Signing Day Brings Out the Best in ESPN's List-Making

Signing Day is today. I already talked about how much I don't like it.

But it also gave ESPN the opportunity to make a "Best of the BCS Conference List." The theory behind this is that in each conference, there is a school that is the "best" in that area. ESPN asks it's team of bloggers to rate a school in their conference in anything from the best recruiter to the best academics to even the best uniforms.

Most of the answers are ho-hum and relatively no-brainers.

So, here are my thoughts on the Best of the BCS Conferences. But since I went to a Pac-10 school (California) and live out on the West Coast, I'll give most of my attention to the Conference of Champions.

• Best Uniform category: Do kids really go to a school based on what the uniform looks like? And for all of those Oregon fans and alums screaming that Ted Miller didn't pick the Ducks, really? You think because you have so many combination that Oregon has the best unis? The all white is pretty sick, but other than that, they're ugly.

• Best Campus Life--Cal: So there was some objections to this in the comments made by ESPN readers. Here's an example:
  

  Have you ever been to Cal? Berkeley is the most rediculous "college town" in the country. Their are more 90 year olds biking around Berkeley than students. You should look towards Tempe. Aren't they annually in the Top 5 for party schools in the country?

  You need to do more research before writing these types of articles.
  

  Obviously, this reader is uninformed. These writers have been to every school and then some in the conferences they cover. Ted Miller is one of the best writers in all of college football and I'm going to say is the most talented of any of the bloggers that ESPN hired for their college football blog. And college life isn't about all about the parties. If that were so, wouldn't Arizona State not have finished 5-7 this year and sixth in the Pac-10?
  

  Also, being at Cal, even though it is considered a program that should compete with USC perrenially, there is a laid-backness to the student population when it comes to its football. Yes the fans come out, the students are crazy on Saturday, but that's on Saturday. During the rest of the week, the football players can just go around, acting like normal students, not being bothered by the faux-fame that comes to most athletes when they go to a school like, oh, ASU. On Saturdays, Cal is a football school. On every other day, Cal is just a school and a damn good one at that.

• I've been to Eugene, Ore., for a gameday and have to say I agree with Ted Miller. The fans and students there are crazy. And Autzen Stadium turns into an absolute zoo come kickoff time. And it gets so loud.
  

• Does Syracuse really have the best academics in the Big East?

• If recruits made their decisions strictly on playing time, then Wazzu and Iowa State should be signing five-stars left and right. Too bad (for the Cougs and Clones) that recruiting doesn't work that way.