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Frequent lurker but infrequent poster here. This community is amazing and the thoughtful responses to all sorts of baseball and non-baseball related questions helps restores my faith in the internet.

For those of you with kids that received offers, what was that offer experience like? How was the offer presented? Phone call, letter, etc?  Is there usually a short timetable to respond?  My son's travel coaches are telling him schools are getting ready to make offers and I don't really know what to expect. Didn't see anything in the archives related to the mechanics of offers and wonder what everyone's experiences were like.

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More than likely your son will get a phone call from HC or the RC. He does not have to accept any offer until he discusses with his family. He will have time to respond.

You should go over the above with him so he is prepared.

Make sure he ends each phone call with "thank you".

We had a mixture of those who made offers with a time limit from as low as 24 hours to no time limit.  We never pushed back but I know those who did with mixed results.  One got an offer from dream school with a week's notice and told them he was going to wait an extra week and they told him no thank you and moved on.  Sounds cold but remember unless you are the man there is always another man.  We were told point blank by a couple schools for both sons that we had 24 hours to give them an answer.  They were considering 2 guys and son was number 1 but if not interested they would move on to number 2.  Didn't take either but did let them know within the 24 hour time period so that they would not have to make the decision for us.

The only way we would have put a different time frame out there would have been an emergency.  I think you need to know what you want and how much you will waiver from what you want from every school considered.

@PTWood posted:

Ours were all phone calls with the HC except for one in-person offer. He was not given timelines although one did follow up to ask where he was in the process because they had their next option ready to pull the trigger.Good luck!!

My opinion is that the more a coach wants a player the less pressure he will apply!

Oldest son was told to come on campus and they would offer if he was ready to decide. Not on the spot but if he was ready to make a decision they wanted him on campus. We went, toured, and sat in the HC's office with the RC. After the tour they had done a pre-read and broke down what he'd likely get academically as well as what they were offering athletically. They didn't put a time table on the offer. Son accepted that a few days later.

Younger son, when he got the offer was given a week.

From your post, I can't tell if your kid is in contact with the schools that may make offers. I would recommend your kid start handling communication with them as soon as it makes sense. Your travel coaches probably want the best for him, but you don't want them in the middle when it comes time to drill down into details of the offer.

Also make sure you have all the details of the offer(s). For example one son was told, "it's a full offer" What they meant was tuition was covered, not R&B and not other costs that make up COA. My other son was told a percentage in the initial conversation with him, but they didn't detail where the money was coming from and it turned out they were anticipating some grants that he wouldn't have qualified for.

@PitchingFan posted:

We had a mixture of those who made offers with a time limit from as low as 24 hours to no time limit.  We never pushed back but I know those who did with mixed results.  One got an offer from dream school with a week's notice and told them he was going to wait an extra week and they told him no thank you and moved on.  Sounds cold but remember unless you are the man there is always another man.  We were told point blank by a couple schools for both sons that we had 24 hours to give them an answer.  They were considering 2 guys and son was number 1 but if not interested they would move on to number 2.  Didn't take either but did let them know within the 24 hour time period so that they would not have to make the decision for us.

The only way we would have put a different time frame out there would have been an emergency.  I think you need to know what you want and how much you will waiver from what you want from every school considered.

I know college baseball is a business but 24 hours is rough. This is my big concern.  It's still very early for him.  He's got a shortlist of about a dozen schools but only visited one so far.  We've definitely got more homework to do... 

@nycdad posted:

Oldest son was told to come on campus and they would offer if he was ready to decide. Not on the spot but if he was ready to make a decision they wanted him on campus. We went, toured, and sat in the HC's office with the RC. After the tour they had done a pre-read and broke down what he'd likely get academically as well as what they were offering athletically. They didn't put a time table on the offer. Son accepted that a few days later.

Younger son, when he got the offer was given a week.

From your post, I can't tell if your kid is in contact with the schools that may make offers. I would recommend your kid start handling communication with them as soon as it makes sense. Your travel coaches probably want the best for him, but you don't want them in the middle when it comes time to drill down into details of the offer.

Also make sure you have all the details of the offer(s). For example one son was told, "it's a full offer" What they meant was tuition was covered, not R&B and not other costs that make up COA. My other son was told a percentage in the initial conversation with him, but they didn't detail where the money was coming from and it turned out they were anticipating some grants that he wouldn't have qualified for.

