College football

As prospects' desires sway, fans scour Web for clues

Recruiting Web sites keep football junkies hyper-informed about the college preferences of high schoolers who might someday lift their team to a title.

By FRANK PASTOR
Published January 30, 2005

TAMPA - It's an important weekend for Craig Hoss, one of the biggest of the year, and the 33-year-old Tampa resident needs a fix.

Hoss craves information the way a smoker craves nicotine, and there's only one place he can find it instantaneously.

The Internet.

Hoss bounces from one Web site to another several times a day in search of the latest recruiting news. This weekend, some of the nation's top prospects, including wide receiver Fred Rouse, running back Antone Smith, defensive tackle Callahan Bright and offensive tackle Matt Hardrick, are visiting Florida State.

Who has committed? Who has de-committed? Who is leaning where?

Hoss needs to know.

"Recruiting season is definitely right behind football (season)," said Hoss, a 1993 Florida State graduate and president of the Tampa Bay Seminole Club. "It kind of heats up a month before football, so you're talking from early August until signing day, which is Feb. 2. That time frame is probably the peak season as far as when we're trying to check what's going on with the team."

Hoss is not alone.

Scout.com, the largest independent sports online network in the nation, has 2-million Web site visitors and syndication reach to over 38-million sports fans, said Scout.com national recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg.

Rivals100.com, Tom Lemming (ESPN.com), Max Emfinger (maxemfingerrecruiting.com) and Prep Star magazine (prepstar.com) have their own audiences.

Most are college football fans thirsting for up-to-the-minute news about their teams. College coaches, prospects and their families and friends, and reporters also subscribe.

"People have this unbelieveable passion for college football," Newberg said. "The people that love recruiting, they're the really passionate fans for college football. It's definitely gotten fanatical. Every year it gets bigger and bigger, and the appetite gets greater and greater and you've got to feed the beast."

These days, that sustenance comes at a cost.

There was a time fans could view online recruiting information for free. But the bursting of the tech bubble, which dried up advertising revenue streams, improvements in technology and consumer demand prompted most sites to become subscriber-based.

Between 75,000 and 100,000 subscribe to Scout.com's premium service, Newberg said. For $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year, they gain access to members-only content, message boards, chat rooms, databases and player videos.

Rivals100.com offers similar content for the same price.

"Advertising can only pay the bills for so much," said Jeremy Crabtree, editor of Rivals100.com. "If you want to try to build the type of product we want to try to give to our fans with all the videos and chats and Rivals radio and to be able to do that, you have to be able to charge a little bit for subscriptions."

Is it worth it?

Absolutely, said Middleton lineman Will Bergen, who orally committed to Illinois.

"We did the subscription to Rivals.com," Bergen said. "You can see, depending on how good of a player you are, how you rank with the rest of the state or the rest of the U.S., see what other players have committed to the school, see what your recruiting class is going to look like when you get on campus, see what kind of guys you're going to be playing with."

Wesley Chapel lineman Danny Tolley, a USF oral commitment, said he kept tabs on fellow prospects through a subscription.

"I was just interested in the other recruits," Tolley said. "I'd go to the top 100 list and look at the other competition and see what else was out there, what other type of players were out there."

When Tolley wanted something more than a player's height, weight, bench press or 40 time, he'd download video clips from Rivals' site.

"You get a real feel for the player when you see them play," Tolley said.

For die-hards, what separates recruiting Web sites from other sources is their immediacy. A Web site reporter could call Bergen for feedback on a recruiting visit, and the player's comments could appear online an hour later.

"You can have all that stuff at your fingertips right when you want it," Crabtree said. "I think it's that immediacy that's really made the Internet explode."

Of course, there is a downside to such quick access. Players complain that they are contacted too often by Web site reporters and sometimes stop answering their phones or ask their parents or high school coaches to intervene.

"People don't know when to quit," Bergen said. "They want to know everything right then and now. The world is getting very demanding with information getting out there on the Web. It's crazy."

Recognizing that they make money based on information about and provided by high school athletes, the sites try to help where they can. Rivals' Crabtree said his company hosts Junior Day events where guest speakers educate prospective recruits about the college selection process.

They also have used their forum as a favor. Sometimes, if a recruit orally commits to a school but doesn't want to break the news personally to others, he'll ask one of the recruitniks to get the word out on his site.

When they do, Hoss, perhaps wearing his Seminoles cap and No. 3 Leon Washington jersey, will be waiting.

Anxiously.

"This is a big weekend for the Seminoles and Seminoles fans," Hoss said. "Depending on how these players sign, there will be a direct correlation to how your teams are going to be."

BOBBY BURTON AND JEREMY CRABTREE: www.rivals100.com

MAX EMFINGER: www.maxemfingerrecruiting.com

TOM LEMMING: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting

PREPSTAR: www.prepstar.com

STUDENT SPORTS: www.studentsports.rivals.com

ALLEN WALLACE AND JAMIE NEWBERG: http://recruiting.scout.com

SOUTH FLORIDA: www.usf.rivals.com, http://southflorida.scout.com

FLORIDA: www.florida.rivals.com, http://florida.scout.com

FLORIDA STATE: www.floridastate.rivals.com, http://floridastate.scout.com

MIAMI: www.miami.rivals.com, http://miami.scout.com

CENTRAL FLORIDA: www.ucf.rivals.com, http://ucf.scout.com

FACTS AND TERMINOLOGY

SIGNING DAY: The first day athletes may sign binding national letters of intent, which this year is Wednesday. Coaches are not allowed to comment on recruits until they have signed.

ORAL COMMITMENT: A nonbinding announcement by athletes disclosing the school they intend to attend. Players may change their minds until they sign a letter of intent.

RECRUITING ANALYSTS: Self-proclaimed experts who rate prospects and sell the information through newsletters, 1-900 phone lines and/or Web sites.

ALL-AMERICAN: A prospect named to a national all-star team by a publication or analyst.

[Last modified January 30, 2005, 00:11:11]