Question for PG Staff

Right after I wrote the above post, I was checking out Tulane's list of early signees and noted that the school has signed seven '08 prospects and one JUCO player. Head Coach Rick Jones commented: "This class is a little larger than we normally do, but with the new rules, we have to front-load our classes from here on out. You have to look into the crystal ball a little bit and figure out who is going to be back next year with graduation and the Major League Draft. Along with last year's class, which featured a lot of JuCo talent, it puts us back on the level we are at before the storm." It was interesting to read about the school's strategy to "front-load" its classes now and in the future due to the new NCAA rules. Do you think this will be a nationwide trend?

Infield08,

I'll check on that, but it seems like it's about the same as last year. What we do see more of is underclassmen making early committments. That is the single biggest change we've seen in recruiting over the past few years. Colleges are gearing in on kids much earlier.

quote:

What we do see more of is underclassmen making early committments...Colleges are gearing in on kids much earlier.

PG, for the players, what do you see as the pros and cons of the earlier commitments? I'm including the junior and sophomore commits I'm reading about in my question.

justbaseball,

Guess the only positive is that they have a sense of where they are going to go to college. I don’t really see any big advantage or disadvantage to the player, but do see a distinct advantage for the colleges (like UCLA) that are able to get these top 09s to commit early. UCLA has at least 3 top 09s who have already committed. The top colleges are the most likely to get the top players and they seem to be paying much closer attention to who the top underclassmen are than they used to.

IMO Perhaps the only negative for either the college or the player is the possibility of one or the other reneging for one reason or another. Maybe another negative would be if the player becomes satisfied and quits working to improve. IMO satisfaction is a baseball players biggest enemy. Then again, most of those who are committing early also have visions of being a high draft choice, so that keeps them working hard.

Interesting enough, the MLB Scouting Bureau seems to be listing many more underclassmen than ever before, too. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, (college or pro) only sure that it is happening a lot more than it used to.

FWIW... It’s not something I’m in favor of or against, just something that has become clearly obvious over the past few years.

Thanks PG, I think those are pretty good answers from my point of view.

I used to be very much against it, but then I started thinking that folks 10 years before my older son probably thought our group was silly to commit in the summer before senior year. I still find it confusing as to why a very top player would commit during their sophomore or early junior year (wouldn't that school still want them a year later if they're really good?).

With coaching carousel of this past Fall on the West Coast, I wonder even more about how those commitments will be kept in the future when the door revolves again?

But each group finds its own way I guess. So I'm not gonna 2nd-guess other folks' decisions anymore.

I read about more and more football and basketball players reneging on their early commitments and I guess its bound to happen in baseball too, more and more.

I don't know anymore what I'd advise a son (or daughter) to do if offered at a very early point in time? Given that the new Oregon coach has a whole year to evaluate and recruit, I'm going to guess there will be some very early commitments there too.