On National Signing Day, reporters and television crews flocked to Jeannette (Pa.) High to catch the biggest news of the day.
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the nation's consensus No. 1 prospect, was ready to choose his college. He held a news conference in the school's gymnasium and made his big announcement:
He was going to take more visits.
Having decided that he hadn't given Penn State and Oregon enough of a look in comparison to his other finalists, Michigan and Ohio State, Pryor put his decision off until an unknown time.
That's all fine for Pryor, who said the coaches of those schools told him they would hold a scholarship open for him. And why wouldn't they?
At 6 feet 6 inches and 225 pounds, he is a deadly dual-threat quarterback who moonlights as a highly touted basketball prospect. He's more than a program changer if he can fit the ever-growing list of expectations attached to his name - he could remake the Big Ten.
But the bigger question than where Pryor will suit up next season (probably Ohio State) is how his delayed decision will affect the decisions of other players in the coming years.
There have been plenty of players who waited past signing day to make their choices, but Pryor is the highest profile prospect to do so in recent memory. His actions could make an impact on what the top players do in the next few years.
He is keeping the four schools - and four scholarships - in limbo. Those are spots that will directly affect other kids.
And, in the increasingly intense world of recruiting that borders on pedophilia, where National Signing Day is a holiday filled with eager coaches waiting next to the fax machine to unwrap athletes they have drooled over for months and fans celebrating the championships that are sure to come on the backs of 18-year-olds, Pryor is at once feeding the fire and devaluing the tradition.
Recruits have until April 1 to sign, but that usually isn't taken advantage of because of the prestige of signing day and the fact that toying with schools' scholarships isn't usually a good idea.
Since Pryor can get away with it and garner a bit more attention in the process, this idea may be attractive to the current sophomores and juniors who are already being deified by coaches and media alike.
I'm not saying Pryor is an attention hog. By all accounts, he's a humble, charming person, and he didn't come off as arrogant when I spoke to him last year.
It's not up to him to set an example for the world either, but his actions are likely to have an effect on recruiting in the near future.
There are already kids making spectacles of their announcements, or, as UF coach Urban Meyer said it, "putting on different hats and ripping shirts open," to get publicity, so what will they do with the option of waiting?
It could throw the entire recruiting process out of whack and reduce National Signing Day to just an ordinary Wednesday.
And since it's the only part of recruiting that has yet to go careening out of control, that would be a real shame.
