How much to ask for

Be Truthful !!!

Only you know what you honestly need to make it work

Agree with Tom. No one wants to leave dough on the table but understand you aren't negotiating with the NY Yankees. It's not about buying a Bentley, it's about your son's education and playing ball. Be honest about your needs and things will be fine. I wouldn't be silly about the number and risk having them walk away.

Be honest.

You want a free ride or as close as possible.

A few D-II coaches have asked me what it would take to get certain talented kids. I told em that if they are building a program, guarantee the kid playing time.

The calculators are always working overtime in how much a program can lay out along with academic money.

Shoot for the moon.

BOBO

No coach guarantees a kid playing time---if he does I get very skeptical

Total free rides are a myth and you know it---

Listen to Tom's (TRhit) advice. It's (no pun intended) right on the money. A free ride is unheard of today - unless academic money is mixed in and if you are guaranteed playing time, run - because the other player they are recruiting for your position is probably being given the same guarantee.

Situations are different from place to place.

There are always free rides depending on talent level and alumni organizations.

Programs that are looking to form a nucleus for the future have been known to promise playing time.

Established programs have no need to guarantee anything. They can rely on the prestige of the college or university programs.

BOBO

Be careful where alumni organizations are concerned

Above you talk about coaches assuring the player of playing time and now you say there is not need need to guarantee playing time

Make up your mind

As I stated, situations are different from place to place.

A new coach or a rebuilding coach can make promises and keep them. Any student athlete who gets a promise should ask for it in writing if they do not trust the coach.

Scholarships come from many places with many different names. It would be naive to say or think otherwise.

NCAA sports are becoming bigger and bigger business with the various TV coverage.

Schools can talk about their budgets and scholarships (both athletic and academic) but 'additional funding' has a habit of making itself available very often.

Vince8151,
Nice to see you on the HSBBW. I notice this is your first post and your first question is a good one that should get a lot of different answers. The only problem with your question is --- only you can answer it. There are a lot of factors that determine what a coach can and will pay an athlete to play baseball for his college. There are just as many (if not more) factors that come into play when a family sits down to determine how much they need. Throw into the mix your son’s real “worth” and I think you start to see there is no clear cut formula for this equation.
Personally I would not give the coach a definitive answer. If you do you stand to do one of two things. You could possibly overprice your son and kill the deal or as you say --- you could leave money on the table.
Down here in Tennessee we have a classic name for people that have a knack for negotiating. We call people those people “horse traders”. A good horse trader would put the monkey back on the coach and “force” him to make the first offer. If YOU make the first offer then you lose you ability to negotiate. Ultimately I think you want to be able to field an offer from the coach and then tell the coach you will need some time to think about his offer. I might add that the deadline of Tuesday the 25th is not an actual deadline but simply part of the coach’s negotiating strategy.
Fungo

Fungo, excellent as usual.

POPTIME

See where Logan had a good week

TR, he's plugging away, .350 avg, .519 OBP, 2B, 5 runs scored, 3 RBI (from the 2-hole). The box scores don't show what good defense he's playing behind the plate though, he's matured back there so much. His coach is very impressed with his game calling and staff-handling, and only one opposing coach/runner has even tried to run on him, (a delayed steal that only Logan noticed, he put the ball right on the bag but no one covered!). Thanks for keeping track. Mind dropping me a PM and telling me where you're getting your info?

POPTIME

Are you asking me to divulge my sources?

And others on here accuse me of not doing proper research---LOL

Thank you for all of the replies.

The coach sent an email today confirming that he would be calling Tues. to discuss further.

Also included was an approx. cost for the year at school, $16k, and that he was thinking 2k to 4k in baseball money.

He asked again for me to come up with a number.

I would like 7k, it would make life a little easier but I think my son should get at least a third, 5k.

Any further comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Vince, is your son a senior?

Duh never mind, answered my own question. it's not July yet is it?

Brand U.


By STEPHEN BUDIANSKY
Published: April 26, 2006
Leesburg, Va.

I RECENTLY did some research for a satirical novel set at a university. The idea was to have a bunch of gags about how colleges prostitute themselves to improve their U.S. News & World Report rankings and keep up a healthy supply of tuition-paying students, while wrapping their craven commercialism in high-minded-sounding academic blather.

I would keep coming up with what I thought were pretty outrageous burlesques of this stuff and then run them by one of my professor friends and he'd say, Oh, yeah, we're doing that.

One of my best bits, or so I thought, was about how the fictional university in my novel had hired a branding consultant to come up with a new name with the hip, possibility-rich freshness needed to appeal to today's students. Two weeks later, a friend called to say it was on the front page of The Times: "To Woo Students, Colleges Choose Names That Sell." Exhibit A was Beaver College, which had changed its name to Arcadia University. Applications doubled.

I also had created a character, a former breakfast-cereal executive who returns to his alma mater as vice president for finance (to give something back) and tries to get everyone to call the students customers. It turns out Yale was already doing that.

I knew that Tom Lehrer, the great satirical songwriter of the 60's, had said he had to give up satire when it kept being overtaken by reality. The final straw, he said, was Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

My final straw came when a friend at Case Western Reserve University (now referred to as Case, after their consultant concluded that all great universities have single-word names) sent me a packet of information on the university's new showcase undergraduate seminar program. Called SAGES (this supposedly stands for Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship), the program offers as an essential component of its core intellectual experience an upscale cafe that serves Peet's Coffee and is "staffed by baristas whose expertise in preparing espresso is matched only by their authoritative knowledge of all things SAGES."

