When can a player make a verbal commitment to a division I school? Can they when they are a junior? I can't find the answer to that question after reading NCAA recruiting rules. Please help if you know the answer.

Verbal is just that...verbal. Nothing is binding until signing day.

Just keep in mind a verbal commitment is non-binding by either party. The player as well as the school, can change their minds (though the school rarely does so without cause).

Players can commit as freshmen, if that's when they are made the offer and they accept it.

The NCAA rules do not deal with verbal commitments, becuase they do not recognize them as meaning anything, since both sides can technically and legally back out of a verbal commitment. And a player can make a verbal commitment at any time, but it is generally dependent of having received a verbal offer.

The reality is that players can back out of verbal commitments, though 95% of them do not, but you will never establish a program as a coach if you back out of your verbal commitments. That may seem unfair, but that's the way it is. But be warned, if you have not verbally accepted a verbal offer from a coach, that offer can be pulled at any time, and there's nothing wrong with that or anything you can do about it.

Although verbal committments by players are not legally binding, backing out of them without a discussion with the initial offering coach before accepting a different offer is just as dishonorable as a coach doing the same.