Commitment 101

Related: What are the benefits and disadvantages of verbally committing? It's said that the verbal commitment is a statement for other coaches to stay away because "you're spoken for now." But, I've heard that verbally committing only makes you more attractive to other schools and they all want to steal players from each other.

I've also seen "showcases" advertised as being "for committed players only" - and isn't that contradictory of the notion of commitment?

Also, it seems that "commitment" badge will get you some attention at tournaments and the like not afforded to the non-committed players. Is that not true?

It is quid pro quo.   Simply stated it is an agreement between your son and the coach that your son will take himself off the market and the coach will provide either an opportunity, slot, admission, or scholarship to the school to play baseball.  There are numerous alternatives here (see below).   Each coach can offer a different opportunity, but each wants the recruit to verbally agree to play for the school in exchange for money or admission.    Always look at these situations from the coaches perspective.  He is trying to put together the best possible team to solve problems.   If your son is not solving a problem then he is unlikely to get an offer.  

Examples below...this is what my son was faced with.   It is not always about NLIs, money, etc.  Verbal offers can come in different packages.  You and your son have to figure out which is best for his situation whether it is athletic, academic or financially motivated.    I can guarantee that many of our posters or readers and each going to pick different options from this list below because everybody is looking at this through a different lens than my son. who ultimately had to make this decision and pay for it when he graduated.

School A  - D1 Mid-Major offers a 50% scholarship.  Local & private school with high tuition.   No engineering.

School B - D1 SEC school may offer significant academic money with the opportunity to win a roster spot 

School C - D1 HA Mid-Major may offer 25% scholarship.   Public in-state school with lower tuition. No engineering.

School D & E - Prestigious D1 HA Mid Majors offer roughly 40% Need Based Financial aid including merit scholarship and top engineering programs.

School F -  Prestigious D3 offering roughly 40% Need Based Financial aid.  Top engineering program.

You have to be crystal clear what is being offered by the school and know what your son wants.  If not, that is going to lead to problems down the road.   A lesson we learned a long time ago was to get confirmation from the HC if you've been presented with an offer by the RC.   In our case, we were meeting with a HC in his office and the RC had not briefed the HC on the details of the offer he provided.   The HC was not pleased with the RC.   Always ask what is the next step because there is always a next step....OV or un-OVs visits to the school, discussion with Financial Aid or Admission, etc...,    

Good luck!

Thanks Fenway. Is this all verbal (the specifics) or do you get it in some form of writing before you verbally commit?

Here is another related commitment question: What happens after you commit?  Obviously the player should continue to train and continue to get better. That's a given and a must. But, should he stop showcasing and attending camps for other schools? Also, what should he be doing with respect to the school that he's committed to?  Stay in verbal and text communication with the coaches? How often and to discuss what?  Should he be attending all their subsequent camps? Visit the school for practices and/or games? What if those visits are not possible due to distance and finances?

A verbal is essentially a handshake agreement. There is a lot of talk on here about how the verbal means absolutely nothing and it ends poorly for everybody but the truth it that the overwhelming majority of kids who verbally commit to a college end up there. Whether it works out or not once on campus is a different story.

The verbal is the offer and what that includes. Tuition, tuition + books, tuition + books + housing, etc. When you start going on tours and the coach makes an offer you ask what the offer includes. 

What does a kid need to do to get a verbal offer? Be good at baseball and have similar grades or better to other incoming baseball players. What does a coach need to do? Make an offer. It can come from the HC, PC, AC, RC, anybody with the power to make decisions. From the meetings I've been to and the calls I've been on, most offers came from the pitching coach, very little interactions with head coaches and recruiting coordinators, the assistants ran most of the recruiting. In other's cases it was the opposite. 

I think what you're asking is - what is an offer. A % amount (or dollar amount occasionally) that they offer you to come play baseball at their school. Can come in person, over the phone, or from a third party if he is not a junior in HS yet. It's very clear as to what the offer is and not put in any ambiguous terms if that's what you're wondering. 

