Yesterday, Notre Dame football prospect Greg Little held a press conference.  Most of the world expected Little to announce he was either going to attend Notre Dame or The University of Basketball at North Carolina.  It’s a tough choice for the youngster, as he has to choose between two premier football programs: Notre Dame, with more National Championships in College Football than Anyone Else, a Head Coach known to be on the speed-dials of a ton of NFL offices, its own national television contract and BCS deal or North Carolina, where they really, really love their basketball, and North Carolina State isn’t that far away, and sometimes the Wolfpack gets an upset or two. In Football.
However, Little’s announcement was simply that he hasn’t made a final decision yet.  He’s still got some stuff to figure out, but Notre Dame and UNC are his finalists.  And ya know, I’m totally ok with that.  Heck, when I was this kid’s age, I had a terrible time deciding where I wanted to go to school even though I knew from about age 4 that I wanted to be Irish, so this kid should take all the time he needs.  Still, Little taught me a lesson yesterday:  It’s time to stop obsessing over recruiting.

So I’m done.  I’m not reading about recruiting any more.  This doesn’t mean that I’m cancelling my subscription to Mike Frank’s excellent Irish Eyes.  No.  There’s still plenty of quality premium content on that site.  But it does mean I’m avoiding all further recruiting stories and discussions.  Because one sure-fire way to drive yourself crazy is to start guessing at what a 17-18 year old kid will decide to do with his future.  When I was 17 I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with my future, so why would anyone else?

I hope Little decides in the end to join the Notre Dame family, but I also hope he takes all the time he needs until he’s as comfortable as possible.  I hope that someone, somewhere is giving the kid good, honest advice and ensuring that this kid does what’s best for him.  I also hope that in the near future the NCAA does SOMETHING useful in this world and puts an end to verbal commitment announcements.  It’s not good for the sport or the students.  Why on earth can’t these students just keep their decisions between themselves and the programs that are recruiting them until National Signing Day?  Why on earth can’t someone at the NCAA stop looking into the political correctness of the giant, walking Syracuse Orange Man/Woman/Whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is, and start doing something that might actually elevate humanity in some way?

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