I was battling for a LB and spent a lot of money on him. I get a response "Looks like he's ready to sign with us." So I send more just for safe measure. But I was told the rule is leave him alone unless he comes back and says "I need more time to decide." Next cycle after I get the "Ready to sign with us" and sent an extra CV he signs with LSU. Wtf?! Bs

Those are not scholarship messages as far as I can tell...

He aint yours till he signs. Trust your instinct on those messages.

Once an elite shows up, its usually pretty much lights out. How many LB's were you looking at, or did you have green?

I had two 75.00 LBs green. Both 80 miles away. I put $50k in one and $40k in the other. Both were saying "Just say the word and I'm there" and "Ready to sign". So when that happened I stopped and thought it was over. I knew LSU was sending money but since I made hell of promises and sent a lot of money I thought it was a wrap. Is the elite advantages that powerful? Because that's F'd up if it is. I figured me being A- and him A+ as reputation has something to do with it and my prestige is lower. But still.

Those messages are meaningless. The only relevant messages are the first one when signings start that have the subject line "Scholarship Offer" and then any subsequent emails with the same subject.

I lost a player that was "leaning my way" since signing day -on the last day of signings with no warning whatsoever. Usually there is a message from the player letting me know I am now behind, but not his time. I actually had his player page opened in one of my windows and when I refreshed his page at cycle's end it said "you have already signed this player" and I was all happy and stuff. Then when I went to the recruiting page it said he had signed with another school. Never a message about the player until the next cycle when I got the "well we still have our scholarship" email from the AC.