Verbals

[jonriv]

I know we see verbals thrown around a lot- but how many of them are not honored?? I know that in football and basketball it is not uncommon for a player or school to back out of a verbal( I had heard that it had been uncommon in softball), but what is the case now? Anyone have any stats or firsthand knowledge?

[watchtonsofsoftball]

I dont have stats of any kind but here in Nor Cal I have been following the recruiting scene for about 8 years. In 8 years I have seen 2 Decommits by players and 1 back out by a coach. That kid was told a year ahead of time to get on track and they didnt, so coach backed out. There have been a lot of kids from our area verbal early and never heard about any problems or things changing. Its not like football or basketball quite yet. I think most kids in softball honor their verbal and the coaches do the same. I have found most people who say a verbal has no merit probably havent been through the process or simply their daughters didnt get a verbal offer. I say this, not to be a jerk but 99% of the time verbals are honored around here. My pennies worth.

[NORCALGOLD]

I agree in the past 5 years that I have been aware of verbals. I have seen or heard of a only a few verbals not being honored. The ones that were not honored there was a coaching change or usaully the player changed there mind. But, this is a rare occurrence.

[DonnieS]

I knew of one player who decided to decommit her verbal to a in-state school to accept a verbal from an out of state school, but the original coach talked with the family and finally with the second school's coach about the importance of maintaining the original verbal. He got through to someone, because the kid - came back and honored the original verbal.

There has been a lot of talk from a very few here who make fun of the verbal, but my guess is that he/she comes from a part of the country where a word of honor doesnt mean much in the first place, and it obviously doesnt mean much to those few who make fun of it.

To me, the things that might make a student reconsider, would be a change of coaches, or a change in circumstances at the school that changes the agreement (the Penn State issue, a school getting black listed, a school changing its classification or not getting a classification that the player was told to expect), change or drop in majors that a kid was expecting, those kind of issues. Hopefully, the homework was done before hand so some of these things would already be known.

[MTR]

There has been a lot of talk from a very few here who make fun of the verbal, but my guess is that he/she comes from a part of the country where a word of honor doesnt mean much in the first place, and it obviously doesnt mean much to those few who make fun of it.

What an absurd statement!

It isn't the "verbal" of which people make fun. It is those who cower to a system that provides coaches with god-like adulation.

A previous post mentioned how softball hasn't reached the level of football and basketball. Could it be that is because those folks realized they can control the situation? If the player deserves the scholarship, s/he will get the scholarship without cowering to the coaches, many of which abuse the hell out of the system.

These coaches go to a national coaches convention, complain about the system, state that someone has to do something about it and then return to campus and proceed to perpetuate it. Why? Because it empowers them and many take full advantage of that.

I've read of some football players actually using the verbal to gauge their value. They verbal to a school which would meet their needs and then listen for the chatter to see what other schools are really interested in talking to them. You may not approve of it, but apparently it works for them.

But no matter how you deal with it, there is still no official value in a verbal, nor resolution if it doesn't work out.

[AlwaysImprove]

While there may be "no official value" in a verbal, the net up swing for a family can be $80k on the low end and $250k+ on the high end. Any time you like you can take that in stuff that in your official pipe and smoke it. Real money, spends for real.

MTR, Have you been through the process with your own kid, or any other kids?

[NORCALGOLD]

Always improve; Just ignore MTR he's a quack. When you read his post you realize how delusional some people really are. "cower to a system that provides coaches with god-like adulation." Are you kidding me.
Save your breath he is in camp conspiracy and doesn't want to leave.

[DonnieS]

Always improve; Just ignore MTR he's a quack. When you read his post you realize how delusional some people really are. "cower to a system that provides coaches with god-like adulation." Are you kidding me.
Save your breath he is in camp conspiracy and doesn't want to leave.

Unfortunately, well said NorcalGold. I keep hoping he posts something positive about this journey our families are on - but nope. Here's hoping something makes him happy someday - dont know why he hangs around here, as naive and ignorant as we all are.

[jonriv]

I was just trying to see if there was any "stats" on verbals- I have been under the assumption that in the Softball world the vast majority of verbals are honored- I know in the Football and basketball world this is not the case. Just looking to see if it was still true with regards to softball. MTR does have a point(the theatrical language not withstanding) that the $$ are not there until the NLI is signed(a school can still back out of an NLI if the student is not accepted academically). If a school or student backs out of a verbal- there is no recourse.


If the current rules remain in place- I hope the trend of coaches and players honoring verbals continue- despite some of the cynicism shown here- business in this country still runs on trust(that includes even her in the Northeast Donnie!)

Frankly- I wish they would eliminate verbals.(not that i think it will ever happen) IMO it is tough to ask a 15 or 16 kid to make a "life" decision. I think the process pressures other players/parents to commit to places they might not otherwise choose. I also see the other side that it is nice to have the process done early-

To the original question- has anyone seen any hard data on percentages of verbals kept? My gut and info would make me feel it is very high-and the posts here would also indicate that, but it would be nice to get some data to support it.

[DonnieS]

>> business in this country still runs on trust(that includes even her in the Northeast Donnie!) <<

Most all of my business is and has been in the Northeast for many years - and I certainly operate on trust there. Whatever corner of the woods MTR and his ilk live in, are quite cynical of something so naive as a hand shake.

It has worked for us and virtually everyone I have heard of with the one exception and in the long run, that came around as well.