"Verbal commitments" are only as strong as the character of the weakest party. The word commtiment has only one definition.
They have risks to all parties, because they are non-binding.
With a verbal commitment, the athlete is to stop all recruiting activity such as taking other visits, taking phone calls from other coaches etc. The school is supposed to stop recruiting with the money committed to the athlete.
The problem arises when a "sexier school" calls, or another school communicates a better financial offer. Now the athlete may want to consider a "better" option they didn't know they had. Or if a "total stud" falls in the lap of a school and now the team can be "better" with this kid instead of the kid they have commited money to.
It makes me shake my head when I read football and basketball stories of commitment and de-commitment. Then I guess it really wasn't a "commitment" after all. In those sports, kids commit and other coaches still recruit them, and kids still listen. So the term commitment has lost all meaning.
I read an article/watched clips about a good football/track guy that had "committed to FSU." He had a big announcement, with newspapers and TV. It was all over the news. In the very interview he said he was committed to FSU, but still planned to visit LSU and UF. Well to me, that is not a commitment, that is just the definition of the recruiting process. If you want to visit other places, you are certainly entitled to, but why say you are COMMITTING someplace.
The danger here is when one party honors the commitment and the other party doesn't. Imaging you commit to a school in November, tell all other schools "no thanks," then in February, a week before signing, the school tells you "they are going to go in another direction" and they no longer have money for you. The family should be livid.
But same happens the other way. Say a coach slots a scholarship for a miler and has a commitment. So the coach tells all other milers he has no scholarship money left for that event area. He stops recruiting other top milers. Then before signing, the committed student changes his mind. Now the coach/team has lost an opportunity to improve the program.
So I say COMMITMENT has only one definition. Only commit if you are 100% sure that you do not want to look at any other option. And ask VERY SPECIFICALLY of the coach and even the compliance and AD at the school about their history with verbal commitments.