Talking Points

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Today is like Christmas for college football coaches (and forfans who tie their mood to the whim of high school athletes).

Its National Signing Day, the first chance for football playerswho will graduate high school this year to officially commit totheir college of choice.

In case you are not among those who breathlessly followrecruiting rankings on the Internet, here is a primer on what mighthappen today (And no, Talking Points did not spend more than fiveminutes researching this):

The Huskies might wind up with a recruiting class ranked in thetop 15 nationally.

The Ducks class might be rated among the nations 10 best.

No one in the Pac-12 can match USC when it comes to raking intalent even with a suspect coach in Lane Kiffin and NCAA sanctions.

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A few more signing day observations:

* Head coaches will rave about their recruits. A lot of them willuse the phrase We filled our needs. This usually translates as Wedidnt get the guys we were drooling over, but we are confident thatour brilliant coaching staff will turn these guys into five-starperformers.

* Many of the players coaches rave about today will never make animpact for your school. Some wont qualify to attend college. Somewill suffer injuries. Some wont have the drive to make it incollege.

* Rankings dont mean much. Oregon has never had a recruitingclass ranked in the top 10 nationally, and has often been ranked inthe middle of the Pac-10. Yet, somehow, the Ducks are two-timedefending Pac-10 champs and played for the national title.