My understanding is that the very very early commitment (a year before they can sign) becomes more of a commitment on the players part. The player has almost a year and a half until acceptance and he has to live up to his part of the commitment, which is being able to get good grades and test scores for admission. Actually, the school has very little to lose as they do not have to offer teh letter when teh time comes, if they feel that the player might not be a good fit (grades, level of play). The junior academic year is very important, so I agree that now all the player has to do is concentrate on school and put all of the recruiting business aside.
We were discussing a player last night in chat, who committed a year early and then suddenly a few months ago had to go looking for a new school and a new place to play. Not sure what happened, but obviously the right fit changed over the course of a year.
I am just wondering if my son had commited to his dream school fall of junior year, and becoming one year older and wiser, would he have been as happy as he was at where he attended.
I also do agree, that there are many players who have not received commitments for '08 and seeing and hearing of 09's committing causes one to wonder, where they went wrong and if there son is not good enough to have received a committment for next fall. But I do not think that was the intention.
Best of luck to all.