As the program's Web site explains (complete with footnotes, bibliography and quotes from the urban theorist Jane Jacobs): "In the bustling personal-but-impersonal rhythms of campus activity, as in the streets of a big city, proprietors of public establishments occupy a special position... The SAGES cafe staff are patently not interested in providing grades or passing judgment." And, not only that, but "there are no compromises that would undermine the quality of our drinks.... Our chai latte is made not from a bottled concentrate, but from a fresh-brewed base made from scratch every day on site."

As a model of pandering to students in the guise of lofty academic purpose, I thought that was pretty hard to top. Then I started reading the 92-page guide Case has created for teachers of these seminars.

If students fidget, talk or walk out of class, the guide advises seminar leaders not to "manage" such behaviors, but to explore their underlying causes. Instructors must remember that to such characteristically American cultural beliefs as the importance of morality, rationality and personal responsibility, there are equally valid alternatives that must be respected.

Instructors must be wary of spurious objectivity, such as a 0-100 grading scale; much better is a 0-5 scale, or, best of all, a check, check-plus, check-minus scale. And finally, if students do not contribute to discussions at all, seminar leaders should "make space for silence."

It's enough to drive a satirist to something stronger than chai latte.

quote:

Originally posted by vince8151:
I would like 7k, it would make life a little easier but I think my son should get at least a third, 5k.

Any further comments would be appreciated.

Is there a possibility of any academic $ on top of the baseball $?

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
BOBO
Total free rides are a myth and you know it---

Ok, we have done our homework and we believed the above, but then this happened yesterday - no lie!

Background: Son is a senior and has had a good year. About 6 weeks ago MLB scouts started noticing him, and we've had several in-homes, filled out 16 packets, etc. Son signed with a top ranked JUCO in the Fall. There was Div I interest last year but it never developed to the stage where anyone invited him for a visit or made an offer.

After his game last night (bad game for his team, mercy ruled 11-1; ugh) recruiting coach for one of the D1's that followed him last year came up to us and said they wanted him and they would give him a full ride and was he interested. Our jaws dropped. Where did THAT come from??? I told this person it was my understanding that there was no such thing, with 11.5 scholarships available per year, etc. etc.

I told the coach it would be best for him to call my son and talk to him directly, but not right then after the game since the kids had a long bus ride home.

While we turned our attention to another person who had come to the game to watch him, this recruiting coach then went over to the dug out and verbally made the same full ride (those were his words) offer to my son on the spot.

What the heck is going on here??

Buncha B.S. going on here IMO.

popt,
the # of "full rides" is greatly exaggerated ... but, they do exist, tho rarely

Pop & Chairman,

Yes, well ... it's sorting out the B.S. from the real deal that makes life challenging. Any hints on sorting this one out??

kt

A "scholarship," as defined by the NCAA, covers a student's cost of tuition, fees, housing, and food. Make certain that all of those costs are covered by their definition of "full ride."

Congratulations!

cosmo ... since you asked, yes

IMO, you are right where you WANT to be ...
awaiting the details of their offer(s) for your consideration
since you invited the coach to talk directly with your son, HE should politely listen & take it all in (take notes if possible) ... ask any questions that come to mind, then inquire as to when they need an answer, as these things need discussed by family at the dinner table and more questions will likely arise from Mom & Dad (** get coach's cell contact # for Qs if possible)

since you are NOT near Tennessee you will not likely be given "the" 12 hr deadline

but, at this time of yr for a sr I'd feel like 7 days or so would not be unreasonable ... but -
that could vary as they have to move on & close a deal somewhere else if you're not interested

they're probably aware of your JC option - it's up to you re how much you tell them about other offers that "might/will" be forthcoming


now ... vince is in a bit tougher spot, imo ...

he should tactfuly get himself in a postion to
consider an offer made to his son ... rather than HIM being the one MAKING the offer
like ... "coach, we'd just like you to throw your best offer at us so we can consider it"
that way vince can see where he stands, adjust expectations if necessary & respond ...
either with a smile & a handshake ... a counter offer ... or run away fast!

hope that helps

"IMO, you are right where you WANT to be ...
awaiting the details of their offer(s) for your consideration"

Chairman,

You are wise and your input is appreciated!

Good luck with your situation, Vince.

ktcosmos

There are indeed full rides for those exceptional few in the right place, right time, with the right tools.

and then that player gets drafted and his money is broken into small parcels

Sometimes that happens. A posters son is getting 100% this year as a sophmore out of state in the SEC. Seen the paperwork with my readin' glasses at his house. Believe it or not, I really don't care.

My take on scholarship amounts has changed over the past few years.
Sometimes the full scholarship becomes meaningless when nothing is gained.

Let's face it, if your son is like mine, he will admit that school is secondary to his baseball (though an honor roll student). He used to tell us he would go wherever they gave him the best scholarship. After turning down a "full ride" he now realizes he went to the best place where he is learning to be the best he can, and for him it was the right fit, socially and academically and for baseball.
After all we have seen with his progress, the opportunities given to him and the mentoring, we would have sent him there for just books.

It's great to have your son go to college and get paid for it, but whatever money is thrown in front of your player, you and he have to really think things through as to where he will be happiest and get the most out of the experience, on and off the field.
JMO.

quote:

After all we have seen with his progress, the opportunities given to him and the mentoring, we would have sent him there for just books.

.......amen. It's not about money.