Some of y'all seem too caught up on two things in my post and you shouldn't be. Let me try to clear that up: "along for the ride" and whatever area of study a 17 year currently thinks he wants.
"Along for the ride" means it is his future, not ours, he may be driving the train but we making sure he doesn't derail. It isn't our dream, so he takes charge and he has, but we support and offer guidance. We talk to coaches, but not often as Son is more than capable and is very comfortable doing that. Most coaches he talks to tell him to reach out when he is ready to play again. Some he is in regular contact with and he provides updates.
Whatever school he is at, he will be taking core classes for the first year or two. Any plans he has for field of study does not mean taking Differential Equations as a freshman. He has time to decide if business, engineering or whatever is correct for him. We have always encouraged all our kids to use school, whether it be college or trade school, as a set up for a career not just to get some degree you will never use. No offense to those you have the funky useless degrees as I have one as well. There are some good trade schools with juco baseball programs, FYI.
We have time and he has time. It isn't a race so if he can still play ball without breaking the bank, I am in. But playing baseball is under a limited time frame while going back to school never is limited. If it takes him an extra year of two, so be it. He has applied to and been accepted at quite a few schools, baseball and non-baseball schools.
My oldest played all 4 years of eligibility and got a degree in engineering. It can be done but it wasn't easy. It took 4.5 years and he has not stepped between the lines since he graduated. Oldest picked out the school (D1) as it had the degree he wanted and the career he wanted. He got accepted and then called the coach. The first thing the coach asked was "Did you get in yet?"
My oldest looking back said the juco route or PG route to get a few core classes in, up his training, and get used to college would have been ideal. A lot of his teammates and classmates did that. My oldest graduated high school at 17. Oldest feels that by taking an extra year, he probably wouldn't have made some major mistakes he did but probably would have made a few new less major ones.
Oldest was not a baseball player so here I am on a baseball forum asking for the baseball perspective, options, and opportunities. If you have been there or your kid is in a similar situation, let me know what worked and what didn't work. And if PG, what schools are good.