Just to get you non-sports fanatics up to speed, "National Signing Day" is the day when grown men get very excited about teenage boys choosing which university they will be playing football at for the next 4 (or 5) years. It's the NCAA version of the NFL draft and, like its professional bedfellow, an entire industry has grown up around it, filled with websites and pundits ranking which program got the best players and so forth.
It's just the sort of thing that major football geeks care about. And I should know. Just this week at Colin's Coffee I asked aloud, "Any news on Jamarco?" and numerous regulars would give me the latest news, "Jamarco" being four-star offensive tackle Jamarco Jones who was deciding between OSU and MSU for his gridiron services. Today on National Signing Day, he picked Ohio State of the Big Ten Conference.
The Big Ten also happens to have its very own cable sports channel that is devoted to covering Big Ten sports 24/7, 365 livelong days of the year. If that seems like WAY too much time spent covering 14 college sports programs, you are right, it is. The programming is very thin. That is why I find it so perplexing that on National Signing Day, a channel that has too much time and too little content gives said National Signing Day a mere ninety minutes of airtime. To put this in perspective, on the same day it gave a replay of the Indiana vs Minnesota wrestling match a full two hours of coverage. I mean, if somebody is a big enough fan of the Big Ten to watch replays of wrestling matches, it stands to reason they might enjoy real time coverage of National Signing Day. I would also like to add that ESPN gives signing day coverage for 12 straight hours on ESPNU and top of the hour updates on their flagship program Sportscenter. I can hear Mel Kiper and Kirk Herbstreit chirping about it now from the other room as I write this.
So, I beg to wonder why a sports channel devoted entirely to college sports doesn't cover one of its most popular events with all-day coverage in lieu of replays of events nobody cares about anyway. Put two dudes behind a desk and let it rip.....Who is signing where? Who has the best class? Is it better than last year's class? What about the SEC? The Pac Ten? That new Gophers running back sure looks good, here is a clip.....
Sure it's mindless chatter, but isn't that the whole point of any cable channel? The Big Ten Network can show replays the other 364 days of the year, so why not treat us geeks to some Signing Day coverage that we actually might care about in real time, the day it happens?
The ratings can't be any lower, can they?
Whatever.
Colin Gawel better get back to his life. He blasted this out very quickly and if it isn't up to standards you should visit Grantland. You can learn more about him and the other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here.