Thanks, this is super helpful.  Particularly around offer details and sources of funding.  So far, son's been speaking directly with a handful of coaches, usually arranged via the travel coach.  Yeah, I think it's important he have direct contact and learn to hold a conversation.  Can't remember who, but someone on this forum had a good minimum 7-word rule for answering questions which son seems to do a good job of sticking to.   I overheard him on the phone with a coach a couple weeks back and thought "hmm, he doesn't sound half bad...."   

Not knowing your son situation let me clarify. All of the 24 hour situations are normally top 10 to 20 power five schools.  All of them that I know of happened after much conversation and playing at school.  Neither of my sons went on any visits other than playing tournaments on the campuses of the schools that were interested in.  

i’m the one that implemented the seven word rule and I think it has worked good for my kids now that they are way past talking to coaches but now doing interviews as a college player, a high school coach, and a college coach.  

7 word rule pf?

2023 cold called into a d2 fall prospect camp as a jr.  Got noticed and family was invited to informal visit. Told there they dont let offers sit around in the wind but if he'd like to come just let them know.  I had discussion w him about what I learned here about D1 changes and told him it sounded like a good fit.  He agreed and called them.  They made an offer and he accepted.  Done deal.  Low stress other than he blazed in HS jr season and temporarily thought he should be D1 lol.  I do think if he waited until after jr season he coulda gotten much more money.

@Zanzibar posted:

I know college baseball is a business but 24 hours is rough. This is my big concern.  It's still very early for him.  He's got a shortlist of about a dozen schools but only visited one so far.  We've definitely got more homework to do...

You have not indicated your son's grad year. You first indicated that coaches were ready to offer but then you mentioned that it was early in the process for him.

Unless your son has been identified as a top D1 prospect, with the tools to back that up, don't jump the gun too early.

JMO

My son's first offer came from a school he had been in regular communication with for several months.  The offer came shortly after attending their camp.  Most prior communication was with the RC, but the offer was given over the phone by the head coach.  No time frame was given for how quickly they needed an answer.

For all other schools that offered, he had been in regular communication for a few months.  They all said that they were ready to give him an offer when he was ready to make a decision.  He continued to talk regularly to coaches, attend prospect camps and gather information independently about each school as far as academics, campus, majors, location, tuition, etc.

When the time came, he notified schools that he was ready to decide.  Each school set up a phone call or video call and presented the offer.  All schools, except the first one, asked his parents to be on the call.  That was very helpful for us to be able to hear the terms of the offer ourselves instead of depending on our son to accurately relay them to us.  All schools, except one, the offers came from the head coach.  The other one came from the RC.  He made his decision within a few days.

My son had been in regular communication with these coaches before offers were made.  It sounds like maybe that is not the case with the original poster.  I think that was vital in the decision making process to build that relationship with the coaches and really get a feel for the vibe as much as possible.  We were always told, don't make your decision based on the coaching staff, you never know if they will still be there.  But how can that not be at least part of the equation?

I have tried to understand better why certain schools don't have a time limit and other do.  I did consider the first school's lack of time limit as an indication of how much they wanted him.  Ultimately, that university was not a great fit academically for him.  He was recruited rather early, so maybe they felt they were in a position at that time that they could keep an offer for his class on the table a little longer.  I do remember the coaches always asking him who else he was talking to and who he had offers from.  I guess they were all keeping tabs on each other.

Appreciate the responses and folks sharing their stories. Son is ‘26 two-way and has had multiple calls with coaches at several P5 schools. Several more have seen video and told our travel program they’re planning to see him play live at next tournament. As a dad, I know I’m biased so I’ll let others who know better evaluate what kind of prospect he is but the interest from strong programs seems real.

We’re told that one of the schools, the one who has had the most contact, is planning an an offer. I know other ‘26s are committing or have committed. But it all seems so early for me. I figured coaches would build relationships over a couple seasons and get more serious later in high school. So this caught me a little off guard. This school could be a good home but we haven’t done much diligence yet and it’s possible there will be more schools interested down the line. Which was why I was curious about timeframes as we don’t want to be pressured.

