Blowback From Our Post About Continuing to Recruit Your Competitor's Committed Athlete

When I used the word "stealing" in the headline, I thought it might happen...

Interesting reaction to the story we published yesterday over at dantudor.com on our main blog (if you missed it, read it here).

I had several coaches say they appreciated some guidelines on how to go about the process of continuing the recruitment of an athlete that has given a verbal commitment to another program.

But those aren’t usually as fun to read as the disagreements. Not that there were a lot, but enough to make it an interesting afternoon.

The main concern on their part: How could I be recommending that coaches should go against the verbal agreement an athlete makes with a peer at a different school?

(I didn’t, but let’s come back to that in a minute)

Here’s a sample of their concerns:

“I’d ask that you reconsider this one. It’s happening everywhere. “Everyone is doing it” but it is not right. It is not ethical. I’m not sure you want this advice as part of your legacy.”

“This article rubbed me the wrong way though.  It is saying it is ok to recruit someone still even if they verbally committed to a school.  Yes, you talked addressed the “approach with caution and professionalism”; but is asking the question, “is that o.k. with you” to a recruit professional?  I don’t like this question and the message of the article.  I get the business side of athletics but it doesn’t make it right to do.”

“A verbal commitment, although not legally binding, is still giving someone their word. Clearly, this means nothing to the author of this email.  Yes, we live in a world where student-athletes back out on verbal commitments, it happens and it’s an unfortunate part of the job. However, kids should not try to be manipulated into making a decision or changing their minds about a verbal commitment they made. I am absolutely appalled and will be unsubscribing from this company’s emails from this point forward.”

That’s a fair sampling from the negative comments I got. I’m not going to post the positive feedback, because I’m more interested in making sure coaches who disagree or have questions about what I wrote understand completely what I am saying:

• De-commitments happen in every sport, at every level, throughout the year. We’re not talking about theory, we’re talking about reality. And since it’s a reality (one that I didn’t invent, by the way) I want coaches to approach it correctly.

• It’s all optional. I understand and respect a coach who makes a decision to not continue to recruit an athlete who tells them they are going somewhere else.

• The decision process isn’t fair to the athlete. In saying that, it’s solely my opinion based on literally thousands of focus group interviews and feedback we’ve had with recruited prospects. Colleges and coaching associations have restricted the timeline that a prospect can actually get to know a coach and the college, creating the byproduct of a condensed decision-making process that causes many athletes to make their final decision with very little opportunity for long term communication with coaches.

To suggest that they can’t or won’t change their minds or have second thoughts on a regular basis doesn’t account for basic human leanings.

Anyway, I had some interesting discussions! And I’m o.k. with disagreeing with the article…like I said, it’s all optional. I thought it was also interesting that all of the disagreements came from Division III coaches, while all of the ‘thank you’ messages came from Division I and II coaches, so it may be just a function of division level.

But whatever the case, here’s what I want coaches who follow us to know:

Your prospects, even the ones who have verbally committed to you, have second thoughts and are always tempted to continue the search. If you’re the coach of that committed prospect, you’d better continue to recruit them and assume that they are likely to have second thoughts. If you’re the coach at the other program, and choose to continue to recruit that athlete, I think we’ve laid out some fair ways to do that.

Comments on this? I’d love to hear them below! Let me know what you’re thinking. And if you’re not a Honey Badger Recruiting subscriber yet, and aren’t getting the daily training and recruiting research articles delivered to you daily, subscribe below. We’d love to have you in the discussion!