Board thoughts on (very) early commits

At a college baseball camp this weekend, the topic of early committments was touched on in a recruiting seminar for parents. It seems as if this is a trend that is going to pick up steam in the coming years. I know a family who is in the middle of their son('07) possibly deciding on a school soon. I think they have been overwhelmed at this possibility thus far. How does everyone feel about this? Seems as though it could be pressure packed for both the recruit, and the school.

 

Committing a year early could be an ego thing ... there is a lot of "glamour' associated with being a junior that has committed instead of waiting to the fall of your senior year.

Usually it works out, sometimes it doesn't ....

... but the real questions are:

1. What is committing early going to do for me as a player?
2. What is committing early going to do for the school?

The SCHOOL is locking up a potential competitor a year early. It's taken a commodity off of the market. It's also getting a player that it wants.

The STUDENT may be headed to his dream school. But the student is also barring himself from hearing other offers and visiting other situations. It's obvious that the student is probably getting a good situation. What may NOT be obvious to the student is that it may not be the best situation.

Most of the advantages of early commitment shift to the school. There are very few shifted towards the student. It's not going to stop though until the NCAA decides that it doesn't want Juniors/Sophomores or Freshmen (yeah, it's come down to that in some areas) committing early.

.............
Bottom line: If it makes you happy, fine. There's probably not anything wrong with it. If a school doesn't live up to it's early commitments, it will become common knowledge very soon and people won't trust them. So they have a lot to lose by not honoring their side of the early commitment.

If a student doesn't honor his side of an early/verbal commitment, that same "lack of trust" will be extended to him. Believe it or not, these things DO follow you.

Don't do it unless you are absolutely sure.

 

I feel there are 2 different ways to view the process. The advantage to committing earlier is it should help the player to be less distracted during the season and lessen the anxiety later as you go through the process. The negatives are that you may be forced to make some decisions before you really feel ready to, and worse yet, maybe before you had thought the whole thing through completely.

I hope players and parents think things through and take the time to make a good decision from all angles before committing. A lot of good points have been discussed by this group as it relates to different things a player and his parents should consider (Previous thread about D1 vs. D2 etc.).

My son could have signed during the early period and I know several others that could have also, but he wasn't positive. So I told him to wait and the coaches that were pressuring him to sign backed off the pressure when told he was going to wait. They then said the would hold things until early March. There of course is no quarantee that they would wait, but I want him to make sure he is comfortable with his choice and that he has given it a lot of thought. I wanted him to visit a variety of schools to help him have a broad perspective on the options.

He is a lot closer to knowing what he wants now, and I think when the time comes he will be very confident he made the right choice.

 

I've had several DI coaches tell me that they're increasingly troubled by the trend. One of the practical effects is to cause players to request unofficial visits earlier and more frequently; which, in turn, forces the coaching staffs to try to remain prepared for such visits virtually every weekend.

I wouldn't be surprized if the coaches take this issue up at their convention next month.

 

Potential Pitfall

What I want to know is what if the kid gets hurt, gets in trouble, or just doesn't perform well for the next two years. Will the college honor their promise?

 

This has happened in the past, and YES, the colleges know the risk they are taking. They have honored their word.

It's the only real down-side for the college.

 

I agree with NCBaseball, accept for the get in trouble part. Thats a pretty large area and opens the door for some schools to wiggle out. There is the running back at NCSU that had his scholarship offer rescinded by Miami (sorry can't think of his name).

But for the most part it would be suicide for a program to back track on offers, the sour taste they would create in HS coaches mouths would shut some doors on them.

Now the flip side of reality is that, let's assume the school gets the player in and finds out they made a big mistake - Scholarships are on a 1 year basis (read the fine print) again seldom will you ever hear of a kid just taken off scholarship once at a school. Again it would be a huge negative from a publicity perspective. But there are ways to make life miserable so as to influence one to either quit, or transfer.

All good reasons why do your homework.

 

The scholarships being taken away after a year or so does happen. You just don't hear about it because:
1) The college doesn't want to advertise this because of the negative impact
2) The player is too embarrassed to tell they had their scholarship taken away
Usually you will hear of a player just quitting to concentrate on school or transferring so they can get more PT somewhere else. It doesn't happen at many schools but it does happen at the bigger programs.

 

Here is a sobering thought ...

... the moment you arrive on campus, the coach is already recruiting your replacement. It's a constant battle on the part of the coaching staff to upgrade the team. It's a constant struggle on part of the player to continue to earn playing time.

If you look at the number of in-state D1 players in North Carolina (freshmen only), you will find about 1 for every county in the state. If you look at the number of in-state D2 players in North Carolina (freshmen only), you will find about 2 for every county in the state.

The competition is very stiff on all levels. Just because you were the "star" of your local HS/County doesn't mean you will start in college.

 

For a junior to commit early, it is usually because he committed to the school of his dreams. The benefit heavily favors the schools to do this. They are not bound to a verbal agreement and some have taken back their offers due to an injury or other factors. It doesn't happen as often in baseball vs the other sports, but the junior signings were very rare...not so rare now. As someone mentioned, it is becoming a "trend" that each year, it seems to be increasing.

But believe me, the schools that receive a commitment are happy to "lock' this recruit away from the other schools....and go on to the next recruit.