Great to hear they did their due diligence and such, and hopefully she will do great things in the future. All that aside, I fail to see the upside of committing so early?
2023 pitcher to Florida
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- Dec 11, 2010
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This is a great discussion.
I think what makes the current recruiting situation work, (and it works mostly for college coaches not players), is the perception by players and parents that if you aren’t committed by sophomore year there are no scholarships left and you will be left out in the cold. It takes guts hold out, especially if you are not a high level pitcher. The late in the process movement by players does seem to involve pitchers more than position players.
I think what makes the current recruiting situation work, (and it works mostly for college coaches not players), is the perception by players and parents that if you aren’t committed by sophomore year there are no scholarships left and you will be left out in the cold. It takes guts hold out, especially if you are not a high level pitcher. The late in the process movement by players does seem to involve pitchers more than position players.
I just don't understand the advantage of committing so early. You are committed to them, they are not committed to you. The dirty little secret is, of course, each school commits to about 3 to 5 more players than they need for each class. So when signing day comes, someone is left out in the cold each year. In the meantime, the player stopped talking to other schools because they were "committed".
- Sep 10, 2013
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- Feb 3, 2016
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Wonder if the possible change in the recruiting rules has anything to do with Florida having 2 7th grade players committing early. Maybe we will see some of the top programs in the NCAA try to get some of these young girls to commit before the possible change in recruiting rules goes into effect.
I agree. Have seen it happen too many times where the player stops recruiting and then their is a coaching change or an injury and the college backs out - then the player is starting from scratch as a senior.
Even at 18U my DD turned down a couple of major D1 offers...2 of which were a full ride. Why? Because they didn't offer the major she wanted to study. You see, contrary to popular belief by many members on this site and many other FP specific sites, whether local or national, it's not ALL ABOUT SOFTBALL! For a vast majority of the players and their families, SB is a means to an end, i.e. getting a degree in a career of their choice and actually landing a good paying job in their dream career without incurring crippling student loan debt. Yes, there are some players that just have that dream of playing Major D1 and, hopefully, competing in the WCWS. There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. I know one player extremely well that did this after having that dream. I also, personally, have 3 of those players on my 12U team. Realistically, at this age, with the work ethic they have along with their natural athleticism, they could probably do it. I would also say when they asked my advice about committing athletes this age that I would tell them, "Don't do it." If a college wants them at this age, just think how much more that college will want them after they've matured, along with other colleges that play at the same level. Yes they take the chance of a career ending injury but whether they are committed or not, this will end their dream so why commit in the first place? Amd if they don't mature as expected, that same college will rescind the offer and the player has taken themselves off of the market for numerous years only to be left out in the cold at the last minute and scrambling to find a school to give her a little bit of money to off-set the tution. However, in the long run, if she matured as expected, the family and player would be able to play multiple colleges against each other to get the best possible offer from several colleges and be able to choose based on an informed decision as to which colleges won't limit their choice of majors, let alone which programs will work with their athletic program to help her graduate on time and in the player's preferred area of interest. Committing this early is an absolute fool's game IMO and little good can come of it from a player and her family's perspective.
Less than the top 1% of the top 1% of all players get a chance to move on to play after college in the NPF. Even then, 98% of those players salaries are minimal to non-existent. In other words, for ALL players, softball ends. For some players, it ends after rec ball runs out. For many others, after HS ball ends. For a huge majority of those left, when college ends, so does their SB career. My question to everyone is what happens to your DD when college ends? Do you want them to have a quality education and degree to start a good to great paying career on or do you want them to only have SB to fall back on with little hope of a career? Yes, some players have made it to a great career after SB was over for them such as our (wonderful) (sarcasm font needed) announcers for the Olympics or WCWS games. But out of the millions of players that played the game, how many (wonderful) announcers can you name?
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- Nov 18, 2013
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That's simply not true. A small handful of schools over commit, but the vast majority only offer to kids they plan on signing.
- Feb 7, 2013
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Here's my question. Let's use a real example from DD's HS team. 15YO sophomore pitcher verbally commits to Ohio State (her parents Alum) and her dream school. Had she waited until her senior year, would Ohio State still be available to her as other 15 or 16YOs pitchers would have already verbally committed to that college, leaving little room in the pitching rotation and scholarship $$ for her? IMO, the only way she could get away with waiting until her senior is if she was significantly better than the other pitchers who have already verballed.
