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There's always been a meat market feel to college football recruiting, and the Internet has made the auction-like process available for public consumption like never before.

The frenzy builds on hundreds of websites for months before commitment day, when high school players actually sign letters of intent pledging their athletic talents to a particular university. Fan bulletin boards associated with the sites speculate on where the most talented recruits might end up and whether those who've made verbal commitments might have a change of heart before signing day. There's often more rumor than fact, but for rabid fans the speculation, highlight videos, statistics and outright cheerleading is like digital candy.

Consider this joyous message posted Wednesday by GopherRulez on gopherhole.com, one of several websites devoted to recruiting and sports at the University of Minnesota: "You heard it hear FIRST!! It's a GREAT TIME to be a GOPHER FAN!!"

GopherRulez was celebrating what the website billed as a "historic influx of talent in the Gopher program" -- the recruiting class unveiled by Gopher football coach Tim Brewster. Recruiting analysts (yes, uninitiated, there really are people who make a living analyzing high school football players) say his recruiting class is among the best in the country -- a huge step forward for a program desperate for a trip to a major bowl game while construction crews build a campus stadium.

Some of the most highly rated high school players don't succeed at the college level, and sometimes lightly recruited players or those who try out without scholarships turn out to be stars. Some schools stretch the definition of "student-athlete," and promising athletes wash out because of trouble with grades or off-the-field brushes with the law. Predicting how a Texas high schooler in his late teens will adjust to life in the Big Ten is a challenge.

One of the strangest recruiting stories in recent memory is playing out this week in Nevada, where high school offensive lineman Kevin Hart called a news conference at his school to announce that he was commiting to California over Oregon. Small problem: Officials with the schools said they'd never heard of Hart. Saying it was his dream to play Division I football, Hart confessed that he fabricated the story.

In college football recruiting, you're never really sure how to separate fact from fiction.