The damage should be obvious, but I will spell it out, Lost Opportunities. Both kids could have committed/signed with other schools, but by the time they were encouraged to go elsewhere those schools had already filled their 08 classes. Both ended up committing to good programs, but by allowing themselves to be taken off the market for a year, they missed out on a lot of other opportunities.
The moral of the story is that any kid/parent that commits early should remember that the commitment means NOTHING. The NCAA should ban early commitments.
As for the suggestion that parents can pressure coaches into making offers I would have to agree with TRHit. Until an NLI is signed coaches can withdraw an "offer" at any time. No one can force them to do anything they don't want to do. And if they decide later that they made a mistake, all they have to do is withdraw the offer.
quote:Originally posted by PGStaff:
dawgswood,
What is happening more and more is top players are making a verbal committment before they start their junior year of high school. For the most part this happens during the summer between their soph and junior year, but there have been a few cases of players committing even earlier (as you referred to one at FL) There was also one in Southern Cal and a few more.
IMO This trend of getting early committments from top players, between soph and junior year, is only going to grow unless the NCAA stops it. I really don't see how it is hurting anything, but that doesn't mean the NCAA won't get involved.
Colleges will always try to get an advantage over other colleges if something is legal. This is highly competitive stuff, as we all know!
Just thought of another old saying that fits here... The early bird gets the worm!