The Ivies, the very competitive private schools (Duke...) and the very competitive public schools (UNC, UVa, Michigan...) can always use grades/test scores as the out. These schools are turning away thousands of well qualified applicants every year. If there is a coaching change and the new coach does not want a player, he can easily say that grades/board scores are not up to snuff as the reason not to honor a verbal. UNC for instance had over 40k applications for this year's incoming class. They take less than 5k and only 15% of the 5k are from out of state. They, like the rest of these schools, have an easy out if they want to use it.