I am going to be up front about this; I am an addict.

My drug? College football.

My team? I live and die for the UCLA Bruins, which means I have an extreme level of disdain for the University of Southern California.

Last week was an unofficial holiday for all college football addicts. It was National Signing Day &- a day when every team gets its incoming freshman class to sign National Letters of Intent, binding them a school to play college football.

As a UCLA fan, it was a great day. But the day after, USC made a headline-grabbing move that sent shockwaves around the nation. They got a verbal commitment from David Sills, a Delaware resident.

Why is this headline-grabbing?

Sills is 13 years old.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was an awkward 13-year-old &- tall and skinny and extremely uncoordinated. I also had a friend who was a great 13-year-old athlete. What happened when we got to high school? I grew into my body and became a better athlete, he stopped growing and became bored with sports.

Who’s to say this isn’t going to happen to David Sills?

I will say this once; I have a better chance of starting for the San Francisco 49ers next year than David Sills has at ever playing at USC.

But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Offering young kids scholarships is not a new thing.

When Indianapolis Colts’ head coach Jim Caldwell was Wake Forest’s head coach, he offered a scholarship to a then-eighth-grader, Chris Leak. Leak went on to play at the University of Florida, where he won a national championship.

But there is something about Sills that makes me feel dirty.

It could be Sills’ father who gives me a bad feeling.

His father also hired renowned quarterbacks coach Steve Clarkson. Clarkson is a lifelong USC fan who mentored former and current USC quarterbacks Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley. Clarkson has also taken Sills to USC games and brought in Leinart and Barkley to work with Sills.

Is this legal because the Sills family is paying Clarkson to help David improve? Probably.

Just look at Todd Marinovich, a former USC quarterback.He had all the talent in the world, but he also had a father who was unrelenting when it came to pushing his son to be an NFL-caliber quarterback.

So what happened to Marinovich? After a one-year stint in the NFL, he fell into drugs and alcohol and never played for an NFL team again.

I guess I am just worried about where college football recruiting goes from here. Are we going to see Sacramento State head coach Marshall Sperbeck out recruiting at a preschool? Is “plays well with others” going to become a recruiting term?

What should the NCAA do about this situation? I can see it getting out of hand. College football recruiting is already out of control, but if 13-year-olds are the new battleground, it is going to be a scary world soon for us college football addicts.