College football coaches today have very difficult jobs when it comes to organizing a recruiting effort that will land them the best players possible in building a championship program. They are under enormous pressure to not only evaluate players’ talent, but also to predict whether they can succeed at their respective college when they arrive. In many cases, the first to offer the next consensus high school All-American gives them the inside track at signing that players come national signing day each February.
Problems arise when that ‘verbal’ offer arrives early in the process and that player thinks that when they commit the recruiting process is over. This could not be further from the truth! Over the last several years, these verbal offers have been followed by commitments that have little to no stability for both the school and the player. Exceptions can be made for the most elite prospects that are sitting on multiple offers, but these instances are almost non-existent. Verbal ‘offers’ and verbal ‘commitments’ have no governing body to enforce them, not even the NCAA or any college or university anywhere that plays a sport. Take a look at the following passage from the NCAA itself to have a clear idea of what is reality. NCAA and the Verbal Commitment
GES Advisory Company has a very clear understanding of this concept and can advise all of our members of these pitfalls. The important thing to remember is that the recruiting process does not end until National Signing Day when student-athletes sign their National Letter of Intent or NLI that binds them to that school. Enclosed here is the correct interpretation The National Letter of Intent. Whenever any of our prospects receive an offer, the most important advice I can give them is to study and prepare on and off the field as if they never received the offer in the first place! Complacency is our worst enemy and we should never be comfortable with the offer because it can be taken away just as easily as it was given! So the commitment can only come in one form, when the NLI is signed by both the player and the school.
Thanks everyone for reading and let’s have another great week in constant pursuit of our dreams and goals!