This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

Two of college football's premier coaches found out first-hand how easily today's prospect will back out of a supposedly "solid" verbal commitment to a college program.

By all accounts, Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans lost four top prospects who had verbally committed to the program. Urban Meyer's Florida Gators did worse, losing six committed prospects to his program on signing day last Wednesday.

If two of the nation's best coaches and recruiters can't keep verbal commitments, you know this phenomenon is far reaching throughout college athletics. From BCS football programs to small Division III softball programs, verbal commitments are meaning less and less in the competitive world of college recruiting.

Why?

I think there are three big reasons.

PROSPECTS SEE COACHES "PULL" SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS. They read the stories of coaches who make an offer, and then pull an offer back before the prospect gives them a yes. For most athletes, they miss a key ingredient to this scenario: The college coach gives the athlete the opportunity to commit verbally, but the athlete doesn't accept the chance to give their commitment to that coach (subsequently, the coach has to make the offer to another prospect). However, our conversations with athletes in doing work for our coaching clients tells us that the athletes only see the negative side of these types of incidents...they see the coaches "pulling" an offer, and don't realize that the athlete may not have accepted or responded to an offer in time. As a result of this misconception, athletes are feeling empowered to "pull" their commitments to a coach if a better opportunity comes along. It's a mistake on the part of the athlete, but one that college coaches have to contend with nonetheless.

PROSPECTS ARE DOING MORE HOMEWORK ON EACH PROGRAM. It used to be that only hard-core alumni and fans would follow the daily comings and goings of the recruiting trail at a particular college. However, with the advent of Rivals.com and other recruiting tracking Web sites, it is easier than ever for anyone to follow a school on the recruiting trail -- including the prospects themselves. Today's web-savvy prospects are researching incoming classes, and will de-commit in a heartbeat if they see too many athletes at their position entering the program at the same time. Players want opportunities to play, and coaches who don't communicate how they plan to use the prospect and how they fit in with an incoming recruiting class risk losing prospects on signing day.

THIS GENERATION IS ALL ABOUT THEM. At least for a good percentage of today's prospects, they have grown-up with the idea that college athletics is not about honoring a commitment to a program, being part of a team, or focusing on their education first. Instead, they have been taught - through their coaches, media, society and their friends and family - that this opportunity is their chance to secure their future. And, if they have to break an earlier non-binding commitment to better position themselves in the process, so be it. Understand, I'm not saying that this is the mindset for every prospect with whom a coach would be communicating with on a regular basis. However, it's enough of a problem to be causing quite a bit of concern in the offices of college coaches around the country.

The three reasons listed here are symptoms of a larger issue, which centers around a quiet shift taking place in the recruiting world. The attitude of today's teenage prospects is changing, and it's a change that is going to challenge the way most coaches recruit.
The challenge for coaches is daunting: Build more trust with athletes who are increasingly skeptical about the process, and feel more empowered in their ability to control the process.

How college coaches respond to this new attitude among prospects will be fascinating to watch in the coming months and years.