In honor of Signing Day, a proposed new NCAA rule:

I don't think he meant reinstate the actual death penalty. You're getting off track here.

 

So if you run a recruiting notebook every week, say in mid-September a kid decides he's going to Rutgers (and there were quite a few by then). Explain how it's not a commitment if it's his intention to go to Rutgers.

 

... but then he changes his mind in two weeks and says he's going to Pitt. How was that a commitment again?

 

That's not the example I'm making. We've moved past that. Pay attention.

 

Moved past it how? Because the kid says in September he's going to Rutgers, how again does that make it a commitment when he isn't committed -- he can change his mind anytime with no repercussions?

 

We're talking about a kid who tells the coach of the school he would like to attend that he will accept the scholarship offer and will play football at that school. He can certainly change his mind, but he doesn't want to. He wants to attend that college - and does so after graduating from high school.

If he tells the coach he will accept the scholarship offer, entertains no other overtures from other colleges and ends up at said school in the long run, how is that not a commitment? He is committed to playing football at that school.

 

Actually, for those two schools, I would allow such behavior.

 

If that's the case. But when he says that in September, no one knows that is the case. Not even the kid. He can believe it at the time, but in October, perhaps Penn State invites him to come up and see the campus and he falls in the love with the place.

That's the point. WE DON'T KNOW. That's why this commitment BS is just that. BS.

 

Which is why there should be a fall signing period, but that's a discussion for another day.

 

And let's not forget that just because the kid announces in September, there might not be a scholarship waiting in February.

 

Until the young dude actually signs the national letter-of-intent, the word "commitment" doesn't mean a whole lot. and i really don't care who it is. who is anybody to say that a player who commits to a school in November isn't going to change his mind come December, January or early February? in this wacky world of recruiting and all, anything can change that person's mind. thus, all of this "commitment" attention is largely B.S. and subject to change at a second's notice.
and like I believe it was Starman who posted, I can't believe the grownups who live and die 24/7 with this bullcrap.

 

As far as "commitment" goes, one definition of the word is to make a pledge. My dictionary doesn't say anything about it being binding. I think most people thought I made a commitment when I got engaged, but I also could have backed out before the wedding with no real punishment.

That said, if a kid tells me he's committed to one school, but still is going to visit three others, I'm not buying it and wouldn't call him committed in a story. If a kid commits and cancels his other visits, that means something to me.

And while I totally get the hatred of signing day many of you expressed, if people are actually willing to buy my paper to read about this crap then I'm not going to complain too much.