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.

New York Mets pitcher with Noah Syndergaard has been place on the disabled list. He has hand, foot and mouth disease.

Will somebody make up their danged mind?

I could understand if he had a hand injury. Or a foot problem. Root canal would qualify as a mouth issue. But all three?

Actually, he doesn’t. It’s one disease; although a poorly named one. The same guy who came up with that one must have been the same dude who decided on “hoof and mouth” disease, which afflicts cattle. (This guy is seriously overpaid.)

Even stranger is that hand, foot and mouth disease (I like to call it HFM) mostly afflicts children five and younger. Syndergaard is 25. Not exactly the target demographic.

The thought is that Syndergaard got the disease during the All-Star break while working at a kids camp. (The disease, which is a viral infection, is contagious.) It is characterized by sores in the mouth and a rash on hands and feet. A-ha! Now it’s all starting to come together!

For the Mets, it became obvious when Syndergaard became fatigued during his latest pitching start. The velocity on his fast ball was way down, which shouldn’t have been the case after time off.

The good news is that there are rarely complications with HFM. Syndergaard might even make another start in a week or two.

But the Mets have bigger injury problems. Star outfielder Yoenis Cepedes has a problem with his feet that is becoming worse.

No word yet on his mouth and hands.