball career, and the move had paid off.

Renardo Sidney, the basketball All-American from L.A. Fairfax High who had orally committed his intent to accept a scholarship offer from USC, will not play for the Trojans. Sources close to USC's program and the Sidney family say the school and player have ended the recruiting process. Sidney, a 6-foot-11 power forward, visited Mississippi State last weekend and a source close to the family said the Sidneys and USC had agreed upon "a mutual parting of the ways."

An actual national football championship won't be won today, but in the absence of any real games college fans will nevertheless either enjoy or suffer through -- most likely a combination of both -- wins and losses by their favorite teams. So it goes on national letter-of-intent day for high school football seniors, when the decisions made by a select group of prospects will influence the fortunes of college programs across the country. Ohio State's projected class is ranked No.

Quarterback Matt Barkley of Santa Ana Mater Dei, considered the No. 1 high school football prospect in the nation for the class of 2009, abruptly ended the recruiting process on Wednesday by announcing he had committed to USC. "I'm very excited," said the 6-foot-3, 220-pound junior who passed for 3,560 yards and 35 touchdowns and was selected the Gatorade national player of the year.

Charlie Weis came to town Monday to escape the cold Indiana winter but primarily to make one last run at landing one of the top high school football players in the nation. The Notre Dame coach stopped by Lake Balboa Birmingham High to finalize a recruiting visit from running back Milton Knox, the City Section player of the year who long ago committed to UCLA.

When UCLA fired Karl Dorrell as football coach Dec. 3, the reverberations were felt from South Central Los Angeles to Katy, Texas. The futures of 23 high school football players who had said they were accepting scholarships to play for the Bruins were up in the air. And, more so than ever it seemed, so was the future of UCLA's program. These recruits, experts said, formed the type of highly rated group capable of catapulting the Bruins up the Pacific 10 Conference standings.

Signing off on 10 Signing Day Moments: 1. Terrelle Pryor ends weeks of drama and signs with . . . stay tuned. The nation's top quarterback prospect, who hails from Western Pennsylvania, the cradle of quarterbacks, announced on signing day that he wasn't signing. Pryor has narrowed his choices to Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. The suspense is, um, killing us. 2. Roll Tide?

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?

Super Sunday was the day wide receiver David Tyree pinned a pass against his helmet that helped the New York Giants win the Super Bowl. Super Tuesday was the day politicians duked it out in battleground states. Super Wednesday was the day high school football players, many not old enough to vote, preened before friends and ESPNU cameras, played to sold-out gymnasiums and pledged allegiance to the college car flag. You think any of this goes to their helmets?

All Aundre Dean needed was the direction. That made playing running back easy as a kid. "They told me to run right, I ran right," he said. "They told me to run left, I ran left." The straight and narrow was a little harder. Dean, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound tailback from Katy High outside Houston, signed a letter of intent with UCLA on Wednesday, part of an ongoing journey where he could have easily gone wrong instead of right. He never knew his father.