HOLLAND — When wide receiver Roy Roundtree decommitted from Purdue in favor of Michigan on National Signing Day last year, he drew the ire of Boilermaker football coach Joe Tiller.

“If we had an early signing date, you wouldn’t have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil to get a guy at the last minute, but that's what happened,” Tiller told the Indianapolis Star last February.

You probably won’t hear any coaches blast A.J. Westendorp or Nader Furrha today, the first day high school football recruits can sign National Letters of Intent.

Westendorp is a senior at Holland Christian, and Furrha graduated from Ann Arbor Pioneer last month. Both were excellent high school quarterbacks and will play at the collegiate level next year — Westendorp at Central Michigan and Furrha at Michigan.

Although neither verbally committed anywhere, both called the coaches at the other schools that had recruited them once they decided to go elsewhere. It wasn’t hard for them. It was the right thing to do.

Roundtree didn't call Tiller, and the redshirt freshman said at Michigan Media Day last summer that he regrets it.

Dissecting how the recruiting process has changed, several pundits have criticized “kids these days” for being disloyal. The Michigan football team has already had seven players back out of verbal commitments, and it’d be pretty surprising if at least one more didn’t today. Schools all around the nation have had similar issues.

But fixing the kids isn't the way to solve the problem. The better answer is ensuring high-end recruits go through a lower-pressure process like Westendorp and Furrha, who had a single Division I offer between them. Although the rules for Division II recruiting aren't different, the practices clearly are.

Westendorp says his strength is scoring touchdowns, and his numbers certainly back that up. He’s not the fastest, and he’s not the biggest, but he threw 40 touchdowns (with just four interceptions) and ran for another 25 this year while leading his team to a state title.

Most of his interest came from Division II schools. The most unconventional element he encountered in the recruiting process was Grand Valley State coach Chuck Martin stopping by his house to pick up a highlight tape and asking him not to take an official visit to North Dakota State. Hardly sinister.

But Westendorp spent most of his time in the process waiting for a Division I offer. He finally got it Sunday, and he will attend Central Michigan.

Furrha grew up so close to Michigan Stadium that he probably would have heard the cheers on football Saturdays had he not been at the games.

Division II powerhouse Grand Valley State also pursued him. He weighed his options and opted to walk on at Michigan. It wasn't a drawn-out public affair. He follows recruiting, sees players waver in their commitment to the Wolverines and wonders how hard it is to make a decision.

Well, it's hard because the process is so screwed up. I’m sick of everyone putting the blame on recruits not being mature enough to honor their commitments.

Are Westendorp and Furrha better people than all the recruits nationwide who decommit, or are there other factors for the recruits who have multiple options with top schools?

Our generation isn't the problem. It’s the way recruiting is set up.

It’s in a recruit's best interest to commit early, even if he's not sure he's want to attend that school. By verbally committing, at least in theory, a school will hold a scholarship for him.

But that isn’t always the case. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier pulled a scholarship offer from a committed recruit, according to Palmetto Sports. Spurrier found better recruits and cast the lesser player aside.

The NCAA needs to take a few steps to ensure these tricks don’t spiral out of control:

1. Give recruits the option of signing a non-binding letter of intent at any time. A recruit and a school can agree to hold a scholarship, and the player wouldn’t be allowed to have contact with any other schools.

If a player wants to re-open his recruitment, he could formally rescind the letter. The school couldn’t void it unless the recruit has disciplinary problems.

This way, schools and recruits know exactly where they stand. Players couldn’t hold a spot while flirting with other schools, and coaches can't pull the rug out from under recruits.

2. Eliminate oversigning.