Our 2026 has been heavily recruited since the Aug 1st opening gun by more than 30 D1 programs. There have been some pretty generous scholarship offers, ranging all the way up to full scholarship + NIL by top 25 baseball programs. He's exceedingly fortunate to be in this position, but it is also difficult juggling all of the interest and making a final decision.
He is also high academic and wants to ensure nothing is lost on that side of the equation. We've pretty quickly ruled out schools that are not also strong academically. This still leaves a number of Power 4 programs with good academics and good baseball. But we've been put off by the fact that some of the locker rooms have upwards of 45 names in them this fall, and that over half of the players are new this year (10-14 freshmen and 10-14 transfers, or thereabouts). The coaches assure him that he would be at no risk from this churn and a lot of favorable player comps have been made to prior first round draft picks from the various programs, but of course recruiting involves a lot of flattery. There was one school that was particularly well regarded academically and athletically, but they came in with the lowest scholarship offer, suggesting an elevated danger of being discarded there.
At the moment he is thinking that maybe Power 4 baseball just isn't for him, and so is strongly leaning toward an Ivy option that would obviously tick all the academic boxes, but plays a somewhat lower level of baseball. (It is also extremely expensive and we do not qualify for aid). He is admittedly charmed by the big names of the Ivies, and this will impressive his primarily high-academic friends.
Setting aside the money, is the quality of development and competition and exposure to scouts at the Ivy schools good enough? I know some Ivy players get drafted, but never particularly high, and it is quite rare that they make it all the way to the major leagues. Is he effectively closing off the admittedly slim chance of a baseball career? On the plus side, the roster size is much smaller, he would probably play as a freshman, he seems to fit in better with the Ivy players, the quality of life is better as they train for maybe 3-4 hours a day rather than 6 hours, he can still play summer ball with the top collegiate athletes, etc.
Another question is whether an Ivy education is that much better than, say, a 25th ranked academic school?
Any advice is welcome and I suspect a decision will be made within the next week. I also suspect he would thrive in nearly every scenario, even if my pocket book does not. But it is painful process to close the door on so many incredible opportunities, and to make difficult trade-offs.
Thanks kindly.