  Spin alignment of vector mesons in noncentral relativistic heavy ion
collisions provides a novel probe of the global quark polarization and
hadronization mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the spin alignment of a
short-lived vector meson, namely K*, arising from the hadronic rescattering
process using the UrQMD model. This spin alignment is not related to global
quark polarization but cannot be distinguished from those arising from global
quark polarization in experiments. The spin alignment parameter $\rho_{00}$ is
found to deviate from 1/3 by up to -0.008 (0.03) with respect to the reaction
(production) plane. These deviations are much larger than the expected signal
from all the theoretical models implementing the conventional global quark
polarization mechanism as well as the current experimental precision, and
should be considered seriously when comparing measurements with theoretical
calculations.
