NLI not what expected, what next?

Playing collegiate baseball is very different than high school baseball. Even at the DII level most programs will be asking a lot of your son in terms of commitment.

You have to ask yourself, if your son will fell slighted, due to the mis-understanding of what has happened. You need to go in fully trusting that the coaches have your son's best interest in mind given the need to win.

You need to discuss this with the coach before you commit and get it in writing.

Has your son spoken with the coach?

Did you really understand the offer, or were you caught up in the moment?

11.7

Playing well at Jupiter does not always mean a scholarship.

You mention lots of academic money, but never stated how much.

Any money is good money.

No such thing as a free ride, especially in life. He needs to learn that now.

Many players would love to have "alot of academic money" and 5K baseball money.

Calm down, re-read the NLI, if still confused, have son call the coach with concerns.

My daughter received twice as much academic money as athletic money. There's twenty-two times more money available from the academic side than the athletic side. Academic money may be guaranteed as long as a 3.0 gpa is maintained (her's was). Athletic money can be taken away any year on a whim by the coach.

Does the academic and athletic money add up to the cost of tuition? If it does that may be perceived as a full ride. Sometimes room and board is perceived as not part of the ride. With seven rides available in D2, chances are slim your son was going to get a full athletic ride even if it was just tuition.

Since your son was given some baseball money the coach does have some sense of commitment to him. Tell him you don't understand the NLI. Talk to him in a business like manner (not emotional or threatening). Get an explaination to your satisfaction. If he signs the NLI then decides not to attend there are transfer eligibility issues.

D2 schools have even less athletic scholarships to dole out than D1's. (I believe it is 9 rather than 11.7). I don't know about D2 schools in SC, but here in Texas, the D2 players I know have gotten just 10 or 15% athletic money.

What you are describing is pretty much standard. No DII is going to offer you an "almost full ride" consisting of just athletic money. It simply is not economically feasible. If you did your research you should have known this, regardless of whether they spelled it out for you.

Is the total $ figure, regardless of source, what you were expecting? If so, sign the form and play ball. There is absolutely no need to talk to the coach unless the bottom line number is off.

I can only think of one prominent D2 school in SC with that kind of tuition. They usually have around 50 kids on the roster. If that didn't worry you going in the source of the money should not. If anything I think he's better off that most of it is non-athletic.

My prior post may have been a bit overboard. In re-reading your post I'm a little unsure as to whether you've gotten any written assurances regarding the amount of academic money he will get from the school (You should know whether he will qualify for Life or Palmetto Fellows.) If they have not given you an answer on this I would call the coach, and try to get the financial aid office on the line, to clarify this.

We heard a bit of puffery when our son was being recruited, stuff like "with his grades and SAT he should end up with close to a full ride." I suspect that this talk is pretty common. Unless the financial aid office tells you he will get the money you're just relying on a coach's opinion. Never a good idea.

As far as other options are concerned this is just the early signing period. Many more players will be signed between now and next summer. USC and Clemson are pretty much done with their classes. Probably C of C and Coastal as well. But schools like USC Upstate, Wofford, Francis Marion, Charleston Southern, PC, Furman, SMC, etc. will continue to pick up players. Would your son fit their needs? Would the packages that one of these schools might offer him be any better? Hard to say.

Call the coach and ask him every question you have. Then take a few minutes to digest it all. Then call him back if you have some more questions. I bet you will feel better after you talk to the coach and things will clear up for you. You still may want to opt out or it may be just fine after your talk. Either way you will know where you stand and you will have much better feel for the situation. I wouldnt post anymore on this topic until I talked to the coach. JMHO

Coach May hit it on the head, you have to talk to coach, granted things change a little from what coach says and what is actually offered, but it is not a signifigant amount. Pick the school for the school and trust and yes in most cases the coach will say a percentage of a scholarship and it will be academic and athletic money they think you will recieve. In my experiences.

We never had to pay an enrollment fee. What is that all about. The D11s we talked to all waived any fees but they were no where near $300. One that we actually got an offer from made us get accepted before telling us how much we would get. It turned out to be the largest offer we got. The academic money was larger than the BB money. The BB money the coach said was the largest BB award he had ever given. It was also a $35,000 school.
I wouldn't sign anything without knowing what we were getting. I certainly would follow Coach Mays advice. You should never sign a contract without complete understanding of all the terms.

I agree with Bobblehead. Is it the norm to have to pay the$300 enrollment fee before you find out the athletic aid award ??? Definately call the coach and ask questions in a non-threatening manner.

I guess I'm not sure where you are coming from on this. You say there was a lot of academic money and very little baseball money - $5k. That implies that there was $15K or more of academic money. That sounds like a very good or possibly even great package to me.

Isn't any DII going to try to get you the largest academic package possible first then supplement it with baseball money if they can?

quote:

Isn't any DII going to try to get you the largest academic package possible first then supplement it with baseball money if they can?

