They roam cyberspace and assemble in chat rooms, devouring tidbits of information - rumors and gossip, mostly - as they attempt to peek into the futures of schoolboy superstars.

For the thousands of college football fans obsessed with recruiting, popular Web sites such as Rivals.com and Scout.com are their silicon-driven bibles.

Recruitniks may not have a life, but they have cash.

They pay as much as $9.95 a month ($99.95 if you sign up for a year) to enter the most popular sites and get the inside scoop on the nation's top players, then pray every one of them chooses to attend their favorite school.

It is one big, creepy cattle drive, where high school athletes are reduced to slabs of meat branded with stars - five for the choicest players, fewer for those with less impressive credentials.

Based on what they call "measureables" - 40-yard dash times and bench press statistics among them - every site churns out ridiculous player lists and recruiting rankings, as if there is any credible way to compare a left tackle from Pennsylvania to one from Georgia or Texas or Tennessee.

On Wednesday, all of it culminates with national signing day, the first day high school football players can make their intentions official. It is the day elite programs such as USC, Florida and LSU annually vie for signatures of top recruits and the stat geeks' "national championship."

Critics sounded off on recruiting recently in Washington, Harry Edwards, a sociology professor at the University of California and longtime activist on sports issues, described the process as "hedonistic, materialistic and individualistic."

It's a description that fits equally well for recruiting or America. Our society at its finest, or worst, depending on your perspective.

Edwards was part of a panel assembled on Jan. 22 by the reform-oriented Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics to discuss the external influences and pressures in the recruiting process.

There was talk about players being distracted by the dozens of text messages and interview requests they receive every day. There were complaints about players basing their self worth on how many stars they have been assigned. There were stories about parents lobbying the sites to raise players' rankings.

So what's new?

Shoe companies and AAU coaches have been taking advantage of high school kids for years. We all know how it works, "You play at my camp, your name goes on our hot list, we get you a scholarship. You don't show, neither does your name. Hope you enjoy Podunk U."

Carlsbad High's Brock Butler did show up at a shoe company combine last summer at Stanford. He failed to impress.

Butler ran the 40 in 4.9 seconds. Great if you're an offensive lineman, but brutal if, like Butler, you're a linebacker. His name never appeared on the lists.

"Looking back, I never should have gone," said Butler, the top defensive player on San Diego County's top team and one of five All-State linebackers as selected by Cal-Hi Sports.

On the flip side, Poway lineman Nick Wood stamped his name on everyone's list by bench pressing 185 pounds a whopping 50 times at a summer combine. He's expected to sign with Washington on Wednesday.

Butler, whose Lancers routed Wood's Titans in the CIF San Diego Section Division I title game this fall, will attend NCAA Division I-AA UC Davis.

Recruiters want size. Recruiters want speed. Give them both, and you can play anywhere you want. Doesn't matter if you can actually play or not.

Longtime San Pasqual coach Mike Dolan, who recently retired after 21 seasons, remembers Nebraska recruiters pestering him for video of a 6-foot-8 Eagles player who rarely saw action. Nice kid, but soft as a jelly doughnut. Most definitely not a football player.

"He sure looked good coming off the bus though," said Dolan.

Dolan finally obliged, shipping out the tape and a set of instructions: "Look for the 6-8 kid standing on the sidelines. You can't miss him."

College football's greatest miracle wasn't Doug Flutie's rainbow heave to beat Miami. The miracle was Flutie, at 5-9 and 180 pounds, was actually recruited by Boston College, a Division I school.

These days, all those cookie-cutter Web sites catering to all those obsessive fans wouldn't dare list a Doug Flutie. They would get laughed off the World Wide Web.

And recruiters most certainly wouldn't touch the kid.

Five-nine, 180 will get you fired faster than you can say intangibles.

Me, I'll take Brock Butler at linebacker and Flutie at quarterback any day. Give me kids with grits and guts and heart and determination.

Give me Boise State over Oklahoma straight up.

I know a million or so cybergeeks who would have taken that bet a month ago.

Recruitniks? Nah, I've got a better word.

Suckers.

- Contact sports editor Loren Nelson at (760) 740-3551 or lnelson@nctimes.com. Comment at nctvarsity.com.