The most overrated day of the calendar year is today; National Signing Day. It's where the top high school athletes officially graduate from being front page news to being yesterday's news-for the most part-until they make a splash in college.  

Of course, there are a few that will make a splash in 2009. For every Adrian Peterson and Julio Jones, there is a Kevin Grady or a Fred Rouse. If you had to Google the latter, my point exactly. If you knew both of the latter were in the Rivals.com Top 25 in 2005, you are part of the problem and you need a new hobby.  

College football recruiting is a molehill made into the Rocky Mountains. Rarely do these athletes make an immediate impact on national championship teams as true freshmen. In the case of Peterson and Jones, anybody that knows what a football is could see that if these two avoided injury and the wrong crowd, they would be special.  

Rivals and Scout, the recruiting hub with more traffic than a jammed Los Angeles freeway, are not the problem. They have the information and if you are willing to part with some of your income to know the height, weight, and 40-time of 17 and 18-year old kids, they have it readily available.  

In fact, sometimes Rivals does a pretty solid job with its famed Rivals 100. Look at the top four from the 2006 Rivals 100; Percy Harvin (Florida), Andre Smith (Alabama), Chris Wells (Ohio State), and Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma). But in 2007, the top four was Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame), Joe McKnight (USC), Eric Berry (Tennessee), and Ryan Mallett (Arkansas via Michigan).  

The verdict is out, you could say, on three of the four. Clausen might have been put into the spotlight too early at Notre Dame. McKnight is one of 100 5-star running backs on the USC roster, but has rushed for 1,199 yards and five touchdowns in two seasons despite injury and fumble problems. Mallett started some as a true freshman at Michigan before transferring to Arkansas.  

Eric Berry of Tennessee has been outstanding and was worth the hype. In 2008, he was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and was a 1st Team All-American. Through two seasons, Berry has picked off 12 passes returning three for touchdowns. 

College football recruiting is an ugly monster. It places unneeded and unwarranted attention and pressure on teenagers. Some of the prospects love the attention and make it a real life version of The Hills, while others hate all the attention and want it to go away. More than likely, your favorite team will want the ones that hate the attention.  

If a highly-touted recruit doesn't pan out, fans and recruiting buffs wonder what went wrong. So many things can go wrong with these athletes. It could range from injuries, academic troubles, and not being able to adjust to the speed of the college game. Some could become a bad apple and leave the campus under less-than-honorable conditions.  

These kids go from being the big man on campus to just another one of hundreds. It's up to the individual to succeed as the big man on campus again if they have the correct work ethic and handle all the attention that comes with the hype with ease. And oh by the way can they handle making next to no money, going to class and actually passing their classes, and resisting peer pressure that comes from everybody knowing who you are?

The one thing that baffles me is the viewpoint that a difference between a 5-star and 4-star is like the difference between Jesus Christ and Moses. A 5-star is the messiah, the savior of your football program. The more 5-star athletes on your roster, the better chance you have to win the national championship of public opinion--the BCS trophy.  

Obviously if Jesus Christ pans out, it helps your football team. Give him the rock and let him take it to heaven (into the end zone). But more often than not, you want a boatload of ark builders on your roster to handle the dirty work.  

These 5-star athletes have been told how great they are since day one and probably won't like it when the accolades don't come their way. These prima donnas-in other words young divas-will transfer if they don't get enough playing time right away. More often than not, these players will eventually pan out once they gain strength to play in college if they are patient. 

Notre Dame is the king of great recruiting classes. Once again in the Class of 2009, the Fighting Irish landed a huge 5-star prospect on Signing Day and look to have a solid Top 20 class. From 2006 through to 2008, Notre Dame ranked 8th in 2006, 8th in 2007, and 2nd in 2008. These results have yet to translate into success on the football field--that is unless you call a visit to the Hawaii Bowl a successful season.  

Florida State was 2nd in 2005, 3rd in 2006, 22nd in 2007, and 9th in 2008. Since 2006, the Seminoles have gone 23-16 while its recruiting classes have fared much better. Florida State has had better days.  

There is some substance to this madness, but it's a crapshoot at best. For every 5-star stud, there is a 2-star out there that will have a better college football career. For every 5-star that has an immediate impact, there is a 3 or 4-star that will do the same thing.  Who doesn't want a 400-pound defensive tackle that runs a 4.1 in the 40 to anchor your defensive line in the future?

Some of these rankings are based off of upside--not every athlete will reach its alleged potential. Placing this pressure on these kids is immoral and not necessary.

I call B.S. on this whole recruiting monster. I would rather pay attention to the outstanding high school athlete that is heading to a Division III school near you that has a better high school career. The kids that works his tail off for every ounce of headlines he receives. He may be two inches too short, two tenths of a second too slow, or 20 pounds too light to play college football, but at least he's willing to go to work.