Just looking for some insight or similar experiences...

I targeted an International Player as my top recruit and hit him hard, never missing a cycle and throwing what I could his way with a promised start and 25 minutes of PT from the start. From my experience and understanding of recruit emails I was in the lead against the other school he was considering the ENTIRE time. Even the cycle he signed where I got the 'Too late..' email his responses to my home visits where 'my family loves you', 'I much like to play for you'.

Where could I have gone wrong? Was this a case of 'additional incentives' being offered or what? I am still really confused as to what happened...

My first guess would be that the other school spent a pile of effort on him in that last cycle

Well, first of all, it doesn't matter what his responses were to home visits -- only scholarship emails matter. If you could post the last couple schollie emails you received, that would help.

But my guess is that you were in a close battle and lost narrowly. Hitting every cycle doesn't matter or necessarily help you. What you didn't were the key factors -- how much effort you put in, your prestige, your distance ... your opponent's prestige, distance and open schollies, etc.

It's not unusual to put a whole bunch into a recruit yet still lose when another school makes more effort/has higher prestige/is closer/all of the above.

Both schools had A- prestige, Big 6 conferences, distance wasn't relevant he was in Russia, I don't have the schollie emails but I was definitely in the lead I know that much. 

Even with a big push in that last cycle his interest should have wained first before committing right? He was still on board with me at the 5am cycle and signed with the other team at 8am, this is my big confusion...

Lets assume that the last schollie email showed you ahead.  I think it is still possible for a big push - lets say 20 home visits or something - could overwhelm that in one cycle

Posted by bighairyarab on 1/18/2011 4:07:00 PM (view original):
Both schools had A- prestige, Big 6 conferences, distance wasn't relevant he was in Russia, I don't have the schollie emails but I was definitely in the lead I know that much. 

Even with a big push in that last cycle his interest should have wained first before committing right? He was still on board with me at the 5am cycle and signed with the other team at 8am, this is my big confusion...

8am? the 2nd day after signings? that is typically when really close battles get decided. you should still have the scholarship emails in your inbox, even though you can't get there from the recruiting screen, unless you deleted them manually, which you should probably avoid doing because its often useful to go back and check. my guess in girt is right - you misinterpreted the scholarship email (very easy to do with internationals). and the home visit reponses mean absolutely nothing.

how much money did you have left when you got the "too late" message?

$35k... and that's why it hurt