From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

commitment — noun — com·​mit·​ment kə-ˈmit-mənt 

: an agreement or pledge to do something in the future

(8-12-23) The entire process of a high school athlete making a commitment to a college has turned into a ‘dog and pony’ show.

“Dog and pony show” is a colloquial term which has come to mean a highly promoted, often over-staged performance, presentation, or event designed to sway or convince opinion for political, or less often, commercial ends. Typically, the term is used in a pejorative sense to connote disdain, jocular lack of appreciation, or distrust of the message being presented or the efforts undertaken to present it.

The process starts early….and it uses social media sites to promote it—-

  • athlete gets an offer
  • athlete decides on where they are going…which is a live event with a big production, one popular way to announce put 5 caps of the schools on the table that the athlete has narrowed it down to, placing the cap of the school the athlete selected on their head…the media is always in attendance
  • a hyped signing with friends, families and coaches posing in the pictures signing a blank piece of paper
  • sometimes, usually after the coach recruited is fired or takes another job…the student-athlete decommits and reopens the recruiting process in hopes of committing again
  • just after the first year of competing at the college level (they committed to) the student-athlete decides he/she is not so committed and enters the ‘TRANSFER PORTAL‘….hoping to be recruited and a chance to recommit.

According to an Axios posting —

By the numbers: 8,699 NCAA football players entered the portal between Aug. 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023, per ESPN. That’s a 5.5% increase over last year’s then-record number (8,242) and more than double the tally from the inaugural 2018-19 cycle (4,076).

The world of high school athletes has changed since the day of Hickory winning the state title in ‘Hoosiers’. That is a real shame.