Most people see the week leading up to the Super Bowl as the biggest sideshow in all of sports, and for good reason. Some so-called media members who ask these players questions are crazy enough to get Cirque du Soleil performers wondering what the hell is going on.

But there was another sideshow going on yesterday — college football’s national signing day, the first day high school seniors can choose what school for which they want to become unpaid mercenaries.

It’s not just like they sign their letters of intent and fax them in to coaches, either. No, these days, picking where to play ball has become a televised event.

Producers set out three or four baseball caps representing the teams that had recruited the player and the kid comes in on a school day (because if you’re going to play football in college, what purpose will precalculus serve?) and picks which hat he likes best, simultaneously whetting the appetite of the thousands of fans who have the same headgear and antagonizing those who don’t.

I get the appeal of national signing day. Like the NFL draft, it gives people hope, no matter how imperfect the science of evaluating recruiting classes might be.

But I can’t help but watch with cynicism and wonder what kind of improper benefits Florida State might have given a player to keep him from going to Miami. The beauty is that we’ll find out eventually, and some one else will get to write another “Sideshow” about it.