National Signing Day always an action-packed event

Posted by Matt Tait February 5, 2013 at 11:22 a.m.

National Signing Day always an action-packed event

This is what college football coaches across the country will be anxiously awaiting Wednesday morning as the Class of 2013 prepares to make it official. by Matt Tait

With national signing day now less than 24 hours away, all kinds of stories about signing days past make their way to the forefront of people's minds.

From famous tales about fax machine fiascos to power classes and last-minute shockers, the stories are always a favorite of mine, even if I've heard many of them before.

Although most (maybe all) of them had nothing to do with KU, they're still interesting reads for die-hard football fans who can't get enough gridiron action in the offseason.

With that in mind, here are a few quick links to some of the more entertaining flashbacks as well as a couple of interesting stories about the cost of recruiting and how rankings tend to pan out.

Enjoy, and make sure you're back here bright and early Wednesday for this year's edition of our live signing day blog. I'll be up and at 'em with the earliest signees and will be tracking the fun all morning as I wait to head up to KU coach Charlie Weis' signing day press conference at 1 p.m.

KU's current class, which includes 25 commitments — 10 of which already have signed — figures to be pretty straight forward. I've talked to most of the guys and they all seem to be planning to sign as early as possible on Wednesday. The coaching staff still has two spots remaining so there's always a chance that an additional name or two could pop up tomorrow, but I'm not expecting that.

I think they'll be smart and hang on to those spots in case something surprising pops up elsewhere in the next couple of weeks. Always a good idea. And a smart bet, considering Weis said when he first got here that he would not sign guys just for the sake of adding bodies.

Here we go...

• National Signing Day's craziest stories from Athlon Sports:
http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/recruiting-signing-days-craziest-stories

• Alabama, which has a fan base that follows signing day like storm chasers follow the weather, actually put a live camera on its fax machine and, at times, has even tossed in a little spice, super model style:
http://nesn.com/2011/02/university-of-alabama-football-fans-want-to-watch-the-tide-roll-on-the-fax-machine/

• Top 10 recruiting battles of all-time from ESPN Insider:
http://insider.espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/8901133/recruitingnation-ranks-top-10-recruiting-battles-football-feb-1

• Here's another good read from SI.com, regarding the predictability of determining a team's success based on recruiting rankings:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130204/recruiting-rankings-predictive-accuracy/?eref=sircrc

• This is also pretty cool from ESPN, a look at how much each Div. I program spent on recruiting during the past two years. Kansas, which, according to the report, spent about $80,000 more on recruiting in 2011 than 2010 also was toward the top of the list nationally in terms of how much it spent:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/8041461/the-cost-recruiting