@ARCEKU21 posted:My son, a 2023, committed to a P5 his freshman year. So I know what you are kind of going through in the process. End of summer before freshman year and fall of freshman year is when all the calls to his travel ball coach to have him call this coach started coming it. He was asked to come to a couple of camps and after those camps the offers started coming in. The #1 school on his list offered him, but it wasn't the offer he was expecting and you could read between the lines what they were trying to do. The school he ended up committing to was because we absolutely loved the head coach. We had some friends who were committed there and the families all spoke so well of the coach. The offers he received were laid out very well in detail. This was all pre-NIL money also. They all started out with the COA. Then they provided that X% would be baseball money and what what would pay for (tuition, books, food, etc). Then they said the next amount would be academic money. Since my son is a good student, he often qualifies for some type of academic money. Obviously as being so young, all of these offers were on the phone.
Flash forward to beginning of summer 2022 and the coaching carousel hits the school where my son was committed and we go through the whole recruiting process again this past summer. I will say for all the offers he received, the structure was pretty much the same. Provided what the COA would be. Then provided what athletic money he would get and what that was for, then how much academic money he would qualify for, and then the new piece of the puzzle "anticipated" NIL money. No one would give (or really is supposed to give) a hard number figure on that. But we often either told that he would get enough money to make up for the difference between COA, athletic money and academic money or he was told "this is the lowest amount a player on our team has" and then you could do the math from there. Since we got take trips this time around, all of the offers he really considered were in person offers. He did get some offers from other schools that we didn't make trips to that were over the phone. Some smaller schools even made some not as detailed offers through DM on Twitter.
It's definitely a lot for a younger player being recruited. I know that the thought could be strike while the iron is hot and so that you don't miss out on an opportunity. But if a school really wants a kid, they will make it happen no matter what year he is. Unfortunately that may mean low recruit on the totem pole may get kicked to the curb. We are starting to see some of this right now with early signing day approaching. Some of the kids who committed early on are now looking for new homes or switched their commitment to a different school that was not as high up on the baseball hierarchy as their original school they committed to. No matter what you choose to do, just know it is a fluid environment. Buckle in and have fun and enjoy the process.
Thanks for this detail. Super helpful. Glad it seems to have worked out with the coaching change. Not knowing if the staff will be there 4 years from now is one of our concerns. Plus with all the upheaval in the NCAA, I suspect the landscape will indeed be fluid these next few years. Very interesting about the NIL numbers. With collectives getting stronger and more team deals being signed, I suppose some schools are in a position to spell that out more clearly than others. Appreciate the advice to enjoy the process. Sometimes I need to do a better job remembering that. My kid's in a great position to continue playing a game he loves and that will open great academic doors for him. It's all good and we're thankful for the opportunities that come his way.