Clearly a college coach is not going to take an early commit if the kid can't play. However, like everything in life - knowing the right people certainly doesn't hurt. There is a reason every single commit to UNC is from Maryland. The UNC coach has ties to Baltimore and the Kelly family. Don't kid yourself that politics doesn't play a role.
In the end - all the commits better hit the books and work on their game. A verbal is just that - a verbal. A gentleman's agreement that can be broken by either party for any reason. If a new shiny toy shows up on a coach's door in two years and one of these early commits just isn't that special anymore - guess who loses. Buyer beware...
Contrary to what many may believe, there is money being offered in early recruiting.....big money for some. For some of the families that have an early commit it will cost them less to send their son to college than it will to send them to a moderately priced private high school. Therefore, there is a lot at stake and the kids who take it seriously realize that. Most of these kids are committed early because they tend to take their game seriously, set goals, work on and off the field to achieve and improve, and most of the ones that I know also happen to be great students. I'm gonna choose to encourage them and believe that most of them will make good decisions in high school and that they WILL cross the "finish line". It also helps immensely when they have those "political game players" encouraging them to make good choices along the way. When you criticize the quality of the early commits, you're really just insulting the college coaches who made the choices. And perhaps the UNC relationship with Baltimore has something to do with the fact that Baltimore happens to be the nucleus of the MIAA. And maybe the fact that the Calvert Hall coach sends so many recruits their way has something to do with the fact that he happens to coach at one of the largest and most competitive all boys schools in the MIAA...just sayin. Maybe it's just good recruiting vs politics.
