Hate the hat game

The hat game is pretty much everything that's wrong with college football.

This is the practice of high school students putting three or four or five college football hats on the table among all microphones. The prospect then puts on the winner when he announces his selection.

The hat game gets hopes up for the craven college football fan and then kicks them in the privates. It creates unnecessary hostility. Pretty much everything in college football does that, but thems seems totally avoidable.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Christian French played the game Wednesday. He put Iowa, Notre Dame and Oregon hats on the table. He faked toward the forlorn Iowa hat and then put on Oregon.

He probably shouldn't have teased Iowa hat.

"That was just for dramatic effect," said French, a 6-foot-6, 227-pound tight end prospect who picked Oregon partly because of sports marketing. "I didn't want to offend anybody by doing that. Just something I did to mix it up a little bit, but I definitely knew which one I was going to choose."

I'm certain it was an innocent gesture. And I don't think there's anything sinister about the intentions behind the hat game. It shows folks in the audience which schools the decision came down to and that's pertinent information. French's game was much more modest than some of the ones played when the table has three SEC hats on it.

The intent, however, doesn't mean anything. The interpretation is everything.

The winners love it. The losers -- there's no second place in recruiting, by the way -- hate it. I imagine the fake might've been noticed by a few Iowa fans.

I just don't see what there is to be gained by the hat game. Doesn't matter what I think, though. It's not going away.

French seems like a great kid. He thanked everyone ever during his opening remarks. The students, maybe as many as a couple hundred, warmly cheered when he announced his choice. I talked to a few teachers and administrators and they said he's very popular. He's in physics classes, something that would've given me brain damage in high school.

When French talked about his decision, his vibe was all why it was Oregon and not why it wasn't Iowa.

He is interested in sports marketing. Oregon's sugardaddy is Nike CEO Phil Knight, so the school sort of has an in with sports marketing.

Oregon also happens to be opposite Auburn in the BCS title game. It's good to be Oregon right now.

Oregon head coach Chip Kelly also won over the entire Kennedy community. He put in time at the school. Talked to teachers. Even played a little hoops with one of the coach's young sons in the Kennedy gym at some point during French's recruitment.

"They did their research," Kennedy football coach Tim Lewis said. "Man, they did do their research. They were here four different times, they were here all day long, they talked to teachers, administrators, basketball coaches, his friends. Prior to this year, I didn't know a lot about big-time recruiting. But I do now. There was no other team that did as much research on him as these guys did.

"They even came that week he was hurt and wasn't practicing. They called, and I told them, 'Well, he's not practicing, you're not going to see much.' They just said 'We're still coming,' and they came and spent the day."

Why not Iowa? Because it was Oregon.

"It was hard [saying no to Iowa]," said French, who called Iowa well before this decision leaked out, a sign of respect in college football recruiting. "You've got to go away from home and lose that hometown favorite. But in order for me to be a man, I've got to grow up and make my own decisions. I have to do what's best for me."

Which is sort of the point of all of this, doing what's best for you and what's in your heart.

Kennedy teachers and administrators beamed with pride. French posed for pictures with a ton of friends, family and students. Hugely exciting day for the Kennedy community.

The hat game seemed totally out of place, but there it was. It's a fixture in college football, I know this. Why start on that note?

By the way, French's father, Cherokee, said the Iowa hat would go to a Hawkeye fan. He noted that there are plenty of them around here.

I thought you might need some closure on that.