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February 1st of every year is a day that college football fans look forward to with great anticipation. Why? Because it is the so-called National Signing Day, the day when all formal letters of intent from athletes must be turned in to their prospective schools.  In other words, it is the equivalent of draft day for a major sport.

On signing day, the results of months, or even years, of recruiting efforts can be seen. Where did the top prospects choose to go? Which schools will have the best freshman class in the new season? What does this mean for the future of a particular football program?  Many of these questions can be answered just from reviewing the published results of National Signing Day.

In this age of multi-million dollar sports contracts and superstar athletes joining the pro leagues earlier and earlier, it's commonplace for several different organizations to track and rank the top high school players in the country. This happens for every major sport: baseball, basketball, hockey, and of course football. It makes sense when you think about it.  After all, colleges and universities literally have millions of dollars at stake in their sports programs.  Having a nationally-ranked football team means generating more and more revenues from television deals, merchandise sales, and ticket sales. It also can mean higher donations from proud alumni. That's why each college expends so much effort in recruiting and attracting top talent.

The number one prospect in the entire country is a young man named Myron Rolle out of New Jersey. As is usual for high school athletes, he played several different positions during his career at The Hun School of Princeton, including cornerback, safety, and running back. But he primarily interested college scouts as a defender, so look for him to play on that side of the ball when he takes the field for the Florida State Seminoles next summer.

Florida State also picked up the number one ranked wide receiver prospect in the country, Percy Harvin. Harvin hails from Virginia Beach, VA, and was also considered by Scouts, Inc. to be the second-best player in the country behind future teammate Rolle.  Harvin is 6'1", which means he'll be able to go up and grab some high passes over the heads of defenders.  He also has excellent speed and great hands. He should definitely see some playing time as a freshman for the Seminoles.

The number one quarterback prospect in the country is Mitchell Mustain from Springdale High School in Arkansas. At 6'3" and 205 pounds, Mustain has the size and strength that coaches look for in quarterbacks these days. The scouting report compiled on him says that he has nearly perfect form on all his throws, and has as much accuracy on his deep passes as he does on his short passes. Mustain elected to develop his talents close to home, and so will play for Houston Nutt's Arkansas Razorbacks.

The top high school linebacker in the country is Sergio Kindle out of Dallas, TX. He is a big guy at 6'3" and 220 pounds, but still displays the quickness and speed that coaches want to see in an outside linebacker. Like Mustain, Kindle will stay close to home, having committed to join the defending national champion University of Texas football squad.  

Though there are far too many excellent prospects to be able to cover them all in this article, suffice it to say that we college football fans will be in for a real treat in the years to come as these young men develop into great ball players.

So which school did the best recruiting job overall?  Most analysts seem to think that Florida was the big winner in this year's recruitment wars.  The Gators received a total of 25 commitment letters, including 13 from players ranked in the top 150 in the country. USC came in second, having added 20 freshmen to their 2006 roster, with 11 of those being in the top 150 in the country.  Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Michigan also did very well and should be able to field highly competitive teams in the years to come.  It will be interesting to see how many of these top prospects from the 2006 recruiting class go on to become big impact players at their chosen schools.