Curious about the process. Coach offers a 2019 a 4 year roster spot before the player is accepted to the school. Suppose the player applies for regular admission and a decision is not rendered until March of senior year. Does the player wait until then to accept. What if the coach is unwilling to wait that long?
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Do players commit before they've been admitted? Almost always yes. That's why finding the right academic fit and keeping grades up throughout the process are so important.
Before a coach offers a player, often their academic info has been passed to admissions for review. Coach is then informed if player will or will not be accepted in spring, based on preliminary test scores, GPA, etc.
High Academic programs, do have other criteria the recruit has to pass through.
One of my son’s travel teammates was committed to a ranked P5.They wouldn’t send an NLI in the fall. He had not scored the required minimum on the SAT. They wanted him. He was a legit pro prospect. He started freshman year.
Just before the spring SATs his senior year the coach contacted him. He was told if he didn’t score the minimum required score in the spring SATs the offer was off the table.
The kid got the score he needed. He started freshman year. But he ignored the student part of student-athlete and didn’t last at the school.
I was surprised a school of this academic standing would take an athlete who couldn’t pass the SAT. But a football player from our high school got into a top academic P5 with a 4.25. It was his forty time and possibly his IQ. He was a nice kid. But he was dumber than a bag of rocks. He was gone after a year. He was out of college after a year at his transfer D1.
You've put your finger on one of the many good reasons that a strong and open channel of communication is essential with the coaches who are making offers. Their insight into a recruit's admissions prospects are essential to the decision; and, as TPM indicates, they will often be in close communication with their admissions office to have the best possible feel for those prospects.
Often, the Head Coach and/or the Recruiting Coordinator will be confident of a recruit's standing to give the player and his parents enough confidence that they decide they can accept the offer. At other times, the coaches have to return from their conversation with admissions with a view that inspires less confidence. It depends on the school, the player's credentials, and the strength of the communication lines.
One more, related thought: All offers are conditioned upon a player's satisfactory completion of his senior year of high school. All of us who have been observing this process for some time can relate horror stories about players who slacked off in the classroom after accepting their commitment and found themselves in a real jam coming out of high school. Believe me, you don't want to be in that position.
My son didn't even apply at the school he is attending until after he got an offer. We weren't worried, it's a state school and I could do the math on his admissions. I think they sent him electronic admission within 24 hours of his application. Another kid went the same route and needed a little help from baseball to get in. We'll see how that plays out.
One question I felt fully comfortable asking as a parent was about academic support for players. Even good students need help when they're spending four or five hours a day at practice while adjusting to life, and the class load, in college.
Yes, all the time. Heck, kids are committing after their sophomore year....they have no idea at that point if they'll be college material. heck, they may not even graduate. Offers/committments are made contingent on the kid qualifying for admittance
There are a few kids in my general area that have “committed” to D1 schools that just finished the 8th grade. Lol. Not sure how that works...
IndyBall posted:There are a few kids in my general area that have “committed” to D1 schools that just finished the 8th grade. Lol. Not sure how that works...
It means nothing if the kids don’t progress into the stud the college coach anticipates them to be.
If they don’t progress they will hear from the coach at some point, “I will honor my offer. But I don’t see you ever making the roster here. I recommend you look elsewhere.”
What kid is going to walk into that situation if he wants to play ball? Very early commitment is very much to the benefit of the college and very little benefit to the player. If they do become studs the same offer and more from other programs would be available after soph year of high school.
RJM posted:If they don’t progress they will hear from the coach at some point, “I will honor my offer. But I don’t see you ever making the roster here. I recommend you look elsewhere.”
I think this tells you a lot about a program when you see kids being committed this early. Unfortunately it is frequent at a number of the top baseball programs in the top conferences. "
It's the coach's responsibility to protect his program and career, but then stop irresponsibly committing 14 and 15 year old players.
I will admit I am leery of programs that make offers so early. How are they so confident that the rising Frosh can meet the academic reqs for their school? ...Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
The coaches know, because as TPM said, they clear the player through admissions before making the offer.
I had this same question regarding my son. On his official visit, which was after he had committed but before he had applied for admission, I asked the HC if it was a done deal or should we wait for admission acceptance before telling family and friends.
He laughed and said "If your kid gets rejected I'm in a world of hurt because he has the highest numbers of anyone in the recruiting class. You can tell your friends."
I later learned that the way it is handled at Duke is that the coach has 9 spots each year for which he can essentially give the nod as long as the player is somewhere in the realm of being qualified on paper (such as at least in the lowest quintile SAT and GPA.)
Rob Kremer posted:The coaches know, because as TPM said, they clear the player through admissions before making the offer.
I had this same question regarding my son. On his official visit, which was after he had committed but before he had applied for admission, I asked the HC if it was a done deal or should we wait for admission acceptance before telling family and friends.
He laughed and said "If your kid gets rejected I'm in a world of hurt because he has the highest numbers of anyone in the recruiting class. You can tell your friends."
I later learned that the way it is handled at Duke is that the coach has 9 spots each year for which he can essentially give the nod as long as the player is somewhere in the realm of being qualified on paper (such as at least in the lowest quintile SAT and GPA.)
When my son was in high school I chatted up any parent I could at games with, “How did you son come to choose ....? What was the acceptance process like? ” It’s easy to get parents to talk about their kids. When chatting with a couple of Duke parents they assured me while baseball has some admissions leeway it’s not nearly what Coach K receives for basketball players.
As others have said, yes they do.
With our older son, we would not let him commit until he had been admitted (Stanford). Stanford still requires the full admission application for its athletes. Essays, teacher recs...everything all the other kids have to put in. This can have (and apparently has) the effect of kids moving on to other schools where the admission is all but guaranteed.
Of course, I doubt they'd be able to decide for a sophomore or even until after a junior academic year. Still, they can give a green or caution flag in those time frames.
Seems like every year though, I read about a Stanford football or other commit who ultimately doesn't get in.
justbaseball posted:As others have said, yes they do.
With our older son, we would not let him commit until he had been admitted (Stanford). Stanford still requires the full admission application for its athletes. Essays, teacher recs...everything all the other kids have to put in. This can have (and apparently has) the effect of kids moving on to other schools where the admission is all but guaranteed.
Of course, I doubt they'd be able to decide for a sophomore or even until after a junior academic year. Still, they can give a green or caution flag in those time frames.
Seems like every year though, I read about a Stanford football or other commit who ultimately doesn't get in.
Do you mean you wouldn't let him announce it? Wouldn't he have had to commit verbally to Stanford before the baseball program would support his application with the admissions department?