Francis7 posted:

Thanks Fenway. Is this all verbal (the specifics) or do you get it in some form of writing before you verbally commit?

In our experience, none of this was in writing. I understand your concern as this is a leap of faith sometimes.   All my son's conversations (voice + text) with RC, HC, and academic liasons were verbal as were my conversations with Financial Aid Office.  His initial conversations with all interested schools were general.  As son got to know the RC and HC then it become more specific and personal especially for those schools he was most interested in.   4 verbal offers were face to face.  2 verbal offers were over the phone, but we had been face to face previously with those coaches. 

There was another D1 HA school (call it School G from my list) that I forgot about until now.   That offer was face to face as well, but my son was not interested after his Official Visit went sideways with law enforcement breaking up a baseball team party.    So, the key for us was to get my son to these campuses (some of them were not convenient or inexpensive to travel to) when we knew they were seriously interested.    Once in front of the coaches, it became very clear what was being offered, and what my son's next steps needed to be.   In all cases it included a verbal commitment (typically a couple days to respond) and an ED application so the coaches knew we were fully committed in writing.  For the schools offering money that prociess and dates were very clearly defined and discussed in our face to face OV or unOV meetings.

Good luck!

Francis7 posted:

Here is another related commitment question: What happens after you commit?  Obviously the player should continue to train and continue to get better. That's a given and a must. But, should he stop showcasing and attending camps for other schools? Also, what should he be doing with respect to the school that he's committed to?  Stay in verbal and text communication with the coaches? How often and to discuss what?  Should he be attending all their subsequent camps? Visit the school for practices and/or games? What if those visits are not possible due to distance and finances?

So, the communication dies down quite a bit.  My son checked in (emails) only with milestones about baseball, and he had to update the coach about his grades (this was a requirement).   We went to a few conference games (closest was 5 hours away in NJ and PA) and my son got to talk to his future coaches after the game.  I got an opportunity to meet some of the parents.   I stayed in touch with one of the senior parents and he came to a few of my sons games over the years when he knew he was starting on the mound.

No, we did not attend any subsequent camps, or practices as my son's school was 8 hours away, and there was no expectation to attend these either.  Only games that were somewhat close.   The biggest thing about "after committing" is training and getting better.  My son's coach sent him the strength and conditioning routine and my son used that as a guide for what to expect when he stepped on campus in the Fall.   My son worked incredibly hard on his own that summer, and it definitely helped him when Fall college practice rolled around.   Working hard on his own in the summer was a foundation for what was to come in the Fall as he got to work with a strength and conditioning coach every day as well as his pitching coach.   He modified his diet, put on a lot of lower half muscle and learned new things on the mound.  The reality is college coaches make quick and harsh judgements about their freshmen recruits in the Fall.    You want to start out your college baseball career in a positive way.   

Thanks PA and Fenway.

Next question: When can a school make a verbal offer?  Does it matter if a kid is a sophomore, junior or senior in terms of the time of year on when they can offer?

My 2022 talked to a school and is slated for an unofficial. When I looked at that school on PG, I see 2020s, 2021s and 2022s already committed. So, apparently they are talking to people at all grades.

Francis7 posted:

Thanks PA and Fenway.

Next question: When can a school make a verbal offer?  Does it matter if a kid is a sophomore, junior or senior in terms of the time of year on when they can offer?

My 2022 talked to a school and is slated for an unofficial. When I looked at that school on PG, I see 2020s, 2021s and 2022s already committed. So, apparently they are talking to people at all grades.

I know of a 2023 that has been verbally committed to a P5 D1 since late summer.  There is no age limit or time of year limit to verbal.  There are only rules about methods, timing and location of coach to player communication......all of which can be maneuvered around.

