We’ve watched enough football to know the basics about how the game is played. There seems to be 11 players on a side. Usually a penalty is called if there are more.

To that end, our All-America teams have always included 11 players on offense and 11 on defense. We also name three specialists.

Oddly enough, the American Football Coaches Association does the same. Seems like that’s a pretty good model to go by.

Except, not everyone who publishes an All-American team has the team’s legitimacy in mind. Not when in this past week, a “team” comes out with 35 first-teamers, a similar number of second- and third-teamers, plus, to my best count, one hundred and eighty-seven “honorable” mention players.

It ceases to become an All-American team when it mentions all of America!

Here’s a hint: There should never be more All-Americans than there are teams in America. There shouldn’t be 21 quarterbacks on an All-American team (oh, and by the way, if you’re naming 21 quarterbacks, surely one should be Capital’s Rocky Pentello).

There is nothing honorable about the mention these players have received. It is false hope, a blatant grab at attention from someone at the bottom of the heap. If you were named to this team, especially if you’re below the second team, I’m sorry — it just isn’t worth the PDF file it’s listed on. They’re just trying to get you to buy their products.

It’s sad. Until last year there were three legitimate All-American teams in Division III. Now there are just two: AFCA and D3football.com.