The offer experience for your son (a freshman who's already talking to P5 coaches) is probably going to be quite different than most other kids. If you've been lurking for a while, you probably are thinking about when is the right time to commit, more so than how. There are some disadvantages to committing as a freshman. Now more than ever, coaches are cutting kids loose after being committed for years. Conversely, a coach isn't going to dump a kid who's been committed for years to replace him with similar uncommitted talent. It's a good problem to have, but still a difficult decision.

Here are some members who may have faced this decision recently, in case they didn't read your post. @PitchingFan @IAmThatGuy @KLL @PTWood @baseballhs @Iowamom23 @Go44dad @d-mac @hshuler @PABaseball

Also this thread offers a variety of opinions:  https://community.hsbaseballwe...uld-you-be-to-commit

All of my son's offers were on the phone.  Several offered him and then asked that he call them back with us on the phone, so we could go over any questions (appreciated that).  None gave my son a time table.  The only one that was different (and turned my son off) was a team that courted him for over a year.  They invited him to campus multiple times, were at his games frequently.  They called his travel coach and asked that my son call them, that they were going to offer him 75%.  He called and the coach told him they really wanted him, and when he was ready to commit, they were ready to give him a big offer.  It made him feel like they were playing games and he became pretty uninterested in them.  He ended up committing right after his sophomore year, because the recruiting thing stressed him out so much.  In hindsight, so much changed in baseball (and in the world) before he graduated. I don't see a lot of upside to committing early (other than not having to play  "the game" and make the nightly calls).  There were several top 50 players that didn't commit until after junior year, and still had every option.  If your son is being recruited this early, I assume that is his level of play.  Over the next several years, you can see how teams handle the incoming freshmen and the transfer portal and get a better idea of the reality vs what they sell you on.  I know it's unsolicited, but I would have him listen to everyone, and tell them that this is a big decision for him and he wants to be patient and get it right.  Ask around about the program from those who have been there.  Gather information.  Keep working hard and make the decision when you've had enough time to really interview the school as much as they are evaluating your son.

@baseballhs posted:

I don't see a lot of upside to committing early (other than not having to play  "the game" and make the nightly calls).  

There were several top 50 players that didn't commit until after junior year, and still had every option.  If your son is being recruited this early, I assume that is his level of play.  

have him listen to everyone, and tell them that this is a big decision for him and he wants to be patient and get it right.  Ask around about the program from those who have been there.  Gather information.  Keep working hard and make the decision when you've had enough time to really interview the school as much as they are evaluating your son.

^^^ this ^^^

My son, a 2023, committed to a P5 his freshman year. So I know what you are kind of going through in the process. End of summer before freshman year and fall of freshman year is when all the calls to his travel ball coach to have him call this coach started coming it. He was asked to come to a couple of camps and after those camps the offers started coming in. The #1 school on his list offered him, but it wasn't the offer he was expecting and you could read between the lines what they were trying to do. The school he ended up committing to was because we absolutely loved the head coach. We had some friends who were committed there and the families all spoke so well of the coach. The offers he received were laid out very well in detail. This was all pre-NIL money also. They all started out with the COA. Then they provided that X% would be baseball money and what what would pay for (tuition, books, food, etc). Then they said the next amount would be academic money. Since my son is a good student, he often qualifies for some type of academic money. Obviously as being so young, all of these offers were on the phone.

Flash forward to beginning of summer 2022 and the coaching carousel hits the school where my son was committed and we go through the whole recruiting process again this past summer. I will say for all the offers he received, the structure was pretty much the same. Provided what the COA would be. Then provided what athletic money he would get and what that was for, then how much academic money he would qualify for, and then the new piece of the puzzle "anticipated" NIL money. No one would give (or really is supposed to give) a hard number figure on that. But we often either told that he would get enough money to make up for the difference between COA, athletic money and academic money or he was told "this is the lowest amount a player on our team has" and then you could do the math from there.  Since we got take trips this time around, all of the offers he really considered were in person offers. He did get some offers from other schools that we didn't make trips to that were over the phone. Some smaller schools even made some not as detailed offers through DM on Twitter.

