My son’s journey to college ball involved late decisions for a different reason. He got injured at the beginning of the post junior year travel season. He was expecting offers as soon as he was seen one more time at PG Nationals.
He tore up his knee in June post junior year. He separated his shoulder requiring surgery in October falling on it doing rehab. He recovered and played spring of senior year. But he wasn’t college prospect rehabbed. He DH’ed the first month. He couldn’t throw hard yet.
The plan was to play Legion in the summer, rehab, do showcases in the fall hoping to start college in January to play college ball the following year. He would play college summer ball wherever he could in between. He would take only two JuCo courses in the fall to avoid starting the eligibility clock.
His Legion team made it to sections and states. It’s when colleges will scout Legion. He received offers to mediocre (or worse) D1s willing to take players late. This probably wouldn’t happen now with the portal.
He was still taking hitting lessons from his former highly regarded 17u travel team assistant coach/associate pro scout. My son was trying to use baseball to get into HA D1s. But he got accepted to two Big Tens on his own academic merits.
His coach told him he was rehabbed and ready to move on. The coach called the two Big Tens. It was already August. They both offered walk on opportunities with scholarship money the following year. My son headed for college later that week as soon as we could redo all the admissions and academic scholarship paperwork. Thank you FedEx.
My son lost out the last roster spot to a late bloomer pitcher who ended up in the majors. My son offered to be a bullpen catcher/manager to be around the team that season.** He became an official member of the team the next fall.
You can replace injury with late interest for this story. Life has changed in D1. I question whether this story would have a happy D1 ending now. But I believe it could work for a quality D3 program. As someone mentioned they only receive so many recruiting slots from the admissions office. There’s always room for more talent at D3s.
Good luck. What I learned from my son’s experience and some others is if a player wants it badly enough they can’t be derailed. They will find a way to make it happen.
** My son joked he hadn’t caught since LL all stars. Now he was catching bullpens of future MLB pitchers with 90+ velocity and awesome movement. But he was quick with good hands.