I may be a week late but wow, recruiting is an ugly mess

It's gross. Recruiting has always been gross. But it has become so gross that three BCS schools felt the need to announce coaching succession plans this winter. To stop other schools from whispering about the age and future of Florida State's Bobby Bowden, Kentucky's Rich Brooks and Purdue's Joe Tiller, each of those schools named a successor.

Then again, that kind of negative recruiting -- Pssst, Bowden's old! -- is juvenile compared to the audacious shot taken at Ohio State by an unknown attacker. Defensive end Willie Mobley of Eden Prairie, Minn., followed through on his commitment to the Buckeyes, but not before receiving a bogus "go away" letter from someone claiming to be Tressel.

The letter -- with OSU letterhead and a Columbus, Ohio, postmark -- quoted Tressel as saying Mobley's "football future would be best suited elsewhere."

Like where? The letter went on to say, "I know Minnesota has not had the greatest season, but in three years you would be eligible for the NFL. ... If you come to Ohio State, you will be sitting behind upperclassmen for at least two years anyway, and then you never know."

Imagine that. A prank letter to one recruit, and a prank announcement from another. Kevin Hart of Fernley, Nev., suckered an entire city by holding a press conference to announce he would sign with California. Turns out Cal wasn't recruiting Hart and quite possibly had never heard of him. Law enforcement officials uncovered the hoax.

And with that, football recruiting had reached an all-time low. Until next year.