We're five days away from national signing day. It's an occasion many in the college football industry refer to as a national holiday.

To which I ask, "In what country?" Plenty of fan bases refer to themselves as "(nickname) nation." But that's not the kind of country I'm talking about.

In regions where college football is No. 1 (read: the SEC), it's a bigger deal than the NFL draft. As evidence, ESPNU is advertising 10 hours of coverage beginning Wednesday morning. The network has already been analyzing recruiting rankings and weighing in on coaching changes and how they affect a school's incoming classes.

ESPNU is cranking up the hot air for three reasons: 1) It has no other live events to show on a Wednesday morning/mid-day. 2) It gives the network something to talk about between the bowls and spring practice. 3) There's demand. A lot of demand, with thousands upon thousands of fans and boosters anticipating every commitment like election results in November.

What doesn't seem to matter, unfortunately, is that all of the expert commentary is as much hope as it is analysis. Think about how difficult it can be to project the careers of NFL draft picks. The players signing letters of intent are three to four years younger, with a lot more players to watch and less film of each of them.

Still, national signing day gets eyeballs and web hits. Therefore, it will be covered as if it were the professional draft, even though you could take the consensus top 10 recruiting schools, pull them out of a hat one by one, and your rankings have just as much chance at being as accurate as the experts'.

- Howard Primer

In almost all team sports, MVP awards are nice individual honors, but winning a championship is valued more.

You wouldn't know it the way college football fans talk about the Heisman Trophy. It is touted as the most prestigious individual honor in sports. Every year, the player with the most votes is awarded the trophy on a stage decorated like a country club -- it has paintings hanging in the background for extra grandeur.

Trying to figure out why the Heisman is so important is as difficult as forecasting the winner in the third week of the season, as many TV analysts and college football experts like to do.

The Heisman is like a celebrity who's famous for being famous. If you ask why, you likely won't get much of an answer. It's like a curious 6-year-old questioning his parents about a holiday tradition -- "Because you're grandfather said so!"

Maybe it's because the trophy looks cool. Everyone makes the pose in their backyard after catching the game-winning touchdown pass.

It isn't held in such high regard because it's an accurate account of the best player in the country that season. Defensive players and linemen have very little chance compared with offensive skill players. That's the case in the NFL, too. But the NFL MVP is considered less important than owning a Super Bowl ring, so you don't hear that argument much in the pros.

That means that this is the Bowl Championship Series' fault. If college football had a playoff, each season would be remembered first and foremost by which team won the title and the championship performance in the process. The Heisman would fall down the ladder a bit.

Perhaps it already has, and this mystique is just television hype. Usually when the Heisman comes up in conversation, it's about how few of the winners went on to NFL glory (I know, it's not intended to be an NFL predictor. That's usually the next thing that comes up in the conversation). Of course, this doesn't come up between the TV hosts while they're sitting on the set with the expensive furniture before the winner is announced.

It also gives broadcasters something to talk about during the offseason, when there isn't much to discuss besides inaccurate recruiting projections, which coach ditched his team before a bowl game and which schools had the worst NCAA violations. Networks have paid hundreds of millions of dollars for rights fees and would rather avoid those topics. So the Heisman it is.

My suggestion: Go to a playoff for the national title, and award the Heisman to the MVP of the championship game.

- Howard Primer

Conference expansion is officially taking place this week in college sports.

Because these movements are football-driven, it's another opportunity to show how college football can't get it right.

With the addition of Nebraska, the Big Ten, which had 11 schools, now has 12.

The Big 12, which lost Colorado in addition to Nebraska, has 10 teams.

Both conferences are retaining their now numerically incorrect names.

At least the Pac-10 has it right. With Utah and Colorado, it expanded to 12 schools. With the move, it changed its name to Pac-12.

What a concept.

- Howard Primer