A verbal commitment is worth exactly what the name implies: a word. Not a contract, not a guarantee, not security. Just words, on both sides, with no formal enforcement mechanism. The NCAA's position on verbal commitments has never changed — either party can walk away at any time. What changed in 2024 was that the National Letter of Intent, once the only document in college recruiting that created any binding obligation, was eliminated. There is now no formal commitment mechanism in high school recruiting until a financial aid agreement is signed after enrollment. Understanding what that means — and what to do about it — is the difference between navigating this process clearly and getting caught by something you didn't see coming.
What "verbal commitment" actually means
A verbal commitment is an athlete saying "I intend to attend your school and play for your program" and a coach saying "we intend to offer you a roster spot and scholarship." Both of those statements are real and meaningful. Neither is enforceable.
The NCAA has always been explicit: a verbal commitment can be rescinded by either side, at any point, without formal consequence. Coaches can stop returning calls. Athletes can decommit and choose another school. Nothing in NCAA bylaws prevents this.
Before 2024, the National Letter of Intent provided at least a partial backstop. When an athlete signed an NLI, they were bound to attend that institution for one year — if they transferred without a release, they'd lose a year of eligibility. This created asymmetric pressure: coaches knew that once an athlete signed, there was a real cost to leaving, which made the commitment stickier. Schools were bound to provide the scholarship they offered in the accompanying financial aid agreement.
The NLI was eliminated in 2024. It's gone. The replacement is a straightforward financial aid agreement — a document that outlines the scholarship terms and is signed when the athlete actually enrolls. That agreement is binding once signed. But in the weeks and months between a verbal offer and the first day on campus, there is nothing formal binding anyone to anything.
Why coaches break verbal offers
Verbal offers unravel for several predictable reasons. Understanding them makes the process easier to navigate — not because they're avoidable, but because they're structural features of how the system works.
The transfer portal offers a faster path. A coach who verbally committed a high school recruit in the spring now has access to the transfer portal throughout the year. If a better fit becomes available — a college player with three years of game film who can contribute immediately — the math changes. One parent in our research described the situation directly: "My son is getting ghosted by coaches who used to be interested. Why would a coach take a chance on a 17-year-old when they can just grab a 21-year-old with three years of college experience?" That's not a rhetorical question. It's a real calculation coaches are making at programs across all divisions.
Coaches leave. A coaching staff change is the single most disruptive event in a committed recruit's timeline. The coach who recruited your athlete — who built a relationship, made promises, and described a vision — is suddenly gone. The incoming staff has their own targets and preferences. They're under no obligation to honor a verbal commitment made by their predecessor, and many don't. One athlete in our research described learning mid-cycle that the coach who had promised him a spot was leaving for a different school: "I haven't even stepped on campus yet and the person I trusted most is gone."
Their class fills differently. If a program's top targets all commit, that reduces roster space. If several recruits decommit from other programs and become available, that changes the calculus. Recruiting classes are built across a long window, and the shape of a class in February is different from its shape in October. Your athlete may be on the right end of those changes — or the wrong end.
New roster limits tighten the math. Changes to NCAA roster limits effective July 2025 reduced the number of athletes many programs can carry. Programs with less margin for developmental athletes face more pressure to fill every spot with someone who can contribute immediately. This compounds the portal dynamic.
The exploding offer
An exploding offer is a scholarship offer that a coach presents with a deadline — typically by the end of an official visit, or within 24 to 48 hours of returning home. "We need to know before you leave this weekend." "This offer is only on the table until Monday."
This is a pressure tactic. The NCAA imposes no deadline on commitment decisions — there is no bylaw that requires an athlete to respond within a weekend or lose their spot. Any program that sets an artificial deadline is doing it because it benefits them, not because it's required.
The pressure is most effective on athletes receiving their first offer, who have no basis for comparison and are sitting in a coach's office feeling seen and wanted, possibly for the first time. One athlete in our research described exactly this: "I felt really pressured when the head coach sat me down in his office and told me the offer was only on the table until the end of the weekend. I haven't even seen any other schools yet."
