Our Daily Dread: De-committment to excellence

(Above: The All-American Rejects sing their song, "Change Your Mind")

We're not even sure how it's supposed to be spelled.

De-commit.

Decommit.

Neither is Google when you try to find out which headline is more accurate:

Chicago Tribune: "ND hit with another decommit" (linked here)

USCPlaybook blog: "Vontaze Burfict to De-Commit, Headed to ASU" (linked here)

Orange County Register blog: "UCLA football: DE commit wavering"
(linked here)

That last one, we get it. Or, maybe we don't.

We're committed to finding out why high school football recruits can't make life easier on themselves by committing to college programs early, only to have other coaches see that as a challenge and then try to get them to change their minds.

Anyone with a teenager knows that kids are stressed out, and this new wave of second-guessing only makes the acne problems more prolific. Student-athletes wonder if maybe they should have waited until today to finally reveal their choice, because they're learning that the earlier they let their decision go public, the opposite happens -- other school recruiters start coming after them with even a greater blitz.

That's just backward. But, look, it seems to be working. So why should these competitive coaches stop doing it? Where's their incentive when there's no punishment to pay?

Hence, the influx of the de-commit. However you want to spell it.

It spells trouble.

Brian Dohn's UCLA football story in today's edition (linked here) has this quote from Rick Kimbrel, a Western Region recruiting analyst for Rivals.com (oh, man, it's come to job titles like this): "I've never seen this amount of de-commits, hoping from one school to another. I hope this isn't the birth of something out of control, but my instincts say it could be."

The last birth we saw get out of control happened last week in Bellflower. The mom is now fielding interview requests from around the nation. She's about to be famous for being famous. And she could make a bunch of money from personal appearences, endorsements, book sales. Oh, and for having eight kids in one gestation period. From a sperm donor.

Wait'll those six boys get to a point 18 years from now and they're trying to figure out which college football program to play for. Mom may wish she de-committed on that withdrawl when she had the chance.

Read through Ramona Shelburne's column on UCLA's recruiting strategy (linked here) as well as one on why committing to programs today isn't so much a two-way street any more (linked here). She quotes one of our favorite guys on the subject, Marc Isenberg, author of "The Student Athlete Survival Guide" (linked here), another must-read for those kids who aren't sure how to make heads or tails over this whole process any more. Also read Isenberg's comments on why he thinks National Letter of Intent Day should be abolished (linked here).

"Despite trying to get along with people from the college athletic world, I am already getting some backlash from my position," Isenberg wrote in an email this morning. "Many believe abolishment or even modification of the NLI will lead to anarchy.

"I am not suggesting a free-agent market for college athletes, but the NLI has features that are patently unfair to athletes and, worse, cause discontent and regret."

The only regret that those who follow USC's stellar program is if coach Pete Carroll didn't get all the top recruits he'd been trying to lure in, including this all-everything linebacker from Hawaii, Manti Te'o, who's got everyone waiting around Heritage Hall for his phone call today

The headline on Scott Wolf's USC football recruiting story today (linked here) says: "Even with decommitments, USC could still end up with nation's top-rated recruit class"

And that's the bottom line to this tail-chasing mess. De-commit all you want. Or decommit. Or de-evolve. As long as you have that top recruiting class, that's all that seems to matter at the end of the play.

Commit to sending an opinion on this, either here or at thomas.hoffarth@dailynews.com.