We got in a minor dustup with D when she wanted to post her “verbal commitment”. We told her to hold off until she had notified the other coaches she had been talking to. It got her to actually contact them, though, which was a plus. I’m sure that would have been like pulling teeth otherwise. Coach gave her some specific verbiage to post “committing to the recruitment process” or something, but said go ahead.
Maybe she won’t get in, but at that point I’ll care more about the 70 bucks I blew on a sweatshirt than any post.
In some sports there are pages and pages of recruits and where they are going posted early. Other sports wait.
Some don’t want to post until they are accepted to the school. Two sisters were on the list for my daughter’s school for almost 2 years before the older sister didn’t get accepted academically. Oops.
If she posts about the acceptance and then the coach ‘drops’ her, it won’t be the first assumption that the coach changed his mind and won’t make the coach look bad. Maybe the student changed her mind, maybe wasn’t accepted academically, maybe the finances didn’t work out. No one will know unless the student makes the info public.
But what is to be gained by announcing now? You have to weigh the pros and cons.
2018graduate mom, congrats to you and your D. My D21 is going through a very similar process as your D. My D21 even plays tennis too and is pursuing mainly D3 schools for tennis. We are happy that things have worked out well for your D.
We would be curious as to us mutually sharing info with you on our recruiting info from our experience. Please let us know we may be able to reach out to you privately.
Thanks and congrats again.
Probably better to just wait considering the uncertainty with the recruiting year.
dadof3and1dog, thank you. Keep hanging in there. Some coaches are still waiting, this year recruiting has been unusual at best. Biggest problem is convincing the coach without having met them. I feel they will be still filling some spots into October.
I am in the “don’t post” camp. First, it isn’t the coach who makes the admissions decision in D3, it’s the admission committee (with input from the coach). The coach may not be the culpable one if something goes wrong. Second, since the entire process is non-binding, it really doesn’t end until the acceptance and deposit is given. So you are publicizing a non-binding event, presumably as a fait accompli. Is it false advertising? Third, at least one NESCAC school (Middlebury) frowns on publicizing commitments, and given the NESCAC’s adherence to adcoms making admission decisions, it is likely that others similarly frown. Fourth, why? Bragging rights? Our high school impressed on its students that they should not flaunt their college admissions, because there are a lot of high academic achievers who get rejected from their primary school choices. Finally, what happens if something happens? What happens if the recruit is cut the first year? I don’t know, maybe I worry about the karma.
I am sure that others feel differently. If you do, your recruit may want to run it by the coach first to see what he or she thinks about publicizing the commitment.
As a recruiting coordinator for a specific sport’s travel team, it is customary with our sport to post where a player has verbally committed on our Web site, as it helps us with tryouts to attract talent who may be considering similar schools.
We do have two rules, however - be sure the college coach is ok with us posting it (haven’t had an issue yet), and let the other college coaches who were following you and had been in communication with you know that you have verbally committed before we post it.
We’ve had players verbally commit to NESCAC schools and the only thing that was told to the players was that they could not say they had “signed” with the school, because obviously there is no NLI at any D3 schools or athletic money awarded. However, this definitely could vary by school so ALWAYS clear it with the college coach first before posting to social media. Verbally committing is pretty much like a handshake deal. You are banking on both parties staying true to it.
Also, keep in mind that a commitment to any school, be it D1-D3, means nothing until they are signed (D1, D2) or are admitted (D3).
I previously quoted the Middlebury Campus for this comment from the head of Admissions: “Recruited athletes are often given extra and earlier advance notice as to their viability as a candidate for the College based on criteria set by the NESCAC, which can often lead athletes to premature assumptions about their admittance. Instances have occurred where students in the recruitment process have claimed a ‘commitment’ to the College similar to those allowed at Division 1 institutions. As a matter of protocol and process, Buckles said, Admissions will track down these claims to correct them when they see them.”
https://middleburycampus.com/29991/news/deconstructing-college-athletics/
I suspect that D3 coaches might be okay with publicizing commitments, but Admissions may take a different position. I wonder how many teams touch base with Admissions.
