Committing early

Fungo, I think I know a specific example of what you speak. I was talking about this with my son in the car yesterday. I wonder how the "full ride" goes over with current players who may be playing for considerably less. Now that the recruit has announced this to the world, do you think he's a marked man when he joins the team at his first practice?

It could create problems for the signee because offers are withdrawn and scholarship amounts do change up until the NLI is signed….. too frequently. By announcing early, the recruited player eliminates offers from other colleges and could find himself scrambling for an NLI to sign in November. Secondly I know my son’s college coach specifically requested (on the day he signed) that he refrain from discussing the amount of his scholarship. He said discussing his scholarship could create problems.
There was an instance a few years back where a young man had publicly announced his commitment to a big D-1 with write up in his local paper and the college coach responded and said that was not true.

I talked on the phone yesterday with a friend of mine whose son is a senior ballplayer at an NAIA school. In the discussion he said his son had a full ride at the school. He then modified his comment that it wasn’t actually a “full ride” but "almost" because it was an 85% scholarship. Later he said his son was getting 85% of his tuition paid and he had to pay for his room and board, books and fees --------- that is a VERY long way from a “full ride”!
My suggestion is to not discuss your scholarship or your intentions of signing except with those persons you know you can confide in. Who knows, someone might put what you say on the HSBBW
Fungo

quote:

My suggestion is to not discuss your scholarship or your intentions of signing except with those persons you know you can confide in.

Who benefits by disclosing this information Is it the parents and their ego possibly? I was asked dozens and dozens of times how much my son's scholarship was worth and didn't feel it was anyone's business but ours. Each time I said, both him (especially him) and I were thrilled where he was going and that is what mattered to us.

I'd also expect that "full ride" in the state of Tennessee generally means the player will be using the Hope Scholarship as part of the scholarship "pie".

I was talking with a coach recently who said that nobody on his team knows who's on scholarship or not. I sure that some talk about it, but it's not common knowledge.

When my son verbally committed it was agreed that it would remain quiet as long as it could, for the purposes of not making others feel less imprtant.
Regardless of what he said, we would not have discussed it.
When son was being scouted for the draft, it was something that came out in discussion and unfortunetly then was all over town.
I know my son doesn't even discussit with his team mates, except of course maybe for his close friends.

If you get a raise at work do you announce it?

Its almost always the parents who discuss scholarship amounts and its almost always deemed a "full ride." These people are crazy IMO...nothing good can come out of that, nothing that I can think of anyways.

We never told a scout, never told our own advisors, never told his grandparents how much. Its locked in the vault.

But he did call other coaches recruiting him when he committed (not about amount, but about the commitment). Once you tell one college coach, I think its out in the open...they share that kind of information. Telling the other coaches seemed to me to be the right thing to do. And we did tell our friends and summer coaches too.

My son gave a verbal commitment last July 5th, four days after the process kicked in. He knew where he wanted to go and the scholarship fit our family's needs. He told no one other than close friends during the summer for a couple of reasons. First, he had lots of schools interested in him and they planned on seeing him at summer tournaments. His summer coaches knew that if he announced his scholarship and verbal commitment that some schools would not come to games, lessening the exposure for his teammates. We were honest when teams approached him or called the house, we just didn't "announce" the decision. But his decision to verbal right away was right for him and may not be for anyone else. It's a very individual decision for any player and family.