2021 - First Offer, Looking for Guidance

So much great advice here, so will just add a few nuggets of my own.

- Remember, EVERY situation is different, so it falls to you to assimilate the advice and make the correct decision for your son's particular situation.  That's why it's so good here because you get perspectives from so many different angles.

- My 2020 was offered the fall of his junior year by a mid-level D1 school and eventually accepted within a few weeks.  He was a PO, for reference.  The offer was outstanding and the school verbally guaranteed it for 4 years, though it was not a P5 school.  His travel coach said to wait until the following summer to see if he could get "better" offers.  But here are the reasons why he went ahead and committed:

          - His older brother hit 90 at numerous PG events the summer before his senior year and batted .431 during 5 PG events that summer and ended up with zero offers by the end of the summer.  He was ranked in the top 450 by PG when they updated their rankings that August.  That experience was very impactful on our thinking as we advised our 2020.

          - Our son felt the love from the pitching coach and the school.  He loved the campus, and it was within a reasonable drive from home.

          - Our son's top objective was to find a place where he would get the best chance to play and he felt this school offered that.

- After recently finishing up the summer travel season on the PG circuit playing for the top team from a top program, a few observations really make me feel good about my son's decision:

          - It is STUNNING the number of kids on his team that still don't have offers or are receiving offers from schools below what they anticipated.  I'm talking about kids who can really play.  Pitchers seem to be faring better by a good amount, but are still getting offers from "lower" schools than they expected.

          - The money for 2020 players is drying up quickly.  Had my son waited until the summer, there's no doubt in my mind he would not have gotten as generous an offer.

          - My son got to play all summer without the pressure of trying to impress a school to get an offer.  That really wore on many of his teammates, and a few of them performed poorly due to that pressure.

Hope that helps you in some way.  Good luck with your son's decision!

Thanks everyone for the insight and advice!

I read through SSBUCKEYE's response and it hit home with a lot of the things our family has discussed:

- I see a TON of great kids both 2020 and 2021 with zero offers or interest, it is eye opening every time we play in a big tournament how many really talented kids are out there trying to get to the next level.  The college coaches are in the biggest buyers market I have ever seen!   

- The school that has offered my son is a nice 4hr drive which is all interstate and puts him far enough away where he feels he is "on his own" but also close enough we could go anytime to visit, etc.  Top 5 business program in the state which is another big draw for him.

- After more discussion, my son has really thought things through and has determined that going to a college where he can get a good degree and have the experience of playing college baseball was important to him.  He has a few kids he knows that went to the big time D1 program only to transfer out after a year for either lack or playtime or the coach cut their scholarship for lack of performance.  Maybe I am wrong, but people have told us that it is not quite as cut-throat in the mid to lower D1 levels?

- Don't get me started on the travel ball/showcase business that has been created.  That would take another post for me to give my opinions on.  Let me just state that I feel the amount of money spent chasing the college baseball dream is ridiculous and I don't see any improvements coming down the pipe.  You get caught in the hamster wheel of doing your best as a parent to give your kid the right opportunities and every time you turn around there are more "can't miss events" to attend.  So, my feeling at this point is he can commit and be happy with his choice and we can put the money we were spending on camps and showcases and big time tourney travel into more strength and conditioning/lessons/vacations.  Anyway, sorry to start my rant on what the landscape has become for kids trying to get attention to play baseball in college, just kinda burnt out on the whole process after seeing it this summer.  Don't get me wrong, we have enjoyed our time traveling together and spending time doing this, but the pressure on these boys to perform in from of the right people at the right time takes some of the fun out of it. 

Again, thanks to everyone on here for the valuable opinions and insight... every path is different for sure and it helps to read about everyones experiences!