Recent very good thread on early commitments:

https://community.hsbaseballwe...erbally-commit-early

i want to clear up the term “showcase.” There really isn’t such a thing as a showcase team. There are travel teams who do tournaments where players are showcased. PG (the poster) didn’t like the term showcase team. 

A 14u player in a program with 16u and 17u teams placing players in college is not on a showcase team. He’s in a travel program where higher level teams get kids to college ball.

There are two kinds of events where players are “showcased.” One is an individual event where the player will be placed on a team with other individuals for a live scrimmage. These are typically called showcases. The player leaves with officially recorded measured metrics. Players on teams participating in major tournaments where college coaches and pro scouts are present are competing in a tournament. That coaches and scouts come to look for talent makes it showcasing,

Most competitive players won’t want to stop competing just because they’re committed.  Besides, they will improve playing against the best competition. These players will play on travel teams playing in tournaments where non committed players will be showcased. 

Showcases for committed players are for potential top of the draft talent to showcase in front of pro scouts. Some players will never get to their college commitment. They will sign out of high school. Or at least put themselves in a position for it to be considered. 

anotherparent posted:

Recent very good thread on early commitments:

https://community.hsbaseballwe...erbally-commit-early

Thanks. Now I know why my son was given the number (by a 3rd party) and told to call the recruiting coach. I wondered why the kid had to call. Now it makes sense. Since he called, they were able to talk.

Francis7 posted:

Next question: When can a school make a verbal offer?  Does it matter if a kid is a sophomore, junior or senior in terms of the time of year on when they can offer?

My 2022 talked to a school and is slated for an unofficial. When I looked at that school on PG, I see 2020s, 2021s and 2022s already committed. So, apparently they are talking to people at all grades.

Anytime. Technically there are rules that say schools cannot offer or even contact kids until a certain date but there are plenty of ways around it. I would assume your son is being contacted by a D1 school. I would assume they are interested in him as a player or they wouldn't be talking to him. This first visit might be for son to get a feel for facilities and for coaches to get a feel for him as a person/student. Might result in an offer might be just to get feet wet and build interest in program. But they clearly like his baseball talent or they wouldn't have invited him up. It's early, just take it as it comes. 

Just curious as to how this was all arranged as far as contact and where they saw him. This is typically a quiet time as far as recruiting goes.  

Francis7 posted:

Related: What are the benefits and disadvantages of verbally committing? It's said that the verbal commitment is a statement for other coaches to stay away because "you're spoken for now." But, I've heard that verbally committing only makes you more attractive to other schools and they all want to steal players from each other.

I've also seen "showcases" advertised as being "for committed players only" - and isn't that contradictory of the notion of commitment?

Also, it seems that "commitment" badge will get you some attention at tournaments and the like not afforded to the non-committed players. Is that not true?

I don't know if this was mentioned, but a player should never committ unless he is ready to committ.  Some players are ready to committ early, some later. Never committ early because everyone else is!  As a player, don't committ if you feel pressured, that would be by family and friends, or coaches.   Yes, it takes you off the market.  As a parent it's your job to help your son through the process. And discuss all pros and cons as a family.

Fenway, love that quid pro quo analogy! 

PABASEBALL - I will PM you with the details.

Francis7 posted:

Thanks Fenway. Is this all verbal (the specifics) or do you get it in some form of writing before you verbally commit?

There will be NOTHING in writing! The coach filled out a financial worksheet orally with us.he gave us something we could write the details on but told us they could put NOTHING in writing. They saw my son pitch 4 times over the next two years to make sure he developed as expected. 2x the HC, 2x the PC. I had to initiate a final discussion the July prior to signing day to make sure our offer hadn’t changed, but again, I initiated that in a time frame we could at least attempt to reopen his recruitment if need be. You are the only one looking out for your kid, and yes you have to make sure that offer turns into the expected NLI. Don’t think for a minute things are done at verbal!

