2022, 2023, & 2024 Baseball Commitments (Merged with the 2018+ Thread)

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Until they change a rule where you can’t. Go after and get the top dudes because your competition sure as hell is. I agree that should be a rule but it isn’t.

They did change the rule. Kids can’t even visit with coaches anymore.
it’s sad coaches keep doing this bs
 
You can still take a commitment though. If you aren’t the competition will and they will race right past you in this conference.

I agree once they get to Hs but very few are racing past anyone recruiting 8th graders

TV doing this BS is going to force the NCAA to take those rule changes
Even further like softball
Did and that needs to happen ASAP
 
I agree once they get to Hs but very few are racing past anyone recruiting 8th graders

TV doing this BS is going to force the NCAA to take those rule changes
Even further like softball
Did and that needs to happen ASAP
Local kid who is A can’t miss prospect and wants to commit you take the commitment. 2024 kids have committed to several SEC schools.
 
How many SEC schools have 2024 commits?

florida and Tenn are the only two I know of.
I’ll have to check but I’m pretty sure LSU and Arkansas do. The kid is a top 10 overall top player from Knoxville , goes to the camps and wants to be a Vol. It’s a no brainer you take the commitment imo
 
I’ll have to check but I’m pretty sure LSU and Arkansas do. The kid is a top 10 overall top player from Knoxville , goes to the camps and wants to be a Vol. It’s a no brainer you take the commitment imo

rankings are worthless at that age. In fact that top 10 really isn’t even a true 10 and it stops at that number anyway.

And yea if it’s wrong, like you admitted it should be against the rule, a man of principal wouldn’t do it.
 
I will disagree on a man of principle thing not doing it. If you have a kid that, even though he is 8th grade, you believe definitely will help your program 4 years from now and he is and has always wanted to be a Volunteer you do not tell him not to commit to you. I know you know this but a commitment is one sided at this point. Until the NLI is sent out, a commitment is just a player saying that is where I want to go and, in essence, taking himself off the market. I could understand if they went after him and stuff but from what I have heard this kid has made it very clear that he was/is a die hard Volunteer. You really cannot keep him from committing and posting it on Twitter or PG or coming to camps and such. Actually, UT, Auburn, Florida, LSU, and Vandy along with several other P5s have them. Just glancing through PG it looks like there are about 50 so far in P5 conferences. (You made me interested to find out) Again, not saying it is right to go after these guys at this age but I would be willing to bet most of these are not heavily if at all recruited, but by the looks of it they are committed to places that they have always wanted to be. So they would have done it without any persuasion.
 
I will disagree on a man of principle thing not doing it. If you have a kid that, even though he is 8th grade, you believe definitely will help your program 4 years from now and he is and has always wanted to be a Volunteer you do not tell him not to commit to you. I know you know this but a commitment is one sided at this point. Until the NLI is sent out, a commitment is just a player saying that is where I want to go and, in essence, taking himself off the market. I could understand if they went after him and stuff but from what I have heard this kid has made it very clear that he was/is a die hard Volunteer. You really cannot keep him from committing and posting it on Twitter or PG or coming to camps and such. Actually, UT, Auburn, Florida, LSU, and Vandy along with several other P5s have them. Just glancing through PG it looks like there are about 50 so far in P5 conferences. (You made me interested to find out) Again, not saying it is right to go after these guys at this age but I would be willing to bet most of these are not heavily if at all recruited, but by the looks of it they are committed to places that they have always wanted to be. So they would have done it without any persuasion.

I count 13 wrongs with only 4 of those being SEC commits. You can defend them all you want but even you admit it’s bad


Btw one of the 13 commits is committed to Tabor college. Me love that one
 
I understand but PG shows 5 SEC schools that I listed. I can name kid and school but you can look it up on recruited 2024. I see both sides of it. I know a kid that had grown up third generation NC State kid. Was pretty even with the kid committed to UT. Catcher with fastball in mid 80's as a 7th grader. He was at camp at NC state where he had gone several times every year. He told the coach, I'm gonna announce my commitment to NC State. Never had a recruiting conversation with the coach before that. The coach only said we would love to have you and we will talk more about what we can do as we get closer. Kid went home and put it on twitter that he had committed to NC State. He is a 2020 now and is still committed to NC State. You could say he was never recruited.
 
