Have you ever thought about why players announce offers on social media and what positives and negatives may come from that decision? My guess is that most people just think, "what’s the harm everyone does it". Let’s look a little deeper.
Are players really thinking this decision through, or are they just following the flock? Have you noticed how virtually every post that announces an offer follows the same pattern? 1) You thank God 2) you are humbled 3) and sometimes honored 4) thank the coaches for the offer 5) tag the school's social media account 6) maybe ask your “followers” what they think 7) finish with #notcommitted. It’s comical how similar all of these posts are. Depending on the situation, there could be some pictures from a campus visit and if it’s a big-time school the pics are professionally done in a studio and a uniform.
Is recruiting just recruiting or is it also a relationship-building process? I believe you can best understand recruiting if you think about it like dating. A coach finds your game attractive so they contact you to find out more about who you are on the inside and if you're a good match. If you think about it like dating, the recruiting process is clearly a relationship-building process.
Back to #notcommitted… If you begin to get recruited by a school and they offer you, that would be like asking for an exclusive relationship in the dating world. What would happen in the dating world if someone you’ve been seeing asked you for an exclusive relationship and a couple of days later they notice on your social media that you got another exclusive offer? To make matters worse, you’re bragging about it to your friends. Good luck dealing with that situation!!!
Everyone thinks it’s just cute and innocent to do the offer announcements, but do you ever think about how the coaches look at this? Let’s look at it through four different viewpoints:
1. Their personal view. I’ve had numerous conversations with college coaches (head and assistant) who laugh at this and actually make fun of it. They all grew up in a different era and think this is ridiculous. I’m sure this is not 100% of coaches, but it’s the vast majority.
2. Relationship building. Assuming a coach is truly serious about you and offered, they are working hard to build a relationship. This is the potential start of a 4-year coach/player relationship that has a lot at stake. Starting the relationship with a small strain isn’t the wisest decision because they are building their opinion of you with every interaction.
3. Leadership. The contradictions of leadership are comical. Coaches recruit players looking for leadership qualities. Players claim to want to be leaders. Players definitely want to be named team captain which is a leadership position. Is following the flock and posting #notcommitted something a leader does or a follower?
4. Let’s go back to kindergarten and think about the Golden Rule. “Treat others as you wish to be treated”. What if schools started doing offer posts. Each player offered, they post a pic and hype them up to be the next great player at this school. What would happen if you got an offer from a school and the following week you saw on social media they offered a player virtually identical to you? How would that feel? If you wouldn’t want that to happen to you, then why are you doing that to your potential future coach?
As trends go, this is not the worst thing in the world, but it’s definitely not a positive one. I understand why kids do it, social pressures are immense, but the irony is that a college coach is looking for players who can handle pressure and lead them to championships.
Author: Alex Harris
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