2019Lefty21 posted:

Francis7 posted:

Thanks Fenway. Is this all verbal (the specifics) or do you get it in some form of writing before you verbally commit?

There will be NOTHING in writing! The coach filled out a financial worksheet orally with us.he gave us something we could write the details on but told us they could put NOTHING in writing. They saw my son pitch 4 times over the next two years to make sure he developed as expected. 2x the HC, 2x the PC. I had to initiate a final discussion the July prior to signing day to make sure our offer hadn’t changed, but again, I initiated that in a time frame we could at least attempt to reopen his recruitment if need be. You are the only one looking out for your kid, and yes you have to make sure that offer turns into the expected NLI. Don’t think for a minute things are done at verbal!

Thanks. How soon after that worksheet did your son commit? 

My 2022 had 9 P5 offers this summer & they all explicitly laid out what they would cover. To give you some examples, one school said they wouldn’t cover the dorm but would cover everything else including food, another school said the school included personal and transportation costs in their COA & they’d cover everything but that, while yet another told him if he could get a 26 on the ACT while keeping his GPA up they could get him enough academic money & athletic money combined to be a full ride. All offers were verbal with him never visiting the schools. We did attend a camp before he committed to the school he did, but he had just pitched in a school tournament so we didn’t want him to pitch again, so we just met the coaches and toured the facilities but he didn’t actually participate in the camp & he called the coach that night & told him that he’d selected them. All of the recruiting coaches plus the pitching coaches were having him call them at least once a week. That was 18 calls per week. It was getting to be a real grind, so I think he was relieved to commit & have that part over with. We live in a very rural area, so there aren’t any quality instructors or anything around. Thankfully he’s one of those kids that will go work by himself 3-4 hours/night & realizes he’s going to have to earn his spot. I’m hoping he can make it without getting cut & will be excited to see what he can do after he gets with a great pitching coach. 

If it’s a MAAC (your area) showing interest and your son hasn’t played soph year and post soph summer hold off. Chances are he will develop into a prospect with better options. Colleges may also show interest and just follow until post junior summer.

Thanks. It's not MAAC. It's a much higher conference. This conference is usually in the top 20 every year in the Massey and Nolan rankings.

Francis...school was #1 on our list so commitment was made immediately 

Francis7 posted:

Thanks PA and Fenway.

Next question: When can a school make a verbal offer?  Does it matter if a kid is a sophomore, junior or senior in terms of the time of year on when they can offer?

My 2022 talked to a school and is slated for an unofficial. When I looked at that school on PG, I see 2020s, 2021s and 2022s already committed. So, apparently they are talking to people at all grades.

Ten years ago, my son had two travel teammates who had verbally committed to ACC and SEC schools during their high school sophomore year.   I know the rules have changed a little bit, but if you show up on campus or work through a travel coach as a proxy I don't think there is anything you can't do if you really want to do it.   Both of my son's friends were offered during campus visits and followed up via telephone to verbally accept and commit.   Both schools were dream schools and their first choices.  It was a no brainer for them at that time.  I think if you would ask them today if they would have done something different, they would say "yes" and  listened to more offers.   Both were incredible athletes.  One would have his scholarship taken away sophomore year and told he would not play, and the other would never make the starting lineup over 5 years.   

Good and great things can happen when visiting campuses.   Not all campus visits result in an immediate offer.   My son had 2 un-OVs to a local D1 before he got his first offer (25% which later got bumped to 50%) from that school and first offer overall.   For many people that I've known, getting that first offer is the toughest.    It is a lot of work.    

Good luck! 

My son got a lot of verbal offers, one JUCO coach handed him a written offer after a game, but he didn't put it on school letterhead so it took us a while to figure out who it was.

He had one D1 offer where the coach sat down and walked through a written offer, but wouldn't let us keep it. Son was allowed to take photo. It was detailed down to how much protein he would get on practice vs. game days. Felt weird.

