First, he has committed to ND. That’s kind of part of this whole thing. He committed to the ND staff in some fashion in February or March. He has not publicly announced to ND.
Second, I didn’t see this sentiment expressed when folks were pondering if maybe the reason ND was so confident was because ND had equipped him with a NIL deal. So this isn’t a matter of ND does things the right way, if many fan here’s were okay with ND taking the NIL route if it meant shutting down recruiting to land a 5 star QB.
Third, now we connect things. Dante has talked about what great relationships he has with Freeman, Rees etc. There is also a heavily reported sentiment for months that Dante would not leave the Midwest. There are other reasons, but when you start to connect all these things, it begs a logical question, why visit places you have apparently no plan to go to? For “fun”, “once in a lifetime experience”, “to be sure”. Well none of those reasons need 6+ months to check off. None involve needing to go back on your word to the staff. So the visits, the communication gaps, must be taking place for some other purpose.