College soccer coaches are getting 9th grade girls to "sign" - starting to hound them in 7th grade.
"The practice has attracted little public notice, except when it has occasionally happened in football and in basketball. But a review of recruiting data and interviews with coaches indicate that it is actually occurring much more frequently in sports that never make a dime for their colleges."
And:
"Precise numbers are difficult to come by, but an analysis done for The New York Times by the National Collegiate Scouting Association, a company that consults with families on the recruiting process, shows that while only 5 percent of men's basketball players and 4 percent of football players who use the company commit to colleges early — before the official recruiting process begins — the numbers are 36 percent in women's lacrosse and 24 percent in women's soccer.
At universities with elite teams like North Carolina and Texas, the rosters are almost entirely filled by the time official recruiting begins".
Link to full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/sports/committing-to-play-for-a-college-then-starting-9th-grade.html?hpw&rref=sports&_r=0 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/sports/committing-to-play-for-a-college-then-starting-9th-grade.html?hpw&rref=sports&_r=0)
Right now two NCAA sports do not allow recruiting before Junior year ... Football and track/cross country. The coaches association in each sport voted to make it their law.
Why football and track/cross country? These the two largest teams in college sports (football = 95 and track/cross country = 60) and the coaches want a life. It hard enough to chase down 15 to 25 recruits each year, let alone another 15 to 25 for the class behind that and the class behind that. Too many too chase at once so they banned it except for the current class.
So yes, when your class is 3 to 7 like soccer/lacrosse you will elect to not have this restriction.
At anytime the coaches can vote to ban recruiting until your junior year. But unless than have to recruit huge teams make it logistically impossible to chase that many at once, they will not.
ZFB does this as well