How to handle it: thank the coach genuinely, say you need a few days to discuss it as a family, and follow up within a reasonable window — three to five days is appropriate. If the coach truly pulls the offer because you asked for time to think about a four-year commitment, that tells you something important about how that program operates. Most coaches who set artificial deadlines will extend them when asked respectfully. The ones who don't aren't offering the kind of relationship that makes a four-year commitment wise.
What happens when a coach leaves after you've committed
A committed athlete whose coach departs faces a genuinely difficult situation, and there's no clean answer. The options are:
Wait and see. The new coaching staff may honor all existing commitments, especially if the program is stable and the new coach knows the recruit's film. Some coaches inherit a committed class and build on it. This is the best case.
Initiate direct contact with the new staff. Don't wait for them to call. Reach out quickly, reintroduce your athlete, resend film and academic information, and ask directly what the transition means for your athlete's status. A new coach who doesn't know your athlete is more likely to let a verbal commitment slide than one who has been reminded you exist.
Decommit and reopen your search. If the new staff is slow to confirm or signals that they're going in a different direction, decommitting and reopening the process is legitimate. It's not disloyalty — the original commitment was made to a person who is no longer there. Getting clarity quickly matters: a decommitment in October of senior year leaves time to find alternatives. A decommitment in April doesn't.
Don't wait months hoping the situation resolves. Coach departures create ambiguity, and ambiguity in recruiting costs families options they can't recover.
What actually binds the agreement
The financial aid agreement — signed when the athlete enrolls — is the only document in college recruiting that creates a real obligation. Once that agreement is signed, the school must honor its terms. An institution that tries to withdraw a scholarship without cause after the financial aid agreement is signed faces formal grievance procedures through the NCAA.
But that agreement comes with conditions worth understanding before you sign.
Scholarships are annual, not four-year grants. NCAA athletic scholarships are awarded for one academic year and must be renewed. Schools cannot reduce or eliminate a scholarship during the year it's awarded, but they can choose not to renew it. Renewal decisions are typically made in the spring. Ask every coach: "What conditions would cause this scholarship not to be renewed?"
What the scholarship covers. Not all scholarships cover the same things. A scholarship that covers "tuition and fees" is different from one that covers "full cost of attendance." Ask for the specific dollar amount and exactly what expenses it includes.
What to ask before verbally committing. The verbal stage is when families have maximum leverage. Before accepting a verbal offer, ask the coach to put the scholarship terms in writing — not formally, but in an email confirming what's being offered. This doesn't bind anyone, but it creates a record and forces clarity on both sides. Ask what percentage of a full scholarship is being offered (especially critical in equivalency sports), whether it can be stacked with academic merit aid, and whether it's renewable for four years under normal circumstances.
The bottom line
Most verbal commitments hold. The families who struggle most are the ones who treated a verbal offer as a done deal, stopped communicating with other programs, and then had no options when something changed. The families who navigate this best treat a verbal commitment as a strong intention on both sides — real and meaningful, but provisional until ink is on paper.
Stay organized. Keep backup programs warm until you've signed a financial aid agreement. Ask direct questions about scholarship terms, renewal conditions, and coaching staff stability before committing. The specific questions worth asking — about scholarship renewability, playing time, coaching stability, and what current athletes will tell you privately — are worth reviewing before any commitment conversation. And if something changes — a coach leaves, the contact goes quiet, the offer feels uncertain — address it directly rather than hoping it resolves on its own.
One of the most common anxiety points for committed families is coaching turnover. If you're wondering what happens to your athlete's offer when a coaching change occurs — and how to evaluate coaching stability before committing — our guide to what happens if a coach leaves after you commit covers your rights, your options, and how to protect yourself.
The commitment decision sits at the intersection of the financial, athletic, and academic choices you've been building toward throughout this process. For a framework on comparing scholarship offers and calculating what your family will actually owe, our guide to college athletic scholarships covers the math by division. If you've been navigating the coach communication that leads up to an offer and want to read the signals more accurately, how to read coach signals explains the language coaches use at each stage. And for context on how the transfer portal reshapes verbal commitment stability specifically — why coaches who seemed locked in may now have more options than they used to — that background makes the current landscape make sense.