Committing To A School

Congratulations on your strong academic offer, but as you suggested, you are a walk-on. Just a matter of how many others are attempting to walk-on next fall will determine if you have a chance of being on the roster.

Andrewdon,

You may want to confirm with the coach that you have a roster spot on the team. In addition, I'd ask the coach if there is an opportunity for you to earn baseball scholarship money next year, and subsequent years.

Academic money is coming through the school not the baseball team. You'll most likely have to maintain a certain GPA. Since the academic money is there, is this bound by a certain time frame for you to commit? Have you applied to other schools that have baseball interest as well, and you can wait for them to get back to you? What I'm getting at is....you may have more options coming in if you wait to hear from other schools. Just a thought.

Good luck!

Just because you don't get baseball money doesn't mean you aren't wanted. Not everyone on the team can get baseball money. In DII, there are only 9 scholarships available to the whole team. Coaches love the guys that can play and they don't have to use baseball money on. And 17K is a ton of money. Here in Georgia, that would be a full scholarship at an in state school.

You need to get a good feel for the coach. Does he really want you? Also, the school. Is it a school you would want to go to if there was no baseball?

Others are right, this is not a committment/NLI signing agreement, but that doesn't mean its not a good deal. If you like the school and think the coach likes what you have to offer, go for it.

And don't forget - there are no guarantees in college baseball, scholarship or not. The coach is going to play the best nine whether he gave them baseball money or not. You have to earn your spot.

quote:

Originally posted by bballman:
Just because you don't get baseball money doesn't mean you aren't wanted. Not everyone on the team can get baseball money. In DII, there are only 9 scholarships available to the whole team. Coaches love the guys that can play and they don't have to use baseball money on. And 17K is a ton of money. Here in Georgia, that would be a full scholarship at an in state school.

You need to get a good feel for the coach. Does he really want you? Also, the school. Is it a school you would want to go to if there was no baseball?

Others are right, this is not a committment/NLI signing agreement, but that doesn't mean its not a good deal. If you like the school and think the coach likes what you have to offer, go for it.

And don't forget - there are no guarantees in college baseball, scholarship or not. The coach is going to play the best nine whether he gave them baseball money or not. You have to earn your spot.

Great advice. I too felt it was a whale of an offer. Now, if it is at an elite New England school, there still might be one heck of a tab to pick up for your parents but it sounds like a pretty nice deal.

None of us can speak for that coach. It sounds like he came up with a pretty nice package. Ask him if he sees you as merely a bottom-of-the-roster guy or if he sees you as an impact player. Ask him if he considers you a walk-on and that you would be trying out for a position in the fall. If he sees you as a potential contributor with a roster spot guaranteed, then I would not fret over labels such as NLI and what not. Your money is more than many guys who sign NLI's get. Call the coach and then report back what you find out.

Thanks for the advice guys!!! I will definately give him a call tomorrow and see what's up with how he see's me.

do they have a jv program

yes

College commitments aren't based on how large your scholarship is. Are you being asked to sign a LOI? Probably not, seeing you are getting academic money, only. However, if that is where you are going, you are committed. So as a baseball player/student that is your commitment, whether you end up playing or not, that is where you will be. If you have made this decision and been accepted I see nothing wrong with you calling it a verbal commitment at this time. After all, that is what it is. Just curious, why are the words verbal commitment all that important? Lot's of kids commit to DIII schools and there is no athletic scholarship there. Of course, there's always the commitment the student/athlete makes and there's the commitment the athletic department uses. They are not the same. 17K sounds pretty good... congratulations.

Agree with PG, well said!!

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
College commitments aren't based on how large your scholarship is. Are you being asked to sign a LOI? Probably not, seeing you are getting academic money, only. However, if that is where you are going, you are committed. So as a baseball player/student that is your commitment, whether you end up playing or not, that is where you will be. If you have made this decision and been accepted I see nothing wrong with you calling it a verbal commitment at this time. After all, that is what it is. Just curious, why are the words verbal commitment all that important? Lot's of kids commit to DIII schools and there is no athletic scholarship there. Of course, there's always the commitment the student/athlete makes and there's the commitment the athletic department uses. They are not the same. 17K sounds pretty good... congratulations.

Very good post and agree completely. Congrats, Andrewdon!

All the above advice is good. I ran track in college, they are allowed 13 scholarships across both the track team and the cross country team. If you take this in context of how many athletes there are on the team you actually end up with less money per student. The reality of the college sports is that most players are playing with very little athletic scholarship money or none. You always hear that so and so got a full ride, I can tell you that if I hear that 100 times only 1 of those athletes has a true full ride. Don't get caught up on the scholarship thing equating to you getting a spot on the team. Just because you were not offered athletic scholarship money does not mean you are any less valuable to the team nor does it mean you don't have a spot. As others have said, call and talk to the coach. Don't be nervous about it. You will many of these type of conversations over the next 4 to 5 years with him.

I was pretty heavily recruited (back in the late 80s) but was never offered any money to go anywhere. The main reason was my academics were decent and my parents did not make a lot of money. This meant that I was going to get financial grant and scholarship money. The coaches actually loved this as it meant the money I would have take was freed up for others. During my freshman year I felt like I was less valuable to the team as I was not receiving any money. At some point that year I had a conversation with the coach who explained things to me. He told me that he would have offered me money but it didn't make sense. Whatever he offered to give me would have reduced the amount of the amount of the financial aid package the school had worked up for me. In other words, if I was given a $17K financial package and he offered me $1k my total package still would have been $17k not $18k.

Again, don't equate how much money the coach was offering you to your place on the team. To me it sounds like you are wanted at the school and due to the other aid you are receiving it was in the teams best interest to not provide you with an athletic scholarship.

Question: if something happened and he could not play, would he not retain the academic money as long his grades are good?

I think I would raather have the academic money.