In State vs. Out of State

Interesting question and one that I have had myself.

I'm sure there are many accounting and financial and demographic issues that are used to determine what the right IS/OOS differential should be,  couldn't one also say that the OOS student needs to come up with $22,500 and the IS student only needs to come up with $7.500 ?   Using my simplistic (albeit likely ignorant) assumption that the actual cost to support a student is the same once they get there no matter where they came from, perhaps the OOS is going to bring more money. 

My experience has been that college coaches don't really care about who is getting what money from them.  They want kids on the field that are going to perform.  Higher % kids may get an extra chance or two, but if they don't cut it, they aren't going to play.  And they may lose their money the next year.

I don't know from 1st hand experience, but have read on this board that coaches are given a specific recruiting budget.  Built into that budget are in state and out of state money.  So, to them, I believe 25% is 25%.  The dollar amount doesn't really concern them.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is the case.

When I was in college (late 80s early 90s) the coach discussed scholarships with each individual in terms of $s not %s.  Not sure how it was reported back to the NCAA or how it was accounted for.  There really was never a discussion with them around %s.  I would guess its probably the same way.

The answer is "it depends."

Different schools manage their accounting different ways.  At some well-funded schools, the limiting factor is the 11.7.  At other schools, the dollars run out long before they bump up against the 11.7.  

At my son's school, the baseball program has a certain amount of money for scholarships.  The coach told me the number.  It is not enough to fund 11.7 in-state scholarships.  

But that doesn't mean he can't go after out-of state players because the athletic director manages a separate budget that dispenses what they call "in-state grants" to cover the tuition difference for out-of-state students.  The baseball coach can ask the AD for these grants for particular prospects, but these funds are also limited, and he has to compete for them with coaches from other sports.  Any money distributed from this fund counts as athletic grant-in-aid money, but it is "free" as far as the baseball coach is concerned, so it wouldn't affect his sense of how expensive an out-of-stater was to him.  In fact, since the "in-state grant" is worth a little more than 30% of an equivalency, sometimes he can offer just the in-state grant and land an out-of-state player without spending any of his own scholarship budget.

This coach makes his offers in dollar amounts, which makes it easier for parents to figure their out-of-pocket costs, which I care about much more than what percentage scholarship my son is getting.  (Unfortunately, it also puts the family on the hook for future tuition increases.)

Other schools have different situations.  Some private schools know many students can get more need-based aid than baseball scholarship money, which permits them to stretch the scholarship money farther.  Some state schools with lottery-funded scholarships for all in-staters, expect some of their in-state players to qualify for lottery money, thus making more baseball money available for out-of-state players.

It just depends.  Every school has its own constraints and its own opportunities to stretch the budget.  

One thing you can count on:  there is a lot more merit money out there than baseball money, so encourage your players to take care of business in the classroom.  The expected monetary value of an SAT prep course is greater than that of a similarly priced showcase.

Son was an out-of-state player on scholarship. The way offers were presented were "tuition", "tuition plus books" "tuition plus books, plus $$$", etc.

From what he says, his team tried to sort of spread the money around so most players had similar out of pocket expenses, after scholarship. That sort of minimized the how the baseball money performed relative to scholarships. The in-state players all had a state scholly for tuition.

That being said they played the best nine, regardless of money. I know for a fact they had all-conference type players getting no baseball money and drafted.

Merit money !!!! It can increase your options considerably.