I understand but PG shows 5 SEC schools that I listed. I can name kid and school but you can look it up on recruited 2024. I see both sides of it. I know a kid that had grown up third generation NC State kid. Was pretty even with the kid committed to UT. Catcher with fastball in mid 80's as a 7th grader. He was at camp at NC state where he had gone several times every year. He told the coach, I'm gonna announce my commitment to NC State. Never had a recruiting conversation with the coach before that. The coach only said we would love to have you and we will talk more about what we can do as we get closer. Kid went home and put it on twitter that he had committed to NC State. He is a 2020 now and is still committed to NC State. You could say he was never recruited.

And that’s an example of complete stupidity from a 13 year old kid and his family. The rules should product a kid from their own ignorance and from a coach that takes a commitment without discussing finances in a sport where finances are important
 
But finances were not important to him. He did get a good deal but he would have gone no matter what. That is where he wanted to be and I cannot see anything rules can do to stop that. Even with the softball and other rules it will not stop a kid like this from committing. The school still has to make the official offer but it has not stopped this aspect of it. I know several that have made commitments in other sports that are protected. A commitment is not binding by anything the same way an offer is not binding until the NLI is sent and signed. Rules will not stop these situations from happening and I'm not sure it is a bad thing in 1% of the cases but I also know there are a lot that it is bad because kids don't progress or injuries or such. I get both sides of this situation and I think the young man we are talking about with UT is the 1%.
 
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I don’t think they should take commits or even be in contact with 13 year olds. We all know what this is, but it’s still silly. As a coach, you can plan all you want but you can’t have any idea what your roster will look like in 2024.

The kid gets hurt, you gonna hold up your end coach?

As long as there is no rule, they will keep doing it, so they should make a rule to add to all the other rules they have which are there to protect SA’s, ahem, supposedly.
 
Love this conversation. I'm very fortunate that my son was recruited prior to his freshman year in HS 2 years ago. UT was our only SEC visit since we are from the North and it was our absolute favorite. They provide the athlete an experience that the MAC and BigTen don't. We were driven around in a UT golf cart with coach Elander and Kivett. They took us to the player dorms, educational buildings, food courts, basketball arena and finally walked us out to the 50 yard line of the football field. It was fantastic. From there we went back and watched a recruiting video for about 20 minutes, then meet the pitching coach and finally spent about and 1:15 with coach Vitello. Now this was during his 1st yr mind you. Once of the thing we did notice was at that time they already had 21 2020's verbally committed. My wife asked coach about that and he said to us that "he couldn't cut a player for lack of ability if he was giving it his all for he wouldn't be able to look himself in the mirror but HIS roster at this moment wasn't SEC ready!" Vitello then went on to say he hoped that number would drop in a few years when they catch up to the rest of the SEC. He looked us in the eyes and I believe him. To us coach Vitello is a class act. Reminded us of a young Mark Shapiro. Lastly, we were finishing up our visit and I asked Elander the same question, his response was well "we try to get as many top recruits as possible the earliest we can and sometimes when signing day comes we have to say to them we can't take you for other players in your class worked harder or improved more than you and we have limited spots.
Not sure if this is good or bad. We loved everything from the coaches to the school but ultimately chose to play in the BigTen for they don't over recruit and the scholarships being guaranteed for 4 years. Parents and kids have to do their homework and ask the right questions. If all were even, UT is where I'd love to see my son play and get an education.
 
Love this conversation. I'm very fortunate that my son was recruited prior to his freshman year in HS 2 years ago. UT was our only SEC visit since we are from the North and it was our absolute favorite. They provide the athlete an experience that the MAC and BigTen don't. We were driven around in a UT golf cart with coach Elander and Kivett. They took us to the player dorms, educational buildings, food courts, basketball arena and finally walked us out to the 50 yard line of the football field. It was fantastic. From there we went back and watched a recruiting video for about 20 minutes, then meet the pitching coach and finally spent about and 1:15 with coach Vitello. Now this was during his 1st yr mind you. Once of the thing we did notice was at that time they already had 21 2020's verbally committed. My wife asked coach about that and he said to us that "he couldn't cut a player for lack of ability if he was giving it his all for he wouldn't be able to look himself in the mirror but HIS roster at this moment wasn't SEC ready!" Vitello then went on to say he hoped that number would drop in a few years when they catch up to the rest of the SEC. He looked us in the eyes and I believe him. To us coach Vitello is a class act. Reminded us of a young Mark Shapiro. Lastly, we were finishing up our visit and I asked Elander the same question, his response was well "we try to get as many top recruits as possible the earliest we can and sometimes when signing day comes we have to say to them we can't take you for other players in your class worked harder or improved more than you and we have limited spots.
Not sure if this is good or bad. We loved everything from the coaches to the school but ultimately chose to play in the BigTen for they don't over recruit and the scholarships being guaranteed for 4 years. Parents and kids have to do their homework and ask the right questions. If all were even, UT is where I'd love to see my son play and get an education.