It's definitely a lot for a younger player being recruited. I know that the thought could be strike while the iron is hot and so that you don't miss out on an opportunity. But if a school really wants a kid, they will make it happen no matter what year he is. Unfortunately that may mean low recruit on the totem pole may get kicked to the curb. We are starting to see some of this right now with early signing day approaching. Some of the kids who committed early on are now looking for new homes or switched their commitment to a different school that was not as high up on the baseball hierarchy as their original school they committed to. No matter what you choose to do, just know it is a fluid environment. Buckle in and have fun and enjoy the process.

Every offer my son received was a verbal offer except for one, which was a written offer on a visit.   The school he signed with out of JUCO told him his offer had no timeline.  If he went somewhere else and didn't like it, he could transfer there and the scholarship offer was valid.  It was probably just a recruiting pitch but it worked.  The JUCO he signed with out of HS never gave a deadline, but they did start pressuring him a little near the end.  I didn't have any issues with it as it had drawn out a little.  A Patriot league school was the only one that gave a deadline out of HS and the coach explained why.  I think they had 1/4 of one scholarship available for that class or something crazy like that.         

Daughter received softball offer late summer of post freshman year. It’s how D1 female sports work. The top, elite girls receive offers in 8th grade. The offer was on a visit in August. She had until April of soph year guaranteed the offer would still be on the table. She accepted in April. It’s hard to accept early. But girls don’t have a choice. The school was one of the best in her major.

Son’s circumstance was unique coming off an injury. It was all done on the phone three ways with his travel coach, college coach and he the summer after senior year. Had he not got injured he expected an offer from this school and others in June post junior summer. He was expecting to showcase post injury and rehab the fall after senior year. He left for school three days later after the phone calls. The offer was to walk on the first year and guaranteed money the second year. He lost the walk on spot to a late bloomer pitcher still in the majors. Five to play four allowed him to get two degrees.

The offer experience for your son (a freshman who's already talking to P5 coaches) is probably going to be quite different than most other kids. If you've been lurking for a while, you probably are thinking about when is the right time to commit, more so than how. There are some disadvantages to committing as a freshman. Now more than ever, coaches are cutting kids loose after being committed for years. Conversely, a coach isn't going to dump a kid who's been committed for years to replace him with similar uncommitted talent. It's a good problem to have, but still a difficult decision.

Here are some members who may have faced this decision recently, in case they didn't read your post. @PitchingFan @IAmThatGuy @KLL @PTWood @baseballhs @Iowamom23 @Go44dad @d-mac @hshuler @PABaseball

Also this thread offers a variety of opinions:  https://community.hsbaseballwe...uld-you-be-to-commit

Great thread. Thanks for that. 

Definitely been following the craziness in NCAA-land with conference realignment, NIL, supreme court case, the portal and the JUCO pathway.  Plus with a new NCAA president coming in and what the transformation committee is proposing (fingers crossed they do something about baseball equivalency scholarships) could be some really interesting changes. 

@RJM posted:

Daughter received softball offer late summer of post freshman year. It’s how D1 female sports work. The top, elite girls receive offers in 8th grade. The offer was on a visit in August. She had until April of soph year guaranteed the offer would still be on the table. She accepted in April. It’s hard to accept early. But girls don’t have a choice. The school was one of the best in her major.

With respect....no.  That's not how "D1 female sports work".

That's how softball recruiting used to work before the NCAA changed the rules in 2018.

Softball lead, and baseball followed, to make Sept. 1st junior year the opening point for first contact. The softball rules even make it illegal to circumvent the process via club or HS coaches.

So while there are still some softball players who verbally commit before 9/1 the number is down dramatically and it's rare to hear about early commits anymore.

*****

Just like in baseball, college softball coaches will keep offers - even full offers - open for the most talented players right up until the summer after graduation. Which means that the most talented softball players have a lot of choices while less talented players have less choices.

*****

Pre-2018 other "female sports" recruited later than softball, except for lacrosse. It was the womens and mens college lax coaches who first approached the NCAA in 2016 about limiting early recruiting. Softball copied the lax timeline after it was codified in 2017 and baseball agreed to go along with the softball timeframe. Most other sports have now followed suit.

https://www.flosoftball.com/ar...ber-1-of-junior-year

Last edited by SpeedDemon
@Zanzibar posted:

Great thread. Thanks for that.

