An Offer???

Given he's a '14 I'll guess the program is afraid they will lose him to someone else and want to lock him up. If they're that interested chances are the interest won't go away in two weeks. Who knows how long they will allow. But you've made the decision you feel most comfortable.

I would say for two weeks, the offer will be there. Will it be there after the two weeks? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on the situation at the school, what they are looking for and whether they fill that need before you decide to commit. Let's say they have a need for a corner outfielder. They are offering your son that spot. You don't commit in the two week span, they offer that spot to someone else and they accept. They no longer have a need for that position.

Will that happen? Who knows. I understand what RJM is saying. If they are offering your son this early, they really want him. However, it is still a roll of the dice if you don't take it during that time period.

As far as the question of is it normal for a school to give you a short time period to decide? It really all depends on the school, the coach and the situation really. From our experience and what I have read here, there is no normal. Everything depends.

First congrats to your son! It’s strange how you go in a short time from hoping your son gets offers to not knowing exactly what to decide once he gets one. In my experience from being a go between at times as a coach of a player who is being recruited and the college coach, the 2 week to decide period is not abnormal and have seen it extended a bit when the player has requested. Bballman did a good job in laying out the reason why.

My suggestion is to use this 2 weeks to your advantage with the other 4 schools that are in your sons top 5. Unless you already know where they stand with him, have your son contact the coaches of those schools and let them know that he has received an offer but would like to know their schools interest in him prior to making any decisions. I have seen it where some coaches would like to get that player on their campus sooner rather than later if they did have a real want in recruiting the player, I have seen it where coaches have also told the player that while they are interested, they are not ready to offer anything and are unsure, some coaches say while they like the player they have others they are trying to recruit first and in some occasions coaches have said no interest at this time. This will give you an indication if the other 4 schools are an option or not at this point. If they are not you might have a different outlook on that offer you received from one of your sons top 5. At the least it will give you more information to work with and better understanding in the possible risk involved in not committing.

quote:

Originally posted by rebelcruizer:
Just looking for some more input for my 2014 pitcher. He has visited a couple schools and one of them made him an offer while we were there. Good offer from a good program that is in his top 5 so he was very excited to receive it. The problem was they only gave him two weeks to decide...we discussed it as a family that night and decided he need to visit more schools and actually spend some time "on" different campuses to make sure he finds the right fit (as suggested from this site). My question is do most schools give you such a short time to make up your mind?

A similar thing happened with my son when he was being recruited, (it was during the fall of his Jr. year). My son began to have many offers and of them there was only one coach that gave him a couple weeks to decide yes or no. . .and like your son, it was from a school among his top 5. It was a lot of pressure as at the same time we were waiting to hear from his #1 and #2 choice. This offer came during a extensive talk in person with the coach that included finding out how the coach intended to utilize my son. The coach told him the reason for have to make a decision so soon was that the coach was trying to finish up his recruiting and had a couple of other player he was also talking with. That latter comment by the coach kind of gave us a feeling that my son was not as important to him as we would like. For my son, it wasn't so much about the money offered as it was about his playing time and the time line the coach felt it would be before he would be able to be a regular contributor. My son stretched the time line a little and as the coach pressed to get the decision at the end of the two weeks, my son called him and thanked him for the generous offer and declined the offer.

We still hadn't got any firm offers from the schools he really wanted to hear from, so it was hard for him to make that decision. . .though he did have offers from other schools. Finally, my son was called by his 1st choice college, who he actually didn't think has much interest, and was surprised when they made a good offer and we a pretty good idea that he had a very good chance at becoming a "regular" contributor quickly. As it all turned out, he pretty much got what we wanted and did become a regular contributor.

Some of the offers did not have a set dead line like this coach set. And as we waited to hear from my son's top choices, the coaches were pretty patient in waiting to hear from us. This suggested that they had a LOT of interest to hang on like that. For several of them, we didn't feel it was fair to string them along as my son simply didn't have much interest and so we let them know after taking a close look at the current options.

So, to answer your question based on our experience . . .NO, "most" schools do not give you such a short time to make up. But, even so, until a coach gets the commitment he is actively seeking and weighing his options just as you are. And things can change where the coach has found a player of better value.

I think you're idea to visit more schools is a GOOD idea as I did this with my son and it really helped him get an idea of what he wanted in a school. Some of the schools I thought he might have some interest in turned out to be just the opposite. When we visited the schools, we also visited the Head Coach and even attended some of the fall games that some of them had going. So, not only did he get a better idea of what kind of campus he prefers but also got a good idea of what various coaches were like and what the various facilities were like.

His #1 school stayed his #1 school and he got a good offer. So, in November of his Jr. year he signed a NLI, which brought GREAT relief to him as he didn't have to think about dealing with all of this anymore and could go back to focusing more on his school work and his HS baseball.

I hope sharing our experience here helps in some way.

If he is a 2014 pitcher, I'm sure this school or any other school is going to take 3 to 5 RHP every year. They are probably saying two weeks to get a commitment from you guys and have your son wrapped up. I'm sure if you are interested you can take more time due to the fact that your son is a pitcher and a class is going to have a lot of pitchers in it. Now if your son was a catcher and the school was only going to sign one, then the time frame probably would have to be adhered to.

It's been several years since my son signed his NLI but I seem to remember it was SENIOR year?? Has it changed to junior year now?

Coach Stotz at Stanford is an eloquent and talented email recruiter. Many players received the mass email this excerpt was taken from last year, but my son found it helpful as he was struggling with a similar decision last winter:

"...******X, there are only two reasons to make a verbal commitment.


1) That university is the very best "fit" for all your academic, baseball, social, and economic needs. How would you know that without comparing it to other schools? There is no way to know at this point in time, that you can even know what all your options are going to be. IF A SCHOOL IS TRULY “RIGHT” FOR YOU, WOULD IT NOT BE RIGHT FOR AFTER YOU KNOW AND HAVE EXAMINED ALL YOUR OPTIONS?


2) The school that is offering your scholarship now, will be the only scholarship offer you receive. ******, I don’t know how to say this without sounding pompous, but if you have only one offer from a college, you in all likelihood would not ever play here. If you possess the baseball skills to help a team win the National Title, your problem will not be that there is only one scholarship offer for you, but how will I narrow down my choice of schools I would consider attending who have offered me a scholarship!


What you need to know is, that in reality, there are only a “small number” of players in the country that have the skills to win a university the National Title. ******, if you are one of those elite players, we coaches will be there waiting for your decision----- whenever you make it---(whether it be December, March, May, July or October.....) Quality players are very tough to find. ******, if a coach is willing to pull his offer, how "IMPORTANT" are you to he and his program?????"

Thank you for all the responses. My son spoke with the coach and informed him we could not make a decision in that time frame and he informed us that the offer would still be good past his two week proposal.

2014 graduate,,2 weeks or else?..dont commit.. imo

quote:

Originally posted by CaBB:
It's been several years since my son signed his NLI but I seem to remember it was SENIOR year?? Has it changed to junior year now?

The studs seem to go in the junior year. Heck now days it seems as if they are scouting kids in their early teens.

quote:

Originally posted by CaBB:
It's been several years since my son signed his NLI but I seem to remember it was SENIOR year?? Has it changed to junior year now?

Earliest NLI for baseball is November of Senior year