He accepted a P5 offer, which the coach made verbally and then later, at my request, gave us a written copy. I knew when I asked for it that it wasn't binding in anyway, but it did give me something to refer back to instead of calling the recruiting coach every time I got worried.

Son was a walk on the first year, with the promise of $$ the remainder of his time on campus. He worked hard, got some opportunities as a freshman and did well with them. Since then, I have talked to the recruiting coach approximately once a year. They explain options for his scholarship--whether it's "take a lot of money this year and less next or spread it out evenly" and we talk about what that means in practical terms, what works best for them and what works best for us. I don't know if that's how they do it with all players but I like it. It feels like we have some control and input and in a world where parents have very little control or input, that feels good. And it is always true to their original offer, it's just how it comes that flexes.

My son tore up his knee the first game of the first weekend of post junior summer. Until then he figured he would receive several offers by the end of June based on conversations with several programs. They all disappeared.

Senior year when one of the five on his preferred list made a late offer he jumped on it. It was one of the schools he didn’t need baseball to get accepted. He applied to those schools just in case. Otherwise, he would have been showcasing post senior year to prove he was healthy hoping to start college in January. He became part of the following year recruiting class. The offer involved no scholarship and not playing freshman year. His offer started soph/redshirt freshman year.

Professionally (in the real world) he’s in the same place with his initial third tier choice as he would have been with his first and second tier preferences. 

The offer my son accepted was a verbal offer from the pitching coach and then a text confirmation outlining % paid of total Cost of Attendance. That was in February his junior year. His school is in the Big 10 so they are 4-year scholarship commitments, which is awesome (we did not know this until we were well into the recruiting process). When he received his Letter of Intent in November it was exactly as agreed upon. We fully trusted the coach based on meetings and conversations we had with him.

Iowamom23 posted:

My son got a lot of verbal offers, one JUCO coach handed him a written offer after a game, but he didn't put it on school letterhead so it took us a while to figure out who it was.

 

Ha! I can just imagine you or your son calling up coaches and asking if they had made an offer to you. Awkward.

i understand there are some exceptions... but are most scholarship offers for tuition and room and board? or is tuition only more prevalent?  

GloFisher posted:

i understand there are some exceptions... but are most scholarship offers for tuition and room and board? or is tuition only more prevalent?  

If offering a scholarship (D1) the minimum is 25%, except in conferences where more is allotted. When making a commitment make sure you understand exactly what the quid pro quo is (sorry love that). Usually is a portion of the COA but make sure it's spelled out in the NLI.

If the assistant coach doesnt have the title of Associate Head Coach or RC, make sure your son has gotten his offer from the horses mouth (HC).

We (both parents and son) were on the phone with the RC for the offer.The gave us the athletic percentage and made a guess based on grades/scores as to what he would get academically. When son called back to accept, he called the other schools that had offered to tell them he was committing somewhere else before he posted anything to social media.  He signed his NLI in November and his academic scholarship just came in with more than they had estimated (love those surprises).

in terms of other coaches, it all stopped immediately when he posted on social media outside of the coaches who had made offers saying to let them know if things changed.

Continuing showcases is to get invites to the big games junior summer and for draft.

I think you make the commitment when you get the right offer from the right school or an offer you can live with from a school you can attend and be happy.  My son received his first great offer when he was a freshman and lots of offers from D1's including 6 P5's through his commitment before his junior year.  That final decision went something like this "What are you waiting on?"  Do you think someone is going to give you a better offer at a better school?  Son:  "No."  Then go for it. 

But remember nothing in is in stone.  A coach can move or your son can get hurt or not progress.  They can back out partially by changing offer or drop offer completely.  Or a better offer can come your way.

We had two major P5's talk to his coaches after he committed but both wanted him to de-commit before they would give specifics on offers.  Something about a bird in the bush versus one in the hand.  He chose to stay with his commitment. 