Definitely been following the craziness in NCAA-land with conference realignment, NIL, supreme court case, the portal and the JUCO pathway.  Plus with a new NCAA president coming in and what the transformation committee is proposing (fingers crossed they do something about baseball equivalency scholarships) could be some really interesting changes.

What is the transformation committee proposing?

@ARCEKU21 posted:

My son, a 2023, committed to a P5 his freshman year. So I know what you are kind of going through in the process. End of summer before freshman year and fall of freshman year is when all the calls to his travel ball coach to have him call this coach started coming it. He was asked to come to a couple of camps and after those camps the offers started coming in. The #1 school on his list offered him, but it wasn't the offer he was expecting and you could read between the lines what they were trying to do. The school he ended up committing to was because we absolutely loved the head coach. We had some friends who were committed there and the families all spoke so well of the coach. The offers he received were laid out very well in detail. This was all pre-NIL money also. They all started out with the COA. Then they provided that X% would be baseball money and what what would pay for (tuition, books, food, etc). Then they said the next amount would be academic money. Since my son is a good student, he often qualifies for some type of academic money. Obviously as being so young, all of these offers were on the phone.

Flash forward to beginning of summer 2022 and the coaching carousel hits the school where my son was committed and we go through the whole recruiting process again this past summer. I will say for all the offers he received, the structure was pretty much the same. Provided what the COA would be. Then provided what athletic money he would get and what that was for, then how much academic money he would qualify for, and then the new piece of the puzzle "anticipated" NIL money. No one would give (or really is supposed to give) a hard number figure on that. But we often either told that he would get enough money to make up for the difference between COA, athletic money and academic money or he was told "this is the lowest amount a player on our team has" and then you could do the math from there.  Since we got take trips this time around, all of the offers he really considered were in person offers. He did get some offers from other schools that we didn't make trips to that were over the phone. Some smaller schools even made some not as detailed offers through DM on Twitter.

It's definitely a lot for a younger player being recruited. I know that the thought could be strike while the iron is hot and so that you don't miss out on an opportunity. But if a school really wants a kid, they will make it happen no matter what year he is. Unfortunately that may mean low recruit on the totem pole may get kicked to the curb. We are starting to see some of this right now with early signing day approaching. Some of the kids who committed early on are now looking for new homes or switched their commitment to a different school that was not as high up on the baseball hierarchy as their original school they committed to. No matter what you choose to do, just know it is a fluid environment. Buckle in and have fun and enjoy the process.

Thanks for this detail. Super helpful.  Glad it seems to have worked out with the coaching change. Not knowing if the staff will be there 4 years from now is one of our concerns.  Plus with all the upheaval in the NCAA, I suspect the landscape will indeed be fluid these next few years.  Very interesting about the NIL numbers.  With collectives getting stronger and more team deals being signed, I suppose some schools are in a position to spell that out more clearly than others.  Appreciate the advice to enjoy the process.  Sometimes I need to do a better job remembering that.  My kid's in a great position to continue playing a game he loves and that will open great academic doors for him. It's all good and we're thankful for the opportunities that come his way.       

@SpeedDemon posted:

What is the transformation committee proposing?

I've read they're considering changing, or at least adding some flexibility to the scholarship rules.  I might be mistaken, but one of the ideas I've seen reported is to give schools flexibility to move scholarship numbers from say, football where there's 85, to baseball where there's only 11.7.   

Also think they proposed increasing the number of paid assistant coaches as well.

@Zanzibar posted:

I've read they're considering changing, or at least adding some flexibility to the scholarship rules.  I might be mistaken, but one of the ideas I've seen reported is to give schools flexibility to move scholarship numbers from say, football where there's 85, to baseball where there's only 11.7.   

Also think they proposed increasing the number of paid assistant coaches as well.

I've heard talk of more scholarship, but I hadn't heard of giving schools flexibility to shift scholarships from one sport to another...I really like the idea.

