On the bigger question of the list itself, though, I'm still of the same mind as Dave McHugh:
Let me preface my thoughts with this: Of the things I pay attention to in DIII, recruiting is at or very close to the bottom. The number of variables from start to playing (or not playing) are too numerous to count ...
Although I do take more of an interest in recruiting than he does, he's right that close to nothing that gets posted here vis-a-vis recruiting is a sure thing. Yes, the majority of the student-athletes you list are going to eventually show up for the first day of practice in the fall at the schools they've named. But the fact of the matter is that it's not a done deal; it's a still long way from a verbal commitment (whether tweeted or not) to actually stepping onto the court during a game (JV or varsity) wearing the uniform of the school to which the student-athlete had originally made that verbal commitment.
Having said that, I'm well aware there's a certain psychological and social impetus that comes into play when one makes his school decision public via a tweet or by sitting between Mom, Dad, and Coach for the cameras and signing one of those "celebration of declaration," or whatever they call it, forms that for a D3 recruit ape an actual scholarship-based letter of intent. And, since social media is part of the fabric of our lives now, everybody and his brother is going to be aware of verbal commitments as soon as they're made. Plus, there's always the question of at which point do coaches from other schools back off of a prospect and accept that someone else has landed him.
But, again, nothing is for sure at that point. A deposit is a major step towards donning that uniform on game day, because that chunk of money surrendered as payment to the school means that the student-athlete now has skin in the game in terms of following through on his prior declaration. But even a deposit can be written off as a sunk cost willingly ceded in light of a change of heart about which school one plans to attend. And this year, especially, there's vastly more uncertainty to the whole process than usual. To wit:
Basic to this -- and obvious but heretofore not mentioned explicitily that I can find -- is how many students/athletes will be able to afford to return to school. With families impacted financially no doubt some will have to put education on hold. Will schools lower tuition and fees to minimize attrition? If so will they be able to stay afloat? At best there are likely to be measurable losses to faculty and staff. If students aren't in school, what will they do? Will there be jobs for them? We are in a downward spiral that it will take a while to recover from.
Plus, there's the question of the CCIW schools themselves. Will they open on time in the fall? (The early answer from the Magic 8-Ball is "Signs point to yes.") Will they have standard-format semesters -- meaning on-location learning complete with student housing, as well as athletics and other extracurriculars? And, since none of them exist in a vacuum, what if the parameters are different for one CCIW school, or for some CCIW schools. than they are for other CCIW schools? These discrepancies don't even necessarily have to be caused by anything inherent to the schools themselves other than simple location. Seven of the league's nine schools, and the vast majority of its students (and student-athletes), are located in a state that has been split into four regions by its governor, with each region on its own timetable with regard to passing through the various phases of social restriction prior to sounding the all-clear from Covid-19 quarantine. Four of the seven Illinois-based schools are located in the region that has the overwhelming majority of the state's Covid-19 cases (and fatalities), and it is plainly obvious that those four schools in the heavily-populated northeastern corner of the state are going to lag behind the other three, as well as the two Wisconsin schools, in terms of their social restrictions being loosened within the governor's protocol. While that is much more likely to affect CCIW fall sports, it will have an impact upon winter and spring sports as well -- because, again, it will affect incoming enrollment.
The point that I'm trying to make is that hardly anything is ever for certain in the world of CCIW recruiting -- and this year, that's more true than ever -- so that your lists, helpful as they are, need to be taken by the CCIW Chat reader with a grain of salt.
