Nearly four months ago, on National Signing Day, Bobby and Tommy Bowden had big smiles on their faces.

Florida State and Bobby Bowden, uncertain at quarterback for the first time in three years with the loss of Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke, signed the nation's No. 1 recruit, quarterback Joe Mauer.

Clemson and Tommy Bowden, in desperate need of a big-time receiver with the loss of the only Tiger to ever achieve a 1,000-yard receiving season, landed one of the best in the country in Roscoe Crosby.

The Bowdens bested every college in the country for these star players, but they both knew there was one battle left -- Tuesday's Major League Baseball Draft. If Mauer goes in the top five as expected, he's more likely to be throwing off his catcher's mask than putting on a Seminoles helmet. And if Crosby falls out of the top 10, he's almost certain to rack up the TDs in Death Valley instead of racking up the home runs in the minors.

"We recruited both Roscoe and Joe and both of them were very up front with us as far as telling us that they'd be looking very closely at their options in baseball," said John Lilly, Florida State's recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach. "Both of them also did have a genuine interest in college athletics. It was the lure and the pageantry of it all that they talked about with Drew Henson and Chris Weinke."

	Joe Mauer could be the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft.

The 6-foot-4, 205 pound Mauer, the Parade, Gatorade and USA Today Player of Year from Weinke's high school in Minnesota, was tabbed by ESPN.com's recruiting analyst Tom Lemming as the nation's No. 1 football prospect. He is also a possible No. 1 overall pick in the draft by his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins.

Mauer, who led Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul to the state championship game two years in a row while tying a state record with 41 touchdown passes this past season, also led the U.S. Junior National Team in hitting and RBI in 2000.

"Mauer reminds of Drew Henson, who is the best two-sport guy I've ever seen," Lemming said. "Similar athletes, great feet, same size. Both are smart kids, soft-spoken, nice kids. Identical in demeanor."

Crosby, 6-3, 200 pounds, is ranked eighth overall by Lemming and caught 77 passes for 1,590 and 22 touchdowns to lead his team to two straight state championships. Meanwhile, on the diamond, Crosby has been called by one scouting director "the best combination of speed and power in this draft."

From a financial perspective, baseball teams will typically offer more to two-sport stars and even more to those who agree to just concentrate on hardball.

"We can't obviously can't give any money, and baseball can give him a big signing bonus and a paycheck," Lilly said. "So if Joe goes to baseball and doesn't come back to Florida State, it's been done before."

Mauer will likely receive a signing bonus in between $4 million and $5 million, if he agrees to give up football.

But Bobby Bowden still believed. He's battled Major League Baseball before and won, so why should this be any different?

"I get the feeling talking to Joe Mauer that if he gets drafted, he still wants to play football if he can," Bowden told reporters on Feb. 7.

But it may not be as easy as Bowden thought or hoped. Mauer comes from a baseball family and says he "sort of fell" into playing football. "The higher I go in the draft," Mauer said on Friday. "The more likely it will be that I will give (college football) up."

Of course, there's always the chance Mauer could return to Florida State he doesn't succeed in baseball.

"If everything works out in baseball, that would be great," said Mauer, who did not receive a preview playbook from the Seminoles. "I plan to honor my contract for as many years as I sign for and give it my best shot. If things don't work out I can always go back to football. To me, it takes a lot longer to get there if I were to have one foot in and one foot out."

	Roscoe Crosby says he wants to play both football and baseball.

As for Crosby, he's still talking about going to school. Unlike Mauer, he's more likely to play two sports. While this may lower Crosby's place in the draft and his signing bonus, he's leaning towards playing football for Clemson in the fall.

"When I'm playing football it's only football and when I'm playing baseball, it's like I don't even know what a football is," he said. "It's kind of hard at times, but I definitely enjoy playing both."

That's great news for Clemson and Rick Stockstill, Clemson's recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach, who has big plans for Crosby.

"He's the best receiver I've ever seen at this age," Stockstill said. "He's a better talent than Rod Gardner was at his age. The only difference being that Rod has done it on Saturdays. So he'll be starting next year for us. It's just a matter as to if he'll be in the slot or on the outside, but you'll see him lining up in our first game."

Stockstill said Crosby's mother encouraged her son to go to college and believes Crosby's plans include playing professional baseball during the summer.

"The bottom line is that Roscoe loves football so much that he can't see himself not playing both," said Stockstill, who said missing summer workouts won't hurt Roscoe as it would hurt Mauer.

"If you are a quarterback, and you're playing baseball in the summers, you are probably hurting your chances to become an NFL quarterback," Stockstill said. "The summers are essential for the quarterback to work on minute timing and mechanical things. For a wide receiver like Roscoe, he doesn't have to work on catching the ball and running with it, so he can afford to play baseball during the summer."

However it plays out Tuesday, Florida State and Clemson did everything they could to land their blue-chip prospects. The rest is up to Mauer and Crosby. But rest assured, both schools are prepared to move on without them.

"It's not like he's the only guy we have lined up at quarterback and we staked everything on him," said Lilly, who also recruited quarterbacks Adrian McPherson, Florida's Mr. Football, and Matt Henshaw to complement junior Anquan Bolden and redshirt freshman Chris Rix. "Just like Clemson isn't sweating bullets if Roscoe somehow decides to only play baseball. They recruited other guys at wide receiver.

"After the draft, our association with Joe might be over and we could have lost him," Lilly said. "But at least we recruited him here. Every other school in America lost out on him before the draft. That's why you do it."

Darren Rovell is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.