PG, I agree. My son was asked to make a verbal commitment his sophmore year while his HS team attended a camp at the college. Thank goodness he said no, even though it was his favorite at the time.
The vast majority of schools recruiting my son came while playing on a high level travel team, even though he played for a nationally ranked high school team. The travel team played all their tournaments at colleges, except the Perfect Game at East Cobb and Jupiter. This opportunity offered him a tremendous amount of exposure and opportunities to view the campus and student life. He committed in August before his Sr. year to one of those (SEC) colleges.
I spoke with his college coaches at the Perfect Game tournament this week at East Cobb and they stated that they "have completed their recruiting for the "010 Sr. class and are looking at the '011 players". To me, that is astonishing!
HeyBatter, I agree that DVD's may be useful but coaches want to see you play and obviously you better get to the schools early. I don't necessarily agree with this early process but I don't forsee things changing.