The First 101 Verbal Commitments in the High School Class of 2018

It’s only July 12, 2017, but already 101 athletes have given their verbal commitments to class of 2022 swimming and diving programs at 32 colleges and universities across the country. More than a quarter of these 101 swimmers (we haven’t heard from any verbally-committed divers yet), come from our lists of the top 20 girls in the high school class of 2018 and the top 20 boys in the high school class of 2018.

This new rush to fill up recruit classes earlier in the season is likely a result of changes the NCAA’s Division I Council made to loosen recruiting rules. These include:

• Deregulating electronic communications between swimming and diving (as well as football, cross country, and track and field) coaches and their recruits; and
• Allowing coaches to “indicate approval” of recruits’ social media posts.

While coaches still may not initiate telephone or off-campus contact until July 1st of the recruit’s rising senior year, they can now have unlimited electronic correspondence with a recruit beginning on September 1st of the recruit’s junior year. Meanwhile, as we mentioned here, sports like lacrosse are moving in the other direction to turn back the tide of extremely early verbal commitments.

Here is the list of the 101 verbal commitments from student-athletes in the high school class of 2018, about which we have already written.

We also have over 1500 names on the list of athletes from the class of 2017 (you can find that list in this article) who plan to swim and dive in all three divisions of the NCAA, in the NAIA, or in junior college.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].