This is the nugget for freshman and sophs getting offers:

"My son received his first great offer when he was a freshman and lots of offers from D1's including 6 P5's through his commitment before his junior year."

If you are getting offers this early in the process, those early offers set your initial value AND are precursors for additional offers from (at least) peer schools. From that point the player has control of the process (assuming grades are kept, no character issues, continued skills improvements, and no coaching changes). [BUT, its a small minority of players who fall into that category (despite all those fevered parents telling you otherwise).]

Son was told, and through TB coach communicated to me that on his visit he'd receive an offer if he was ready to make a decision within 2 weeks. This was prior to his visit. On his visit, HC took out a worksheet that had the complete COA on it and went over what would be covered. He used percentage and it was very easy to understand the amount, He had also run son's test scores and transcript through admissions and gave us a range of his potential merit award, so that was a bit of an unknown.

Day before signing day HC emailed my son, included the NLI (which does not have a $ amount on it) and the athletic award letter from the school. He also verified the dollar amount of the merit award. A month later when my son received his acceptance letter, the merit award was exactly what he said. I know there are some horror stories of things changing between verbal and signing, my son's situation worked out, but he also didn't verbal until summer after junior year.

Goosegg posted:

This is the nugget for freshman and sophs getting offers:

"My son received his first great offer when he was a freshman and lots of offers from D1's including 6 P5's through his commitment before his junior year."

If you are getting offers this early in the process, those early offers set your initial value AND are precursors for additional offers from (at least) peer schools. From that point the player has control of the process (assuming grades are kept, no character issues, continued skills improvements, and no coaching changes). [BUT, its a small minority of players who fall into that category (despite all those fevered parents telling you otherwise).]

 

Good stuff here. My son, freshman this year, has started to received offers from some P5 schools. We have been talking to some other families this past week who are in the same boat. The question has been when do you finally know when it's time to commit? Do you keep dragging it along to see what other schools come to the table or do  you go with the school that is showing the most love and you think is the best fit and follow your heart on that. Some have said you will know when the right school as come along as you will start comparing other schools to that single school.  

Came down to the same. Son listed his original top 5 school freshman year. When one gave a good offer, we asked him, is there any other school that beats this for you? If not, you don’t need to collect offers. Let’s end it.  Honestly, it was an immediate relief and weight off his shoulders.  He didn’t enjoy calling all the coaches and the stress of it.

PitchingFan posted:

I think you make the commitment when you get the right offer from the right school or an offer you can live with from a school you can attend and be happy.  My son received his first great offer when he was a freshman and lots of offers from D1's including 6 P5's through his commitment before his junior year.  That final decision went something like this "What are you waiting on?"  Do you think someone is going to give you a better offer at a better school?  Son:  "No."  Then go for it. 

But remember nothing in is in stone.  A coach can move or your son can get hurt or not progress.  They can back out partially by changing offer or drop offer completely.  Or a better offer can come your way.

We had two major P5's talk to his coaches after he committed but both wanted him to de-commit before they would give specifics on offers.  Something about a bird in the bush versus one in the hand.  He chose to stay with his commitment. 

I think that this is something that families really have to think about.  My son got several offers at the end of his Sophomore Summer when he just exploded in the final tournament of the Summer.  Homers, running catches, throwing out runners at home, etc.  He never put together five better games.  Of course once the offers started coming in he thought it was best to "wait for something better".  I challenged him to think about what school would be better.  Every time he came up with a name we looked up their commitments...the P5 invariably already had one or two outfielders committed.  For the mid majors without outfielders I asked him when they were going to see him play.  If the answer was maybe next Summer I asked him if he really wanted to wait that long and risk losing the bird in the hand.

Great point K9

Definitely more about fit and feel and development than a shiny new or big facility. We got to see some incredible facilities on tours and camps. Some programs bragged more on their program and less on the development of my son. Other schools focused on him, asked him what he was looking for, talked about what the plan to do with him, want him to compete to play/start as a freshman,  and loved on him - hard! He chose to go to that school. Didn't have the new shiny facility or biggest stadium with the most seats, etc. But it was the best program for him and what he was looking for and what he needed to get in, get a great education and get prepared for the Draft as a junior.