*Sorry, this ended up longer than I was intending...*

Heading into freshman year I thought our 25 RHP had a pretty good shot at D1 baseball and perhaps a limited playing shot at P5 (if that is what he wanted).  Conversations started mid-freshman year with a a P5 school.  Weight, strength, height, and velocity gains heading into freshman spring resulted in a considerable number of interested P5 schools and calls the summer following freshman year.  I was certainly in the camp of not committing early.  I was also caught a bit off guard by how fast the recruiting process intensified.  It was clear that he was in a fortunate position as the schools were doing the selling and he was the buyer.  I had been planning for the opposite.  His calls were mostly all with the pitching coaches or recruiting coordinators.  Call logistics setup via the travel coaches.  25 handled all the calls solo, occasionally we listened in but that became less frequent the more he became comfortable with the flow of the calls.  We only joined the calls if the coaches specifically asked for us to join.  It was important for him to own the process, and us to be their for guidance/sounding board.

Coaches would ask him for his decision timeline.  He would say he is still learning about the schools/programs and is in no rush.  While he didn't have a specific timeline he shared he wouldn't be making a decision over the summer as he intended to visit schools while in session before making any decision.  First P5 offer came in July.  Pitching coach asked 25 to share some times for him and parents to speak with head coach on a Zoom.  HC made the offer, no deadline. (Pro tip: pay for a Zoom license so the free trial time limit doesn't disconnect you while the coach is literally detailing the offer...).  Over the course of the summer we visited a range of colleges on our own to allow him to compare/contrast.  Additional offers from other P5/D1 schools occurred through the summer.  All but one was from the HC.  My wife and/or I were on all the offer calls with 25.  None imposed deadlines.  

Given some of the college visits we completed, along with the offers had already received, 25 started to focus in on a few quality schools/programs.  He didn't go back to all the interested schools letting them know he was "accepting offers" or that he was finalizing his process since he felt he had offers from the schools/programs that were the right fit.  It would be disingenuous and just "offer collecting."  We visited schools that made offers on our own during the fall semester.  Following those visits 25 felt he was ready to make a decision and made his commitment as a HS sophomore.

Now, I said earlier that I was not in the camp of committing early.  Did he commit early?  Maybe, maybe not.  This process is different for everyone and I probably now have less of a sense of what "early" means.  25 went into this with his eyes wide open, had a range of coach conversations, and visited a broad set of schools.  He accepted a generous offer that didn't have much room to be topped and the school's academic profile likely wouldn't be in reach for him without baseball.  He is old for his grade (had repeated a grade) and I felt he had a very mature approach to the process and decision.  25 owned the process and committed when he did because he was ready, not because the school was pushing. It felt like the right time (and choice) to us as well.

Some pieces of advice we learned from this board (and others) worth noting:

Programs are limited on scholarship and recruiting time/resources.  How they "spend" these on your recruit is a strong signal of their interest.  Does the scholarship size match up with how they are projecting to play your recruit? Are they attending the tournaments in the less desirable locations just to watch your player?  Who is attending?

Go to a school/program that wants you as much as you want them.  See prior point.

It's a small world, all these programs know one another, and coaches change.  As always, encourage your child to be honest, straightforward, and sincere during these recruiting calls.  Its a good time to learn not to burn bridges.

Yes, help your recruit with a list of questions.  Also, make sure the recruit asks the "tough questions" at some point (maybe not the first call..).  Seek color on transfers in/out of the program, if injuries in HS or college could impact the scholarship offer, how conference membership changes are impacting the program, etc.

Explain time zones to your recruit as they schedule recruiting calls.

Once a commitment is made, your son's next call should be to the schools in which he is declining their offers.  Tough calls for a kid to make after the high of committing, but very important.  That should all be done before posting anything on social media about a commitment.

Just remember that just because your son is talking to coaches doesn't always mean an offer is coming.  Son was having pretty consistent communication from a P5 school in our area starting his sophomore year.  He was the #2 player in our state at his position, but there were rumors that the #1 guy was possibly decommitting and they kept telling him an offer was coming, but when they all of a sudden signed the #1 guy, the communication stopped.  He was also in high communication with a mid-major close by and they wanted him to come for a visit.  We went and they gave him a very generous offer in-person at the end of the visit.  No serious pressure, but they did say they needed to know fairly soon.  He took a few days and ended up committing there.  He said it just felt right.  After watching the horrible seasons that P5 school has had, the fact that he has started at his school Day 1 of his freshman year, he has never looked back and couldn't be happier with his decision.  My point being, take your time and make sure you are finding the right fit for him.  The "bells and whistles" at some schools doesn't always equate to playing time and happiness. 

