Who or What Has Taken Over Google Trends Today?

LSU commit Ego Ferguson. Don't worry, Tiger fans–he's a team player.

As of 4:00pm eastern time, these were the top 20 trending searches at Google (it’s been like this all day):

1. dorsey
2. demar dorsey
3. trovon reed
4. brown demands to be seated
5. owamagbe odighizuwa
6. ricky heimuli
7. seantrel henderson
8. bjoern werner
9. jim mcmahon
10. leif garrett
11. corey lemonier
12. cliff floyd
13. chaz green
14. tunde fariyike
15. ego ferguson
16. world import group
17. ray lahood
18. calvin smith
19. john cullen
20. neighborworks

Notice anything strange? Like maybe perhaps you’ve never heard of most of these people?

Well, don’t worry, the world hasn’t gone all Topsy-Turvy. It’s just the first Wednesday in February, AKA National Signing Day, the first day that high school athletes can sign binding National Letters of Intent with colleges. Sixteen of the top twenty trending searches are soon-to-be-college football players who have made their announcements.

It’s a testament to how truly huge college football has become in the Internet age, and particularly how big recruiting has become for fans as well as players and coaches. It’s doubtful that Archie Manning would have been a trending Google search when he decided to play at the University of Mississippi, but today, folks everywhere are obsessing over players who are still in high school. This will probably all die down by tonight, but it’s still a fascinating look into the power that sports wield over us.