On the whole notion of publicizing commitments at the D1 level (admittedly quite different than D3 commitments) one Sports Illustrated journalist said the following:
“I shake my head every time a player posts to a social media platform that he has “officially” committed to a school. By an oral commitment’s very nature, there is nothing official or binding about it. What’s official? A signed National Letter of Intent or a signed financial aid agreement. Everything else is fluid on the player side and on the program side. The sooner recruits and fans understand that, the better.”
https://www.si.com/college/2016/02/01/core-problem-recruiting-commitments-and-how-fix-it
I guess it can be a gray area, depending on the sport. However, in soccer there are websites that track oral commitments at all division levels. Topdrawersoccer is one. Or the New England Soccer Journal is another that lists many/most commitments in New England. So for soccer it is common and expected that commitments are announced before NLIs are signed, or before kids are admitted. Some commitments are announced more than a year before an NLI is signed.
I note that there’s a '21 Middlebury commit listed in NESJ btw.
In my son’s case, his college advisor confirmed with the school that he had passed the preread and had an offer of support (a benefit of attending a boarding school). While admission is absolutely not guaranteed, the college advisor, “heard what he needed to hear”. My son then asked the coach if he could publicly say he committed, and the coach said it was fine.
It is more unusual, and uncommon, for a recruit not to announce, than to announce before the NLI/acceptance.
I also believe verbal commitments are posted as a common courtesy to other college coaches, especially now with social media. Many athletes use Twitter to tag coaches who they want to view a skills video. Once a verbal offer is made and accepted, the other coaches will now focus their time on other PSA’s vs the committed athlete if it is announced. We always list our current committed athletes (both signed and verballed) on our team profile sheets that we give to college coaches at showcases - it also helps them to gauge the talent level of the team by seeing the list of schools recruiting our players.
As @gointhruaphase and others have noted, a student making a “commitment” is entirely one-sided. It’s a great point of pride to announce you’re done with the recruiting process, but that’s all it is because the actual admittance process isn’t over - applications typically not even submitted at this point. A player is still many steps away from the end goal of having an acceptance in hand (or inbox). The verbal commitments from coach to player and vice versa are, when it comes down to brass tacks, worth the paper they’re written on.
If anything, a student announcing his/her commitment serves the coach, b/c it signals to other coaches the player is off the market. I’m not saying a player should continue to active reach out to other schools. Don’t burn any bridges, and perhaps don’t cross any bridges you don’t have to.
There were (are?) several sites that posted lax recruits. LaxPower is no longer an active site, but it had a recruiting page for each high school year. Anyone could post (parent/coach/club team) and for many years they started the list in Jan of sophomore year. On the first day the list opened, there would be 100s of names (usually about 400 girls and 400 boys). The lists included all schools; Ivies, NESCAC, service academies, top D1, schools no one had heard of were all on the lists. Then the governing committees of the NCAA limited recruiting to juniors and up, so there weren’t the early early early commits that there had been. (and then laxpower shut down, so I don’t know who is keeping the lists now).
What I noticed over the years were that there were a lot more boys changing their minds and changing schools than girls, but there were plenty of changes on both lists. College coaching changes, weren’t admitted to the schools, change their minds about the military…
I don’t think there were negative connotations attached to changing after posting. Not really different than wearing the sweatshirt after a visit and then going to a different school. No one really remembers but the kid.
@2018graduatemom Yes, athletes taking gap years (and other factors) are reducing 2021 recruiting slots at some schools. One D3 coach told my S21 that he would like to offer support but has only half the usual number of slots this year. Coach still encouraged S21 to apply and be on the team if he got in, but no official recruitment spot. S21 and I were happy to have this clear feedback, as it helped S21 move ahead with other offers.