Of course - better academic piece of paper. Will be interesting to see if the de-commit trend rises as an outgrowth of the accelerated recruiting trend and if so, will it have any affect on the accelerated recruiting trend - slow it down, speed it up, no affect? Also, since colleges recruit by class, what does a school like UMD do to fill the holes in their oldest high school classes when HS seniors jump? Most anybody else they might have had on their radar are likely to already be committed elsewhere by the time this happens. Will they over-recruit each class expecting to have a few de-commit? Will they more aggressively poach kids that they had on their radar but for some reason committed elsewhere?
You bring up an interesting point.
Committing works both ways. It assumes both parties adhere to the agreement. When you have the student de-commit due to a "better" offer, and don't get me wrong I am not judging, then I would assume if this trend accelerates, then colleges would also be allowed to de-commit if someone "better" becomes available.
Once the veil of trust is broken on verbal commitments, all bets are off and the process will be upended.
