By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Designated Writer

This is one of those topics that could be written about every day during this time of year: Frauds perpetrated on the American sporting public.

Believe me there are many, but I’ll stick to one in particular today.

About this time of year, you will read about how your favorite Division I university has someone on a “Watch List.” If they were in line for a Rolex, that would be nice. Instead, they are in line for … having their name disappear of this same list .

But Watch Lists are a manna from heaven for Sports Information Directors. College football has a dozen or so post-season awards — so much for the idea that it is all about the Heisman Trophy — and these awards can be for the top lineman, linebacker, quarterback, defensive back, etc. There’s even one for the top assistant coach.

And during the summer pre-season, each one of these awards has a “Watch List.” And good ol’ State U. can’t wait to send out information that Joe Blow is on a Watch List. See, we have talent here are State U. and our coaches are great at coachin’ ’em up!

Fans get all excited and flood the message boards with breathless plaudits. It’s as if that player can already start writing his acceptance speech.

Do you know how many players are on the Maxwell Award Watch List for top college player? Eighty-four! There are two quarterbacks from Alabama (traditionally, most teams only play one at a time). There’s a quarterback who has never taken a snap for his current school. There are two players from Miami (the one in Florida) and another from Miami (the one in Ohio).

Who has time to “watch” 84 players? What are we supposed to watch for? To see if they get off the bench? What about a player who comes out of nowhere during the season … is he not eligible? Oh, he is? So the Watch List truly doesn’t mean anything.

Most of these Watch List — there’s one for place kickers and another for punters — have about 50 players at this time of year, purely to gin up fake pre-season excitement. During the season, the lists will be whittled down to the semifinalists and then the finalists. And after we have watched all this, someone will finally win.

At least somebody was watching.