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21 replies

D1 Offers...The Latest Rules

M mifdaddy100+ posts
We are starting to get very good interest for our 2014 son with one offer given and a visit planned in the next 2 weeks to receive another. A third and fourth may not be too much later. All of this is good, but there seems to be some confusion amongst parents and HS coaches about money...

What types of money can be offered and how are they used/counted/viewed by the NCAA? If I know what the schools can do according to the NCAA, then I can also tell what the schools are willing to do based on their own internal rules. Here are a few examples...

Athletic money is the easiest from our perspective. The offer we have is for a % of the total cost of attendance and was given as a $ amount, but we were told that it would "float" with the total cost of attendance.

Academic money starts to get confusing. At one point, there was "non-countable" money. This is money that can be offered in addition to the athletic money and does not "count" against the baseball scholarships. There were academic standards defined by the NCAA that had to be met for anyone entering the school and had to be maintained to keep it. Those standards were a certain core GPA, class rank and test score (I think). In late 2011, they opened the standards up a bit, but I was told that they closed them lately and that there was legistlation coming again. Does anyone know for certain the current status?

Need-based money is given by some of the very high academic schools that are also very expensive. This is calculated based on parents income and some of the privates schools with large endowments are very willing to give this money as well. Does this count against scholarships?

Alumni/Legacy money is another. It seems that if your grandad graduated from a certain school, there can also be money offered by the school for the grandson. How is this viewed?

Our son has very good grades and should have offers from 2-3 high academic D1 schools. We also can work the need-based money pretty well and will welcome it, so much of the scenarios above can be in play with us.

Thank you for any clarity you can offer!
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fenwaysouthfenwaysouth10,000+ posts
mifdaddy,

You've layed out the situation pretty well. Sorry, I've got to answer a question with a question. What is YOUR primary goal....athletic, academic or financial? "It depends" is not an answer. Sorry to muddy your clarity question. ;-) Most likely, there will be a point where you have to decide which is most important.

Academic money will be the most confusing but it can also be the most rewarding depending on the school. Academic money is for 4 years. The schools academic requirements will usually be much higher than the NCAAs academic requirements. I don't know the current legistlative status, but I've seen folks ask this question before. The answer always is what is most important to you.
M mifdaddy100+ posts
It DOES depend...Ha! Every school will have different standards and every baseball program will have different intent and every kid will have different skills. I am really searching for the NCAA rules. I am not hung up on being able to say my son got X amount to play baseball, so that doesn't matter as much. That said, I do like the thought of the coach having an investment in my son. Education is more important than baseball in my eyes as well as my son's eyes. I want my son to get the education that he wants with the lowest outlay of money. I DO NOT want my son to have to move to another school unless he chooses to do so. As far as I can tell, the rules are continually changing. If he gets a high number for athletics, it could leave options for additional money from other sources. I don't see athletic money coming later in his college career after sorting out academic money though.

His core GPA is very high, and it seems to be the first factor they look at when considering academic money.

I would like to start with the current rules, so we have a baseline minimum.
keewartkeewart10,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by mifdaddy:
Need-based money is given by some of the very high academic schools that are also very expensive. This is calculated based on parents income and some of the privates schools with large endowments are very willing to give this money as well. Does this count against scholarships?



How I uderstand this, from other posts (maybe 3fingeredglove?)on this board, is that athletic scholarships will be figured in to meet your need.

Example:
Cost of Attendance(COA) $50,000 per year
Expected Family Contribution(EFC) $20,000 from (FAFSA)
"Need" $30,000
50% baseball scholly $25,000
Need to be met from other souces $ 5,000 (loans, grants, workstudy, other)

What I don't know is that if you are awarded an academic scholarship, would any amount over $5000 (in my example) still be awarded and reduce the out of pocket costs (effectively reducing the amount of the parent contribution). Maybe different schools do different things? Hopefully, someone can add to this.

Note also, that most schools do not meet 100% of need (you can check the % amounts on collegeboard.com) and "meeting need", could include loans and workstudy. Many private schools use the CSS Profile which could be more strict in calculating the parents contribution.
Last edited by keewart
keewartkeewart10,000+ posts
mifdaddy,
One option is to not apply for Federal aid and just take any baseball and academic scholarships awarded. (What a great position to be in!) But, at the higher priced private schools, they may still require you to fill out the CSS Profile.

I wouldn't try to "tank" a year or two....but as a business owner, I understand there are things you can do during your child's junior year (this year) to help your EFC. I am not a business owner, but you may want to research it before the year is out.
mstcksmstcks100+ posts
As far as your question about legacy scholarships, I would have to say that would be considered "countable aid". I'm not sure the exact definition, but countable aid is considered as aid that the whole student body is not able to receive (merit scholarships not subject to this). For example, if the school of interest is religiously affiliated and said student-athlete could receive scholarships for being a son/daughter of a preacher in that denomination. That cannot be awarded to the whole student body, so it's seen as "countable aid". The same thing goes for a legacy scholarship. It's countable because only those select few who are legacies are eligible to receive this.

Essentially, countable aid ends up costing the coach. Let's say baseball scholarship is $25,000. "Countable aid" is $7,000. You take both. However, your result (someone correct me if this is incorrect) is that you'd receive $27,000. $20,000 in baseball and $7K in countable. But, the coach still has to count it in his budget as giving you $25,000. And, that $5K can't be put toward another student athlete.

