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It's insane. It's insanity. It makes me want to throw up.

Pick a topic, any topic, and it doesn't have to be jock kingdom related, but when that topic is being described that way, and particularly when the description comes from a guy on the front lines of that topic, then count me in.

Insane. Insanity. Throwing up.

You had me at "insane."

A personal thanks to Joey Florence, who is the longtime head football coach for the very respected program at Denton Ryan High School. I don't know Joey, but he can be my new best friend.

Via Mac Engel's column in Wednesday's newspaper, Florence's verbal throw-up throw-down on the annual college football talent roundup known as National Signing Day was, in all my years, the best description ever.

But I will also end the sermon right there. Granted, what we do to high school kids in this process -- and by "we," that definitely includes the sports media along with the college coaches, the fans, the websites, the chat rooms -- is certainly not healthy, as Joey also said, and it has certainly at times been a corruptive influence on young lives.

Plus, no self-respecting sportswriter, particularly those of us once in the media trenches of the SWC football scandals of the '80s, are supposed to admit we find anything worthwhile in the entire recruitment ordeal that leads up to National Signing Day.

But...

I like it. Always have. At times, I wouldn't admit it. But really, it's an unhealthy slice of Americana, and particularly Texana, that even at its insane-insanity-unhealthy-throwing-up worse, still remains a rather entertaining look at humanity, starting with the adult version of humanity.

Truthfully, there I was Wednesday morning, hammering away on the computer, looking for obscure websites that hopefully would provide up-to-date signings.

It was already obvious before Wednesday that Mack Brown was in full-blown "Coach February" mode, seemingly landing every last one of the top-rated players in the state, which is what Mack usually does.

Which is why Texas' meager 13-12 record in Mack's last two seasons makes no sense, except it's an ongoing testimony that 99 percent of the time if you don't have the right quarterback, your team won't be right.

The case of Texas A&M, with a new coach and a new conference for the fall, was more interesting than another haul for UT, and based on what I read, the reviews for the Aggies' class were upbeat, but showed no immediate benefit from the SEC move or the firing of Mike Sherman.

Again, however, if there's an SEC benefit it really won't kick in until the next recruiting class.

More than anything, I was looking for TCU news. Did the Frogs cash immediately on the Big 12 move?

The answer appears to be, yes or maybe. But that depends on who you believe, and when it comes to National Signing Day, can you really believe anybody?

Some of the websites that do the nationwide class rankings went into late January with TCU in uncharted territory. It had a top 25 class. How long has it been, if ever, that TCU has been ranked in the top 25, recruiting-wise? Certainly not in the Gary Patterson era, so never in modern times is the answer.

But over the last week, the Frogs fell out of the top 25 on Rivals.com when a couple of recruits defected. Then TCU added a couple of defections from schools like Florida and Stanford.

But major groundbreaking did happen by Wednesday evening. For the first time, a major recruiting site (ESPN.com) listed the Frogs with a Top 25 class.

It's the best recruiting moment ever for Patterson's staff, but at least 14 of the top signees were on board before the Big 12 invitation came in October. One SI.com national guy even went as far as to say of the signees the Frogs had after October "not one had an offer from Texas," which meant that's supposed to be considered a disappointment.

Huh? I guess this guy was actually offering a compliment, thinking Patterson was immediately going to start taking away recruits from Austin. Who does that in this area of the world? Maybe Oklahoma at times, but nobody else.

Over the past decade, Patterson and his staff, of course, built a nationally respected program from scratch with unheralded recruits, not top 25 classes.

What Gary said Wednesday was the Rose Bowl win was still having an impact. "Unless you go to the Rose Bowl and win it, I don't think you get two kids from Atlanta to come here. Our life will never be the same again," he said, referring to two signees from Georgia that Patterson called "really good players."

By reputation and results, Patterson can find really good players in much smaller locales than Atlanta, Ga. More like Atlanta, Texas.

If there is going to be a major Big 12 impact for TCU that should come more in the next recruiting class, but for now, Patterson noted, "I think it helped us hold on to our recruiting class... really helped us solidify a lot of this class."

Those schools attempting to make raids this time couldn't pull out the old standby card of "they aren't in the Big 12."

There is not a coach in the country who doesn't "love" his recruiting class this morning, at least for public consumption. With TCU going beyond in national approval where it has ever been in recruiting, Patterson, it seems, can have honest happiness.

But overall, the insane, insanity, throwing-up mentality of National Signing Day never really changes. That's part of the appeal, in a weird and wrong kind of way.

Randy Galloway can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on Galloway & Co. on ESPN/103.3 FM.

Randy Galloway, 817-390-7697