Coming soon to a middle school near you: The latest in hot recruiting buzz.

The University of Washington on Tuesday added an oral commitment from quarterback Tate Martell of San Diego, high school graduating class of 2017, just as word spread that LSU offered a scholarship to linebacker Dylan Moses of Baton Rouge, La., another promising soon-to-be eighth-grade prospect.

Class of 2015 quarterback David Sills committed to USC as a 13-year-old. Courtesy of the Sills Family

OK, how young is too young?

Early commits are all the rage in college football. Last week at the Elite 11 finals in California, 24 of the 25 quarterbacks in attendance had pledged to schools before their senior seasons of high school, including two who gave their word last year.

Not even a decade ago, such preliminary decisions were considered revolutionary.

How far we've advanced. Or perhaps, regressed.

The practice of offering scholarships and taking commitments from 14-year-old football players, on the surface, is harmless. Really, it's for show more than anything.

Who could expect Martell, 14, to stick to his word in 4½ years, when UW may or may not run the same offense with same coaches? This year alone, four new head coaches are set to patrol the Pac-12 sidelines. Just three coaches in the league have run their programs for more than three years.

Look how much college football has changed since 2007. It's no easy task to predict how the game will look in 2017.

And likewise, Washington's offer is contingent that Martell continues on his current track. And that he even wants to play football in college. His personal coach, California QB guru Steve Clarkson, compared Martell on Wednesday to Fran Tarkenton and Brett Favre, which is slightly less ridiculous than the moment some coach decides to extend an offer to a toddler.

But stories like Tate Martell's are not going away. Two years ago, USC accepted a commitment from David Sills of Elkton, Md., also a Clarkson pupil and friend of Martell, as an eighth-grader.

According to Clarkson, it's the wave of the future. Athletes are more specialized today, often spending three times as many hours per year on football than the players of a generation ago. They ought to be ready to make such decisions much earlier, he said.

"The next time a sixth- or seventh-grader commits," Clarkson said, "you've already been doused with the frozen water, so the shock is gone."

Clarkson said programs like his, which identify and groom quarterbacks barely into their teens, are growing in prominence as high school football loses some of its power in recruiting.