That is true in D1 as well.
An NLI should spell out what you are receiving from the school. There should be no doubt when you sign. BB money is for 1 year but usually renewed but not always. Academic money is given as long as you maintain a certain level of GPA. 3.0 seems a bit high but it may vary from school to school.
What may be confusing you is the loose talk of full rides. If a D11 has 9 , how many do you think they give out ? I have been told by veteran recruiters that they have never seen a full ride. 15 recruiters and non has seen a full ride. As mentioned you hear a lot of puffery from coaches, parents and players.

First, stay calm, everything is probably just fine. Second and foremost understand that this paperwork you got in the mail and are reading and trying to understand for the first time is the same paperwork that the coach has sent out a hundred times....And, he fully understands it.

Now, I would sit down with my son and write a list of questions. Prioritize them. Have your son call the coach with the list handy and work down the list until he/you understands exactly what the offer is. If your son does not feel comfortable calling the coach to ask these questions then how is he going to feel playing for the coach? Your son has to get comfortable approaching the coach.

When my son got his offer it contained three things. Full anticipated dollar cost of attending the school including tuition, room and board, meal plan, books, incidentals etc. Then he was giving the percentage of baseball money he was going to receive in scholarship and the dollar amount the percentage broke down to.

Those would be the three things you would want to ask (IMO).

We did pay for the application fees to enroll at the school and the application fee/deposit for the housing application. I think those are standard fees that everyone has to pay.

quote:

Your award package may be reduced or canceled depending upon your acceptance to zzzzzz College, eligibility requirements and the availability of funds. For additional information on financial aid eligibility requirements go to the financial aid web page. Once you have been accepted to College XYZ and have submitted a $300 enrollment fee you will receive an updated award package.

This would bother me. I would agree with most of PF's comments but this is parent territory. There is no reason to not know exact numbers before signing. The enrollment fee was waived for the D11 offer we received. The D1 offer we took had no enrollment fee.
Offer was exactly what was discussed over the phone . The preliminary discussions had an estimate for academic money which was firmed up before the NLI was fedexed. The coaches estimate was conservative and the actual amount was higher . We were told the exact amounts in both cases before NLI was sent. There were no surprises and enrollment fees where applicable were waived..

I thought the NLI only addressed the athletic money...Does it also spell out the academic money?

It has been about 5 years since we got the NLI. I believe it only dealt with the BB money on it. There was as best I can remember a separate document spelling out the academic money.

Baseball and academic money come from two different sources, never forget that. Both also come with different stipulations


As for the original post I think it may merely be a case of misunderstanding as to what was originally discussed---call the coach and the school to get the complete picture cleared up

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Congtatulations, that is great it all worked out. Good luck to your son. Enjoy his senior season, it goes by fast.

Sometimes we as parents need to step in because we are the ones that need to handle a situation. This was one of those times and I am glad it worked out for you. Most coaches want to make sure everyone is happy with everything coming in and it sounds like this coach was on top of things as soon as you let him know.

Good luck to your son and as CaBB said enjoy the sr year because it goes by so fast.

carolinamom:

That's great news and it appears you did a wonderful job handling all of this.

Carolinamom,

You did a very good job mom...my hat is off to you for a job well done!



And...stick around and let us know how things go...

Carolinamom,
Thanks for giving us such a clear rendition of how things transpired. Many posters will benefit from the recounting of your experience and feel more confident in their interactions and how to handle it properly.

Most of all, congratulations.

Now one more little detail to check on next year. Your son needs to find out from his coach what the minimum GPA is accordng to the baseball team. My son's academic scholly is 2.0 minimum but the baseball team requires a 3.0 so the academic money is not counted against the bb team. He found this out in the fall of freshman year from his academic/athletic advisor. Just in case it's different it's good to ask. Every school may do it differently also.

Congrats to your son for working so hard on his grades in hs. It really paid off in $.

CaBB is right, our son has to maintain 2.5 to keep his scholarship.

3.0 would be a bit of a stretch. Only about 1/3 of the players in my son's conference had a 3.0 or better. Can you imagine the havoc that would create. The paperwork should clearly set out the requirements to maintain academic money. Usually a 2.0 GPA.

For D1, a renewal of the academic award (for years after the freshman) is only exempt from the 11.7 if the player has a cumulative college GPA of 3.0, and is meeting all academic progress requirements. That's a D1 NCAA rule (15.5.3.2.2.1.2), and of course a college may have additional requirements.

For D2, it appears that there is no NCAA requirement for college GPA, and it is entirely up to the college.

Could that be part of the reason that so many don't have scholarships renewed ? A 3.0 gets you on The Big South Honor roll.

For Division II a player needs a 2.0 GPA to get cleared by the NCAA

To me the 2.0 GPA noted above seems low to maintain the academic scholarship from year to year

At my son's DII In Mississippi he needs to maintain a 3.0 to keep his academic which I think includes waiving his out of state fees and a 2.0 for baseball.