POLL~ THIS or THAT~ early recruitment or transfer portal

[RADcatcher]

I know early recruitment is not favorable to a lot of people and I agree it can be young at 14 or 15. But I do know athletes who had early recruitment were very mature individuals and for those it worked out well.
Also know an early recruitment player who used transfer portal. And had the fifth year senior thing also. Systems working out well for her.

Nice to read posters commenting they think recruitment could be a little earlier. I agree. And I also agree with the posters that were commenting there needs to be some adjustments in the transfer portal. But the way it is now, not on board.

 

[Vertigo]

It can still be pressure

I totally get that - no one is saying it’s not - but pressure to choose a school as a 13 y/o kid on where you are going to spend four years of your life that won’t occur in another 5 years from now is just too much. So much can change in those 5 years.

Making the decision to switch a school while already in college can definitely be stressful, but as an adult I think that mentally and maturity-wise one is in a much better place to make that decision.

 

[RADcatcher]

We know that people made those early decisions willingly.
And there was a relief from pressure for those i know that accepted early. Created an excitement of their goal. The percentage of players that went that route in softball was very very low.
Lots of individual decision making for sure!
To the maturity variance and use of the word adult between somebody who's 18 or 23 can be minimal or large. Hopefully better a few years older but not necessarily so.

 

[benjey]

The really early, 8th grade and under, was happening at a very small percentage of the D1 schools(top 25ish) so I have always felt they changed the recruitment rules for everyone because a few coaches at elite schools couldn't keep themselves from offering 6th graders.

What I wish they had done is prohibit verbal commitments before jr year but not all communication as this made it much more difficult for student athletes to navigate the recruiting process since they couldn't officially get feedback on where they stood. This was especially true outside of those elite schools. Never saw the harm in a mid major coach being able to tell a 9th grader we are definitely interested in you and will continue to see how you develop.

 

[Vertigo]

We know that people made those early decisions willingly.

Of course they did - and so did the parents with stars in their eyes.

 

[Vertigo]

The really early, 8th grade and under, was happening at a very small percentage of the D1 schools(top 25ish) so I have always felt they changed the recruitment rules for everyone because a few coaches at elite schools couldn't keep themselves from offering 6th graders.

There were at least 3 of these “early recruits” from my area and they were schools that were definitely not in the top 25 - not even P5 schools.

All 3 of those kids were committed elsewhere by the end of their junior year of HS. One to a P5 program and the other 2 to schools of similar caliber (mid-major D1).

 

[Vertigo]

There was a D1 school not too far from where I live doing a lot of these early recruitments/verbals - actually over-recruiting. They were actually notorious for it.

 

[benjey]

There were at least 3 of these “early recruits” from my area and they were schools that were definitely not in the top 25 - not even P5 schools.

All 3 of those kids were committed elsewhere by the end of their junior year of HS. One to a P5 program and the other 2 to schools of similar caliber (mid-major D1).

We didn't really run in to much of that at the mid major level. Not saying it didn't happen at all just wasn't that common in our experience and would still have been solved with my suggestion of prohibiting verbal commitments without prohibiting all recruiting communication.

 

[angispeds]

I'm not for going back to recruiting middle schoolers again but maybe move it to September 1st of sophomore year. This is a huge decision and will allow more time to develop relationships between coaching staffs and players- needs to be a win/win.


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I’d even be happy with that first day after the college World Series is over the summer before junior year so they could start building those relationships during the summer as they are watching the incoming juniors play.


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[Vertigo]

We didn't really run in to much of that at the mid major level. Not saying it didn't happen at all just wasn't that common in our experience and would still have been solved with my suggestion of prohibiting verbal commitments without prohibiting all recruiting communication.

I think it wasn’t as widely publicized if a kid was committing to a smaller D1 vs OU, Florida, Bama, etc. at a young age.