Scout.com says that Carson Sullivan, a shooting guard from Charlotte, N.C., just gave Penn a verbal committment.  His other choices were Liberty, Elon, Appalachin St. and Charlotte.  Here’s his ESPN.com profile.

Update: Here’s what the Charlotte Observer had to say about Sullivan: “Teammate Carson Sullivan, MVP of last season’s Bojangle’s Shootout at Marvin Ridge High, committed to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school. Sullivan injured his knee in July and is recovering from surgery.”

Soccer isn’t often discussed on this blog, but recently College Soccer News released its top 40 incoming classes on the men’s side. Penn came in at 36, as its five-member class is considered “a difference maker.” The ranking was tops for the Ivy League, and only one of Penn’s 2008 opponents made the list, as Villanova placed just two spots ahead of the Quakers at 34. The Wildcats visit Rhodes Field Wednesday Oct. 1.

The Quakers are coming off of a 6-9-2 (3-4-0 Ivy) season, which was a let down after the team went 9-4-2 in 2006, just missing an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament. So a strong incoming class is just what the Quakers could use this fall, especially after losing three starters to graduation.

Fortunately the two most-touted incoming freshmen, Christian Barreiro and Thomas Brandt, play midfielder and defender respectively, the two positions that Penn lost starters. Nick Unger, another incoming midfielder, is the brother of current Quaker midfielder Kevin who scored twice last year. The final two incoming freshmen are Eric Guo (midfield) and Jake Levin (defense).

Can’t win ‘em all.

Greg Echenique, the highly regarded 6-9 center out of St. Benedict’s Prep, decided on Rutgers today, Adam Zagoria of the Herald News reported. Echenique’s parents had visited Penn over the final weekend of spring break, and he had said publicly that Penn was in the picture until the end. Other schools in the mix for Echenique’s services had included Duke, Maryland, Villanova, Notre Dame and Miami.

The New Brunswick Home News Tribune and the Newark Star-Ledger also have articles, here and here.

More bad press for Harvard today.

So I was thinking: According to the Times story that set this all off, there is still a question of whether or not the Tommy Amaker recruits in question will get into Harvard. And if one or more of them are below the league’s AI floor, as the story also reported, the compliance offices of the other seven Ivy schools must permit them to be admitted.

Should they? With everyone up in arms over Harvard bending and possibly breaking the rules, will they? Leave a comment.

Some news on the Penn recruit can be found here.