Welcome to the digital age of college athletics recruiting, where technological advances are compounding an already complex and high-stakes process. It's put coaches and players in constant connection, with e-mails and text messaging rapidly replacing traditional forms of communication.

It's given fans an endless white space to criticize, analyze and hypothesize about their favorite teams' recruits — often in the same breath. It's sprouted a host of subscription Web sites focused on recruiting — an industry that's now taking in tens of millions of dollars a year.

It's not unique to the big-money sports — coaches for baseball or soccer are just as likely to text message a recruit as those for football or basketball.

And it's a trend that's not getting unplugged anytime soon.

For more on this story, please see Friday's edition of The State News.