NCAA 2009 Preview: Recruiting Shenanigans!

The best players come with a price - your morality.

Autumn Thunder is totally stoked to leak the first bit of news regarding the recruiting features in NCAA 2009: the premier of the Recruiting Shenanigans feature. An anonymous source at EA sports has passed me this unofficial (and admittedly low-quality) screen shot, and to say the least, the recruiting season in NCAA 2009 will be much more entertaining than in years past. While in previous editions, players had to go through five mind-numbing weeks of convincing players to sign their letters of intent based on the virtues of academics, campus lifestyle, playing time and the like, gamers now have more options. Do you think you could have convinced a young man like Ryan Perriloux to sign with you because of campus tradition? Noooooooo. Could guys like Chris Henry and Pacman Jones be persuaded to join your team based on your student section? Ha! Good one.

These days, you need to promise some players a little something extra, and EA is finally incorporating this pink elephant into the recruiting area of their games. Easy professers? Drugs? Guns? It's in the game!

The George Costanza of College Football Recruiting.

It's not a lie if you believe it, Jerry.

Oh. My. God. I read this story about how Kevin Hart (no relation to Mike Hart), a high-school lineman from Nevada, faked his recruitment by Cal and Oregon for months and just confessed to making everything up. I could not help but compare this moron to my favorite sitcom character of all time - George Costanza.

Remember when George invented Vandelay Industries so he could fool the New York unemployment office into giving him more time to collect his unemployment benefits? Instead of picking Cal and Oregon for his fake recruiting, Kevin Hart should have went for something a little less obvious. Perhaps something like...

I'm Sooooo Over Diva Recruits.

Is that Crazy Joe DaVola?

Besides wanting to be a media whore, is there any reason at all why a top recruit would have to delay his announcement until the last possible second?

No. None at all. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Nil. No-ski. Nyet. Nein.

Most of these guys have been hounded by major programs since they were sophomores, have had lots of time to check out schools and take visits, and many of them have full knowledge of where they're going for weeks before signing day. Why then, must they drag this out until signing day?

Two or three years ago, I used to love watching to see where the players would end up, and didn't mind playing the waiting game. But now, I'm a bitter old man who is sick of the extravagant decision making processes and self-glorification of these eighteen-year-old show ponies.

Did Sam McGuffie put on this type needless indulgence into his recruiting? No. That's why I already like him way better than any five star quarterback we may get. Sam McGuffie is a man of action. He proved he was a badass, looked at his options, kept quiet to the media, and made a choice within a reasonable amount of time. That's how it should be done.

Thank God singing day is Wednesday. I'm so over this.

Terrelle Pryor Ridin' Dirty?

Dude, I've been saving since I was ten years old. Honest.

An interesting post about possible recruiting shenanigans involving Terrelle Pryor went up on MGoBlog today. This wouldn't surprise me one bit. Just step into Ohio State's vest for a moment:

They've lost two national championships in a row...lost national respect for their program and the respect for the conference on a regular basis...and now face the prospect of losing the nation's number one recruit to their dreaded rival? That would be too much for them to handle.

Oh, the tangled web we weave when recruiting...