This past Wednesday, the sporting world stopped and took notice of the relatively new phenomenon known as National Signing Day.

There has always been a day when the top high school football players in America make their decisions about their athletic futures, but with each passing year, the media attention has grown.

However, it isn’t just the media who gets all hyped up. Fans often take great pride in winning “recruiting national titles” for landing what experts determine to be the best signing class in the country.

Web sites such as Scout or Rivals have made “five-star” and “blue chip” everyday terms, and these same sites have capitalized on the recruiting craze by charging for access.

Seriously though, am I the only one who thinks the whole thing is overblown?

Consider how many players there are who aren’t four or five-star guys on recruiting sites, yet turn out to be stars in college or even the NFL.

DeMeco Ryans and DeMarcus were just three and two-star prospects, respectively, yet went on to become two of the best linebackers in the NFL today.

And there are others, too. Patrick Willis, Javier Arenas, Jay Cutler. The list goes on and on.

So, instead of getting all worked up over a group of guys who haven’t shown anything yet, why not just wait and see how it turns out on the field.

You know, the field, where it actually matters.

Nick Duke is a sports writer for The Messenger, and he can be reached at nick.duke@Troymessenger.com or on Twitter at Messenger_nick.