I know. Choosing between Johnson and Romney is tough. Could not resist. This is not a real shock. I've got mixed feelings. I believe in standing on my word. But this is the 21st Century.
Whose word?
What if the coaches recruiting these players over the summer said that we would have announced facility upgrades by now, and that the team would have shown real progress?
Maybe the staff broke their word.
I'm not saying that's the case. But I think this is a lot more complicated than a young man saying he'd do something and then changing his mind.
I don't know that you can say, yet, that they are not following through with the upgrades.
Okay, I've thought about this exchange more, and I've decided it pisses me off.
1. You were more than willing to insinuate that our commit had gone back on his word. Annoyingly, you also suggested that it was a generational thing--as if it never happened before the 21st Century, and somehow integrity has fundamentally changed.
2. I stated that with the information we had, it would be difficult to determine who had violated their word, citing facilities and the quality of the football team and qualifying it with "what if".
3. You respnded by saying we don't know about the facility upgrades yet. I agree.
But why are you willing to make assumptions about a 17 year old recruit,
if we don't know enough? That was my point. You defaulted in a certain direction without sufficient evidence, and I don't think that's fair.
Some of our recruits from last year stated that they were told about facility upgrades. That was our 2012 class. Do we think that the coaching staff may have just abandoned that apporach? Maybe. But if they haven't, and I was a recruit that was told they were coming, and I watched this slide month, after month with promises to unveil a plan, only to delay time and time again, I wouldn't find our University particularly credible.
What if (QUALIFIED!) our staff told our recruits that they strongly believed that we would make it to a bowl game this year, and then g
uaranteed them that we would at least be competitive in all games? I don't know if that happened or not, but it wouldn't surprise me.
If those were the circumstances (and I don't believe any of us know), then I wouldn't blame a recruit for decommitting, and I wouldn't view it as an integrity violation. But we don't know. Therefore, I think it's unfair to make an insinuation that a recruit broke his promise.
/rant.