Baseball isn't like Basketball and Football (Thank God) with collecting and bragging about offers, but some schools are on different timelines. Vandy has 20 commits for 2021, Florida & Ark 20. GT has 10. UNC 11. Yet Texas has 6. Texas Tech has 22 commits for 20. No way those kids stick and make the team.

Recruiting timelines are a bit different. The early commits tend to change.

Virginia has 13 22's. Louisville, Miami and Hail State have 12, Florida and Florida State have 11. 

Stanford has 7 22's who haven't taken the SAT or ACT yet. 3.8 GPA and 1300 requirement to get in there.

I think you have to look at the program, who has what your son needs. Does he want big city, small town. What does the school look like draft wise. 

You have to look at the institution. What does the school give you. Degrees, Alumni, opportunity. What is the graduation rate? Retention Rates? Academic assistance. 

They might have a shiny new, and amazing facility, but if the degree or school is a joke. You're wasting your time. There is life after baseball and it does matter where you go to school.

What do the rosters look like? How many pitchers do they have. Will you have a  chance to compete and play? If you're going to be the 6th out of 9 pitchers in your class. Are you the first of 3 commits to a school that normally has 17-19? You better get comfortable with the Transfer portal.

Early commits won't know those things and that's risky when they recruit behind you. It is a huge relief to be committed, but that puts a target on your back and you still have to challenge yourself, face stiff competition, and get better. If you don't, get lazy, put on weight, etc. They'll yank that commit from you in a heartbeat or drop the offer substantially.

EOKERHOLM

Welcome and thanks for giving lots of great and current info to parents and players moving through the college recruiting labrynith.

I would modify one of your observations:

"You have to look at the institution. What does the school give you. Degrees, Alumni, opportunity. What is the graduation rate? Retention Rates? Academic assistance."

I would analyze whether athletes are generally representative of the general student population; in some schools (particularly  P-5), athletes are a unique subset of students and have dramatically different majors (think not as rigorous), retention rates, graduation rates, opportunities to complete research projects, and become members in the college version of professional societies - when compared to their non-athlete peers.

To do this a parent needs a few initial data points: the Common Data Set and the baseball roster - which in some schools will list majors of upperclassmen (because any major listed for a freshman or soph is more aspirational than real). A parent can take this info and probe the coaches (e.g., where are your graduates five years later, etc.).

I remember looking at Rice years ago (when it did list majors for the baseball team) and learned that while well over half the school graduates were engineers (or STEM), the baseball team had very few engineers. This lead to a belief that the players needed to sacrifice Rice's signature majors.

As we drilled down into some of my son's offers, we actually visited academic departments and met with some heads (engineering, chemistry, etc.); while the coach was saying "he can do any major," the department heads told us "we've never had a baseball player major in _____."

Congrats to your son and family and keep us posted!

Thanks!

Happy to help! Steep learning curve for sure with the process and what to look and look out for.

The coaches we talked to were very open about sharing baseball team retention, graduation, and class loads. Maybe because we specifically asked about majors, class loads, and restrictions if any.

Some schools limit majors or areas of study. We know Duke doesn't and GT didn't either.  It was interesting that UVA mandates 15 hrs and 4 years (as a school) and others do the 12. 12 gets you in a 5th year scenario, if you can't take extra or early classes.

It was interesting that Vandy doesn't have a Business or Finance degree and unfortunately that took them off my sons list. That and all the commits they have. My wife and I might still move to Nashville because it's AWESOME, but that is another story. 

I do think its our jobs as parents to remind our kids that it is more than just baseball or softball, school matters, life happens, and happens after baseball. Prepare for the future - for baseball and beyond. Both matter.