I know this kid. She works out at the same place as mine and has the same pitching instructor. She's very good and has a high ceiling and wants to play for a winner.

The reason you commit is just like any sport, there are only so many spots. Remember there are only 12 scholarships available and teams carry around 20 players or more. The problem is how early colleges are recruiting kids. To say it's stupid for someone to commit to a college so young is placing the blame in the wrong place. My daughter is committed to UVa and has 3 years to go. If a college is looking for 4-2021 kids and have money for 2 pitchers and they've offered 5. What do you do if that's where you want to go? You take the offer obviously, especially now with the rules likely changing this year where the coaches cannot discuss recruiting with you until you're a junior. (It's a good rule change for everyone including the coaches.)

Another reason you take the offer is that even though it's odd to say, there is a great deal of angst and what I call recruiting fatigue that sets in with these kids at an early age. If a kid doesn't have a D1 offer by their 9th grade year, parents and kids get very, very concerned and stressed. There's a lot of pressure on these kids to perform at camps and tournaments. No one wants to be passed over so when offers are finally extended you feel like you need to make a decision fairly quick because you know there's another 13, 14 year old out there getting a similar offer. We even received an offer that they put a time limit on. That's not typical but it happens.

Now this athlete had some amazing offers and has put in a lot of research. She likely didn't need to make such a quick decision because she's so good, but she knew what she was looking for and Georgia has that. Let's say she didn't commit and the new recruiting rules come into effect. Now she "thinks" she has 15 offers but it's radio silence from the coaches so who knows what's going on 2 years from now. She would then have to wait 4 more years before she can talk recruiting with these schools she's invested a lot of time and money into.

I get it, it's crazy, but that's what these kids and parents are dealing with. And yes, nothing is binding with these offers/acceptances but you have no choice but to play the game with the rules that are in place.