Why Michigan's signing day event may be NSD's new norm

Graham Watson

Michigan’s “Signing of the Stars” event was outlandish, over the top and unfortunately the future of National Signing Day.

The extravaganza capped a crazy recruiting month that was saturated by Michigan headlines stemming from sleepovers to tree climbing to disowned recruits. And while the college football world painted coach Jim Harbaugh as some sort of recruiting villain — a theme that started with his announcement of a satellite camp bonanza in the spring — he was busy securing the nation’s No. 4 class a little more than a year into his Michigan tenure.

Recruiting has always been a sideshow. Since recruiting services brought more attention to college football’s "other" season, recruits have gotten bolder and bolder with their announcement stunts. We’ve seen recruits pulling trucks and jumping out of planes and playing paintball as ways to identify their future schools. Harbaugh wasn’t reinventing the game, he was just playing it through a recruit’s eyes.

And the college football world took notice.

At its peak Wednesday, Michigan’s signing day event had a little fewer that 35,000 viewers on YouTube. The event also was streamed live on The Players’ Tribune, a media website created by former New York Yankee Derek Jeter. Whether it was to view the recruits, the celebrities or support the Chad Tough Foundation, which was linked with the event, there were a lot of people that wanted to see what the fuss was all about.

And make no mistake, some of those viewers were opposing coaches.

"I think people will do something similar or they'll criticize it," Harbaugh said. "What do I think of that? I probably won't think much of it.

"It worked for us. It was wonderful for us, and why not?"

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer made an off-the-cuff comment to ESPN’s Quint Kessenich that his signing day went off with little excitement or fanfare. He told the media later that he didn’t need to result to flash and gimmicks to secure what ended up being the nation’s No. 3 class.

"We have to remain true to ourselves and who are we and who am I and who do I like to hire and how do we — our focus is on real life Wednesdays and graduation life after football, and if you're blessed enough go on to the NFL and win some championships along the way,” Meyer said. “We're not going to stray from that.

"That's been Ohio State style for as long as I've been alive and it's not going to change."

Both Michigan and Ohio State have championships and traditions, but Ohio State’s are a little more recent, so it’s easy for Meyer to lean on those rather than gimmicks. But even the best coaches with the most titles have to result to a gimmick every now and then. Don’t we all remember Nick Saban’s dab that broke the Internet?

And lest we not forget Houston coach Tom Herman, a member of the Meyer coaching tree, recognized his place in the state of Texas and used a couple well-known rappers and J.J. Watt to give shoutouts to recruits for signing with the Cougars.

Several top coaches might be digging in their heels and touting their above the board recruiting standards today, but rest assured that Michigan’s event will be duplicated. It's probably fair to assume some coaches are upset about the event because they didn't think of it first. Not every school will be able to command the scale and celebrity status, but several will do their best in their own way.

Everything evolves. After years of coaches struggling to send text messages, many are now Snapchatting and posting Twitter videos. It’s all about what the kids think and what the fans think and if it draws the ire of opposing coaches, well, even better.

Michigan’s signing day extravaganza may have been eccentric and unconventional, but it’s also soon to be the new norm.

- - - - - - -

Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!

And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook