Well, football fans, the big day is here. It’s the first Wednesday in February, also known as college football’s National Signing Day.

Signing Day is the culmination of the circus that college football recruiting has become. It’s a day when grown men all over the country who usually have better things to do wear out their browsers’ refresh buttons, hoping for an update on another athlete announcing which colors he’ll wear this fall. Universities host sizable Signing Day parties, where hundreds of fans cram in to hear football coaches talk about the newest Tigers/Bulldogs/Rebels/Razorbacks.

The coaches all say the same things: “We’re thrilled with this class. It went about as well as we could have hoped, and this could be the group that brings us a (Division/Conference/National) Championship down the road.”

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The coach will then talk about the strengths of a few players, things everyone in the room already knows because they’ve viewed the players’ Scout.com and/or Rivals.com profiles a half-dozen times each.

Signing Day is a beautiful day, because everyone wins. LSU may sign three players that will compete for the Heisman in 2012. Half of the signees at Ole Miss were born to run the “Wild Rebel,” and State has a bevy of guys with the skills to be the “Next Anthony Dixon/Jerious Norwood.” Every year.

Speaking of “the next (fill in the blank),” every two-star quarterback is the next Brett Favre or Steve McNair, and every 6-foot-2 wideout with good speed and no other Division I-A offers is the next Jerry Rice. That’s the case in Mississippi. Here in Louisiana, there are probably different examples. The point remains.

Incidentally, both Brett Favre and Steve McNair have relatives that will be signing today, very literally the next Favre and McNair. Somewhat ironically, Dylan Favre isn’t expected to sign with Southern Miss, but Steve McNair Jr. is.

The point is, every team is a winner on National Signing Day.

One of the reasons today is such a dramatic day is because recruits’ commitments usually don’t mean a darn thing.

Sweeping overgeneralizations aside, each team usually has some drama in the final days of recruiting season arising from a recruit going back on his word and signing with a school other than the one he committed to, leaving one fan base thrilled while fans of the other school tosses out a) excuses or b) accusations of blatant cheating.

Ah, yes, the “Your school cheats” line. This was once the preferred response to losing a prized recruit, but in recent years has given way to “We backed off because (we have someone better/ he won’t qualify/he’s not a team player).”

Given the supposed nature of recruiting in major college football, the line should never be “Your school cheats.” Instead, a probably more accurate “Your school cheats better than ours” is more appropriate.

Even though teams lose out on specific recruits, they’re usually balanced out by swiping a commit from someone else.

As for recruiting class rankings? Well, those only matter if your class is ranked higher than your rivals.

And if you’re a fan who doesn’t get swept up in recruiting, but still frequent Web sites devoted to your team, you’re the real winner. Give your browser the day off until tomorrow, when all the recruiting crap is over. After all, you have to pick up the slack for your recruiting-crazed coworkers.