In recent years, when a player committed verbally, that commitment was just that — a commitment. Coaches knew on national signing day who they had and there was little to doubt that a player would back out.
In today’s world of social media and hype surrounding top high school prospects, football has become a big time business — all the way down into pee-wee levels.
Now, more than ever, high school players are verbally committing to one school, and then on national signing day, pulling hype stunts on live social media posts, taking off one school’s shirt where they verbally committed to, only to reveal that ‘other’ school where they are signing their national letter of intent.
In 2019, California passed into law that college athletes could be compensated for the use of their likeness, which sent the NCAA into a whirlwind of debate and trying to find the value of a college athlete.
Ohio State University recently released an article (Link Here), that suggests the values a three-to-five star recruit can bring to their prospective universities. In the study, OSU suggests that according to data, a five-star recruit brings as much as $650,000 a year. Three-star athletes bring as much as $150,000 per year.
What happened to America’s values of “a man’s word is his bond” many of us grew up with? With the shock-and-awe factor social media delivers, the phrase “committed” doesn’t come close to meaning that anymore.
Decommitments cost — period.
