For D3 Nescac schools, availabilty of slots and tips are not solely about the frosh who are deferring, it’s also impacted by upperclassmen taking gap years. My kid’s sport had a large relative number of gap year soph juniors and seniors. From what I hear a ton of kids who posted their “commitments” to nescacs back over the summer may be receiving some difficult and unwelcome news from coaches pre ED. Very unfamiliar territory for these coaches, even those with strong ties to the admission dept.