No matter what, countable aid scholarships count against the baseball money.

It is a very good thing you are not invested in how much % baseball money your son is getting. Often, coaches offer a lower amount of baseball money to good students, simply because they know those students will get more academic money, and they can use the baseball money to bring in more guys. If your son is a good student, he has a chance to get a pretty good financial package. Remember, NCAA coaches are limited in scholarships. I want to say 11 something for D1, and just about 9 for D2.

Good luck!
Last edited by mstcks
R Roderick10+ posts
The coach will work with the scholarship and financial aid office to package the athletic scholarship portion with merit-based (academic) scholarships and need-based financial aid (if any, as determined by the FAFSA process). Only the athletic scholarship component would count towards the coach's scholarship budget. If you do submit a FAFSA for financial aid, they will provide a number to the schools called EFC (Expected Family Contribution). As Keewart posted, this works like this:

$50,000 cost of attendance
-$25,000 athletic scholarship (1 yr guarantee)
-$10,000 academic scholarship (typically 4 year guarantee with a minimum GPA requirement)

That would leave $15,000 that you would have to pay. If your EFC was $5,000 then the school could offer you grant money or, probably more likely, student loans to cover the $10,000 shortfall between your son's scholarships and the EFC.
Last edited by Roderick
R Roderick10+ posts
Smampboy does raise a good caveat that athletic and need-based scholarships can have severe limitations. It does vary according to school and circumstance. Stanford says that the NCAA limits(at least in their situation) all need-based financial aid. However, the NCAA in its NCAA Guide for the Student-bound athlete states:

"The total amount of financial aid a student-athlete
can receive and the total amount of athletics aid a team can award may be limited. These limits can affect whether a student-athlete may accept additional financial aid from other sources. Ask financial aid officials at the college or university
about other financial aid you may be eligible to receive and about the impact of that aid on athletics aid limits."

The issue is more complicated than it appears and as the NCAA says check with the FA office at each school you are looking at. It appears that the spirit of the law is at limiting money coming in from third-parties or backdoors that don't count against the athletic department's scholarships while benefitting the student-athlete in a way that a non-athlete could not benefit.
Last edited by Roderick
Rick at Informed AthleteRick at Informed Athlete5,000+ posts
mifdaddy,

Once an athlete receives an athletic scholarship, any other scholarship or grant from the school (other than need-based aid) - academic, legacy, etc., also becomes countable toward the baseball limit of 11.7 scholarship equivalencies.

This is UNLESS, as you pointed out in your 4th paragraph, the athlete satisfies one of the four criteria to be able to exempt an academic scholarship. The criteria for Div. I are 1) upper 10 percent of HS grad class, 2) 3.5 cumulative GPA, 3) 105 ACT sum score, or 4) 1200 SAT score on critical reading and math.

Most Fed and state govt grants will also be exempt from counting against the team limit.
Rick at Informed AthleteRick at Informed Athlete5,000+ posts
I need to clarify my post from yesterday. The NCAA defines certain academic scholarships that meet their selected criteria as "Academic Honor Awards." Not all academic scholarships meet that criteria. Also, a legacy scholarship, for example, does not fall in this category.

An athlete would be able to exempt an "Academic Honor Award" from counting toward the baseball limit if they meet one of the four criteria. However, if they receive both an athletic scholarship and a scholarship that is not an "Academic Honor Award" then the total value will count against baseball's 11.7 limit. (By the way, this exemption for "Academic Honor Awards" is available to athletes in all equivalency sports.)
Rick at Informed AthleteRick at Informed Athlete5,000+ posts
JunkBall2,

The percentage is referring to the percentage of the value of a full athletic scholarship, which consists of tuition, fees, room, board, and books as determined by each school.

A school's Cost of Attendance is typically about $2000 more than the value of an athletic scholarship, as it can include a value for travel home at holidays and other expenses, and varies for in-state vs. out-of-state.
Rick at Informed AthleteRick at Informed Athlete5,000+ posts
JunkBall2,

The number of credit hours used to calculate the tuition portion of an athletic scholarship can vary from school to school based on the average full-time enrollment for the general student body.

That's one of the reasons it is difficult to compare offers between schools. It really boils down to what a family will end up paying out of pocket for their athlete to attend a particular school.
W whits23100+ posts
i posted this on another thread but could fit here as well..i will also add if it isnt a written offer its not a real offer and they dont come yet for 2014
Posted August 22, 2012 08:30 PM Hide Post
ok here are some questions i have heard numerous answers to from college recruiters and am not sure they even know sometimes. 1. do schools care if the scholorships they give out are in state or out state..in other words are they counting money given out or just scholarships, it may depend on budget they have in place? 2. also i had never heard this but we had one tell us whatever acaademic money you get or special grants counts as money towards the scholarship so if you get 50/50 athletic.academic its still 100 scholarsip so takes away 1 full one. as far as trips etc we have done some unofficial but since you cant do written ones and so much turnover i would see no need to do a verbal. ALSO it was pointed out to us that many big schools give out a lot of 25pct scholarships then take a good part of them back the next year and let go the kids who didnt measure up. I am not sure if they can give that back out again or just give it to up the amt current players are getting...lots of questions i know but lots of smart guys here

Posts: 90 | Location: United States | Registered: February 20, 2011

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