On a side note, the #1 guy lasted one year and went to a JUCO. 

@SpeedDemon posted:

With respect....no.  That's not how "D1 female sports work".

That's how softball recruiting used to work before the NCAA changed the rules in 2018.

Softball lead, and baseball followed, to make Sept. 1st junior year the opening point for first contact. The softball rules even make it illegal to circumvent the process via club or HS coaches.

So while there are still some softball players who verbally commit before 9/1 the number is down dramatically and it's rare to hear about early commits anymore.

*****

Just like in baseball, college softball coaches will keep offers - even full offers - open for the most talented players right up until the summer after graduation. Which means that the most talented softball players have a lot of choices while less talented players have less choices.

*****

Pre-2018 other "female sports" recruited later than softball, except for lacrosse. It was the womens and mens college lax coaches who first approached the NCAA in 2016 about limiting early recruiting. Softball copied the lax timeline after it was codified in 2017 and baseball agreed to go along with the softball timeframe. Most other sports have now followed suit.

https://www.flosoftball.com/ar...ber-1-of-junior-year

The question was, “What is your experience?” My daughter’s offer was in the summer of 2004. She was a 2007. By offer I mean verbal. Nothing is official until an NLI is signed senior year.

The timeline is ridiculous. Most kids this young don’t have a clue what they want to do for a major. Fortunately, my daughter did. It made it easy for her to select the school she chose.

The 9/1 junior year rule is still a bunch of BS. Talented athletes are still receiving offers long before then. It should be an enforced rule across the board for all sports.

Last edited by RJM
@RJM posted:

The question was, “What is your experience?” My daughter’s offer was in the summer of 2004. She was a 2007. By offer I mean verbal. Nothing is official until an NLI is signed senior year.

The timeline is ridiculous. Most kids this young don’t have a clue what they want to do for a major. Fortunately, my daughter did. It made it easy for her to select the school she chose.

The 9/1 junior year rule is still a bunch of BS. Talented athletes are still receiving offers long before then. It should be an enforced rule across the board for all sports.

Softball coaches are still looking at younger players and inviting them to camps but early offers/verbal commitments are much less common. And nothing is announced until after 9/1. It's a huge improvement from a few years ago.

Baseball isn't there yet. Still lots of early commits. Too early.

But softball and lacrosse were the worst, and that's mostly been cleaned up.

@TPM posted:

@ARCEKU21

Due to coaching change that occurred this summer, did the new coaches tell your son they weren't interested or he wasn't interested in the new coach?

Oh no, they were interested. It was more on my son's end. His thought was that he wanted to choose his coach, not be given a coach. So when the coaching change was announced, he de-committed and opened his recruiting. The new coach recruited him during the process, but ultimately he chose a different school.

Last edited by ARCEKU21
@25Dad posted:

(Pro tip: pay for a Zoom license so the free trial time limit doesn't disconnect you while the coach is literally detailing the offer...).

That's hysterical, I literally just did this :-)... 

Thanks for this detailed response.  Lots of excellent points!  Seems like your son has a good head on their shoulders and clear idea of what he wants.  That level of maturity is impressive. Congrats on the great offer! 

Curious if you noticed any changes post-commitment.  I'm not worried about my son letting off the gas once he accepts an offer.  He's self-driven like I assume most kids in his position are.  But do worry a bit about the added stress of having to "live up to" being committed early and all the pressures and social dynamics that might come along with it.       

@Zanzibar posted:


Curious if you noticed any changes post-commitment.  I'm not worried about my son letting off the gas once he accepts an offer.  He's self-driven like I assume most kids in his position are.  But do worry a bit about the added stress of having to "live up to" being committed early and all the pressures and social dynamics that might come along with it.       

Post-commitment he has kept his foot on the gas, and actually increased his drive academically given some specific academic goals the school highlighted for him.  I did tell him pre-commitment that once he commits he will now have a target on his back.  That will be true both around the HS and on every baseball field.  He said he has always felt that he had a target on his back, that he likes the high expectations/people "gunning" for him, so not much will change.  He isn't one to seek the spotlight, but has not issue with it being on him.  But, I think it is important to be mindful of the potential stress depending upon the player's personality.  

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