Interesting Recruiting Year

Is it just my perception or does it appear to others to be a slower year for early committments. Things may heat up in the last 4 weeks before the early signing period as schools that have offered push to get kids signed, while other schools try to buy time and hold off till the spring.

But the number of early committments just appears down to me. App State appears to be an exception with a large number of early committments already. Is there a reason anyone knows of?

 

I'm waiting permission to post something I received from a college recruiter. I found it very interesting. I believe one of the reasons is because many schools stockpiled the last two years...not as many scholly's available.

Also, at least I hope this is the case, the families are becoming wiser. Doing their homework and not jumping at the first proposal. They are exploring all their avenues and see what fits the best. Now, this may be wishful thinking on my part, but you hope that people are evolving learning about the recruiting process. There is so much more information then there was 3-5 years ago.

 

I'm not sure if App State has a lot of commitments. I know of three. The Tarheels have about 12, Clemson - 6, NC State - 3, Campbell - 2, Western - 1, Charlotte - 1. Those are the ones I'm aware of from schools around here. Braves, you may be right as far as other players waiting. I know of a few that went last weekend and a few going this weekend for both official and unofficial visits.

 

Braves, I believe families are becoming wiser and doing their homework before choosing a school....However, I don't think schools have slowed down their recruiting if there is a player they want. Ryan was recruited very aggressivley last year after we got back from Jupiter from several schools....I think a lot still depends on the school and what their needs are in regards to how early and how aggressive they go after a particular player...

 

Clemson 06

Clemson's needs for 06 were limited, as well as their scholarship money. They targeted certain players and wrapped things up early. With the looks of things they have fantastic 06 recruiting class to add to what should be a great team for the next several years. Clemson appears to be one of the few major programs that doesn't over recruit.

Here are the ones I know of.....pretty impressive.

Ryan Morris
Addison Johnson
Graham Stoneburner
Josh Thrailkill
Jason Taylor

 

I agree...I hope I wasn't implying differently. To summarize, I think many schools are much more selective this year and the families are much more wiser. In the past, some players jumped on a $1,000 offer to go to State U, now, they seem to be more educated on where their opportunities to play are.

You will still have the studs going wherever they want and you will still have the player committing to his dream school, but I believe many families are sitting down trying to figure out where his best opportunies are to play...and for the majority of players that is the priority.

The last thing I would like to mention is something college recruiters don't like me to say. They understand the players urgency to sign in the fall to get it behind them, so many times the offers reflect that strategy. There is nothing wrong with that, but recruiting is a long season and most signees are in the spring...so don't panic!

 

Hey, here's an idea..

Maybe the talent pool in NC isn't as deep with 06's as it was for 05's or 04's.
I actually think 07 will be much stronger than 06, so this might just be a down year. Just look at the number of sophs on this years' state games 'junior' rosters.

 

From what I'm hearing, it wouldn't surprize me to see Division I baseball coaches consider the establishment of a date before which recruits may not verbally commit. They would do this at their annual meeting in January.

While schools have been making offers earlier and earlier the last few years, no change has been made to the rules governing "official" visits (They may not begin until after a recruit has begun his senior year in high school.) This has had the effect of increasing the number of player requests for "unofficial" visits which have the significance of "official" ones ("Unofficial visits, paid for by the players' families', may take place anytime.). Since the players are the ones randomly requesting these visits, the college coaching staffs are finding that they are increasingly called upon to confine themselves to campus to accomodate the growth in "unofficial" visits.

Don't know whether the proposal will pass or not, but I think it'll be on the agenda.

 

This wouldn't surprise me in the least, I've gotten the perception from talking with several coaches this summer and fall that they would rather have more time to make some of the decisions they are having to make.

But it is a double edged sword. As it stands now the Major D1 schools wrap up the majority of their recruiting in the fall and the small D1 and D2 schools then can go to work on the talent pool that is un-signed or un-committed. Moving committement dates back and, or the early signing period would greatly complicate the smaller D1, D2, and D3 schools jobs. Those with less money and recruiting personnel would have even less time to do there jobs if a lot of this had to occur during their spring seasons. Would they try to remove the dead period that exists after the early signing period?

Who knows what will happen, it is a intricate problem to say the least with all sorts twists and turns that effect each program differently.