Curious to exactly when this took place but everything you describe is currently against NCAA rules.
 
What do you mean, what’s illegal?

Can’t tour a kid that age around campus anymore. Those rules have been in place two years so depending on the timing it may have been legal then

But now you can’t even meet with coaches face to face until your junior year of HS.
 
He is a 2021 and did it before his freshman year so 3 years ago by what I read. Back then you could do almost anything. He came in march of 8th grade year by another thread he posted in.
 
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He is a 2021 and did it before his freshman year so 3 years ago by what I read. Back then you could do almost anything. He came in march of 8th grade year by another thread he posted in.

If he came in March of 8th grade then it was before the new rules started

sad that an 8th grader is doing those things regardless but even worse now that a kid doesn’t even get a face to face before committing to a coach.
 
It was interesting when I went back and read his other posts that they came to UT without ever being recruited by or meeting the coaches as an 8th grader. This is where we are in recruiting today. I'm really surprised that they spent that much time with him in March being a non-recruited guy. He must be the real deal.
 
Can’t tour a kid that age around campus anymore. Those rules have been in place two years so depending on the timing it may have been legal then

But now you can’t even meet with coaches face to face until your junior year of HS.

Explain the logic behind that rule...please!

It’s legal to recruit them, even take a commitment, but it’s illegal to take them around campus?

That’s just dumb. If I was an assistant baseball coach at UT, you can bet your “you know what”’ I am taking that kid’s daddy to Neyland.

Don’t allow them to be recruited at that age. That’s fine by me. But if it’s legal to recruit them it should be the same for everyone, 8th graders, 12th graders... all get the Big Orange carpet!

This type of rule is what got Bruce Pearl a show cause.
 
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We actually drove down for a game in mid-March I believe against Mid Tennessee St.. My story is accurate, and it was just prior to my son starting HS baseball his freshman year. I believe sometime in early April of that year they changed the recruiting rules. We had just committed to a Big Ten program and the no contact or on campus visits made it very hard for the next 2 years. My son never wavered but as a Dad I questioned it almost everynight for awhile. I'm comfortable now since we can receive calls from the coaches, I/we feel more attachment to the program. While it's been 2 years, I'm happy to answer any questions that I can. I loved the process and was blessed to go through that with my son. This is a great forum and haven't found to many others like it.
 
Explain the logic behind that rule...please!

It’s legal to recruit them, even take a commitment, but it’s illegal to take them around campus?

That’s just dumb. If I was an assistant baseball coach at UT, you can bet your “you know what”’ I am taking that kid’s daddy to Neyland.

Don’t allow them to be recruited at that age. That’s fine by me. But if it’s legal to recruit them it should be the same for everyone, 8th graders, 12th graders... all get the Big Orange carpet!

This type of rule is what got Bruce Pearl a show cause.
Basically it is illegal to recruit the kid now.
They can’t have contact face to face,
Can’t email, can’t call, can’t text, can’t arrange phone calls
And can’t make written offers.
All the things that the NCAA labels as making a kid a recruited player is illegal

The logic is sound and it makes a lot of sense.
The NCAA doesn’t believe kids sophomore
Years and younger in HS should be recruited so they put this rule in place. Written Offers aren’t allowed either so while a kid can commit they don’t have anything in writing. Softball went further than baseball and made committing against the rules and I wish baseball had done the same but it’s hard to regulate word of mouth.

The NCAA thought making it illegal for kids to commit to coaches without written offers AND never meeting them face to face would be enough to slow the process down.
It should have been but it wasn’t and that’s a shame.
 
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I get the rules, really I think it's the parents that get uptight about another kid committing so young while their own kid in their mind might be better. Remember what I was told, these coaches WILL pull the verbal offer later if they can find someone that is better or works harder. It comes down to the parents and player to do research on each of these programs they are looking at. I will say one positive thing about the early recruiting 2 years ago. These coaches wanted my son to call them once per week to check in. The first call he made was to Coastal Carolina's pitching coach and my son's whole part of the conversation was answering with a ya, yes or nope. When he got off the phone I said to him you have to be able to say more than one word answers. From that point on he really did get better at speaking to adults on the phone. Stay well everyone!
 
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