College football has two national championships-one on the field, and one off the field. Alabama won the championship on the field this year, but conference rival Florida sent a message by winning the one off the field. Nerdy football fans such as myself have realized the importance of Signing Day for years (about as important as the invention of the telephone), but it’s relevance to the mainstream is growing with each passing year. And this is how I know: If any casual fan had to pick a national championship contender for the next year or two, Florida is the name that would be said- a lot.

The simple fact is this: The football teams that win the big-time recruits in February, win BCS games in the Januaries to come.

Here are my thoughts from this National Signing Day:

1.) The power programs recruit like video games now. If you are a gamer in NCAA football, you can build unrealistically good teams by recruiting 4- and 5-star, top 10 at their position guys for every spot on your roster (like a kicker that runs a 4.4). You treat 3-star guys like Snookie. It just doesn’t work that way in real life, programs need and use many 3-star “solid” players. Well, this year, Florida signed 22 kids 4-stars or higher, and USC signed one 3-star recruit-to be the towel boy.

2.) Recruits know how to read a thermometer. If it drops below 32 degrees at a campus, elite recruits aren’t going there in bunches. ESPN or Rival rankings did not have one cold-weather/midwestern team among the top 10 classes. The Big 10 (conference as a whole) gained no momentum from a good bowl season. Not even traditional powers like Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State could get it done. Ditto for Notre Dame.

3.) You need a prenup to beat the SEC. Otherwise, they’ll take half. As in 5 of the top 10 recruiting classes in the country.

4.) Brian Kelly, you must do better than that. Sit back, eat some popcorn, and watch some video of what a team of elite recruits can do to a team of “RKG’s”. (That would be the Gators versus your Bearcats in the Sugar Bowl.)

5.) How the hell did a guy that sounds like a Sunday morning comic strip land a top 10 class (Derek Dooley)?

6.) Seantrel Henderson proves that 17 year olds don’t look at Notre Dame like they used to. Besides being “comfortable” at USC, part of the reason he committed is that he can see that team “playing for the next three national titles”. USC and schools like it are looked at now how Notre Dame used to be looked at.

7.) Mack Brown has it as easy as using a calculator to figure out what 2 + 2=. He gave out 30 scholarships, had 25 visits, and signed all 25 that visited.

8.) We’ve seen Lane Kiffin before, sometime in the 1800’s. How did he recruit just as well as Pete would have without proving anything as an actual coach. His snake oil tactics included offering scholarships that “Pack More Punch For Your Pecker”.

9.)Why is recruiting defensive lineman to Notre Dame more difficult than solving the Poincare Conjecture? You can’t win today without a fast, athletic front seven.