Let's celebrate the cult of the signing day fax machine with Alabama and Washington

It's the biggest recruiting day of the year, and you are looking live at, uh, Alabama's fax machine:

OK, you're not looking "live," because that's just a picture. But it's exactly what you'll see today if you check in with RollTide.com, where the athletic department has fixed a webcam on the fax machine until noon, to update viewers on the arrival of recruits' signed letters of intent as they arrive – minus the occasional pair of striding slacks in the background. As an interactive, 21st Century viewing experience, well, you're pretty much looking at it. (For utility and cheesy sound effects of explosions, I'd recommend the Tuscaloosa News' 2011 National Signing Day board.)

But you don't have to be an Alabama partisan to get in on the fax-tion. As I write, well over 500 Washington fans are watching the fax cam from coach Steve Sarkisian's Facebook page, complete with occasional pop-up ads. Everywhere, the otherwise outmoded fax machine is the center of attention, as the Wall Street Journal explains today with impressiveness thoroughness:

It used to be that schools could send coaches to recruits' homes and sign them in person. In the early 1980s, coaches were lined up at the home of coveted running back Alvin Ross on the morning of signing day—but then-Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer went one step further. "I slept on his couch, and I kept the phone off the hook overnight," says Mr. Switzer, who got the player's signature at 8 a.m. "It was a free-for-all back then."

The National Collegiate Athletic Association eventually barred coaches from leaving campus to sign recruits. The National Letter of Intent, which binds a player to a school for a year in exchange for a promise of financial aid, can be delivered by regular mail, express mail, courier service and email, under NCAA rules. But because the letter must be signed by the recruit (and, if under 21, a legal guardian) and since an electronic acknowledgment isn't considered a signature, the fax remains what virtually everyone uses.

Schools tell players to fax their letters early on signing day—generally before 9 a.m.—so they can review it and then announce the player's signing that afternoon. Players generally use the fax machine at their high schools. When the letter is even the slightest bit tardy, "you almost see panic mode set in," says [South Carolina recruiting coordinator Shane] Beamer. "Everyone makes sure that the fax is plugged in, that there's paper in it."

Follow that link for the stories of Durell Price, the L.A. area running back who was granted a reprieve from his instantly regretted decision to sign with Ohio State by a faulty fax, and a young assistant coach who faxed his resumé to Central Florida's offices on the morning of signing day a few years ago. Then, you can get back to an employee holding his iPhone up to the webcam to display a blurry picture of an unidentified prospect in an Alabama jersey, which may or may not constitute a recruiting violation. It's all very exciting.

[UPDATE, 11:03 a.m. ET] Actually, if you catch the cam at just the right moment, it really is kind of exciting. (via @edsbs)

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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