short ornery norwegian
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This gets brought up every year, and it's not true. Commitments are not meaningless. What percentage of players committed to the Gophers as of 1/1/2015 ended up signing their LOI? 90-95%? It was the same story the year before, and the year before, and so on. Verbal commitments absolutely do mean something.
DP - I see your point. I am just trying to suggest that people on this board don't get so worked up over every single verbal commitment, because even though there may be a relatively high correlation between verbal commitments and LOI's being signed, it's not a guarantee. And, I would be willing to predict that the % of "verbals" who ultimately sign a LOI will go down in future years - precisely because coaches no longer honor any kind of gentlemen's agreement.
I just get tired of the routine on here, where player "X" announces a verbal to the U, and we immediately get a 10-page thread predicting what a great player "X" will be. Then, we find out that "X" is taking other OV's, and may be considering other schools, and we get a 10-page thread full of angst and gnashing of teeth.
I stand by what I said - a verbal is not a LOI. a verbal is a promise, and we all know promises are made to be broken. an LOI is a contract, and much harder to get out of without consequences.