It isn't necessarily about being excited about this kid or that kid - it's the idea of creating content for your "brand" and putting it out to the public as much as possible.

You can only have an average of 25 kids "commit" and receive scholarships each year. If you can have another 10-12 "commit" as PWO players, you just added 40-50% to the number of tweets out there with a photo of a kid in a BYU jersey saying "I picked BYU!" while thanking their parents, coaches, friends, etc.

I think it's great. If some fans want to hold their noses at it - and act like the coaches are putting one over on them and pretending these players are the best of the best - then I suppose I can understand the derision. But I don't think it's about that. I think it's about community outreach, general brand awareness, and publicity.

Sure - they want to have fans who are engaged and excited about the upcoming season (especially after the one they just had). But this is about the fanbase at large - not just the cougarboard psychos, but the semi-oblivious folks who buy some shirts, attend some games while watching others on TV, and then just move on when the season ends. And it's about being in the news enough that when they go after the good players, those players have seen the BYU brand and recognize it.