Well, the spotlight is brighter in the revenue sports. ESPN has a year round show devoted to football and basketball recruiting and broadcasts most of the major recruiting events. Not really the same thing in the other sports. Plus, this happened a few weeks before signing date. Given the absurdly early calendar discussed on this board in a lot of other sports, there just isn’t the same kind of drama when a kid gets an offer pulled when all recruiting activity is done two or more years before the signing date.
The UConn (new) coach had assured the kid just at Christmas that the offer was still good.
It happened last year with a kid headed to Louisville, and his high school coach made a big deal about it, banned the Louisville coach from recruiting at his school again, etc. Does the L coach care? I doubt it, but it is the only power the high schools have. The kids have no power at all.
While some of the early signings are head scratching, football is the only sport where HS is relevant for recruiting. Most of the power 5 signees for baseball have shown their mettle in showcase events playing against top competition.
What’s wrong about the UCONN situation is (1) the kid’s character, (2) the fact that he reached out with the coaching change, and (3) a visit by the position coach to discuss campus visit immediately prior to the rescind. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but I’m wondering if it shouldn’t lead to revisiting how things are done.