Out-of-State Tuition, Baseball Budgets, and Texas-Sized Generosity

Yes, Jeff, this is true and can work both ways.  Others can chime in with details but in some cases, the actual $ cost of the scholarship factors in heavily and can work against you.  In other cases, schools are held accountable for drawing X% of students from out of the area and it can work for you.  It is likely to be a factor one way or another with many schools your son talks to.

I wouldn’t count on programs like Texas and A&M to still be looking for 2019’s except maybe late developing hard throwing pitchers.

One more thing you can do for information is check rosters and see where the kids are from. Check where any out of state kid fits in the program.

Definitely my 2019 has no illusions about getting recruited by the likes of UT-Austin, A&M, Tech (my alma mater), or even Houston.  Would he attempt to walk on to one of those schools were he to decide it was the best fit academically and he was getting in-state tuition from an academic scholarship over $1,000?  Absolutely!  And be happy to play club ball, be a dedicated fan, and still get a great education if he didn't make it.  I think so.

One of the Texas players we've most admired over the past few years was Boomer White who played at TCU for his freshman and sophomore campaigns but wanted so badly to play for A&M that he was willing to transfer and sit out his junior year just so he could wear Aggie pinstripes as a senior.  That takes some guts.  My son's no Boomer White, but we definitely can learn from his patience, dedication, and perseverance in getting where he wanted to be, even if via an unusual route.

This topic of budgeting for scholarships is less interesting to me, though, regarding my own son and more interesting to me in terms of how it plays out across the college sports landscape.  Does it make Texas teams more competitive?  5 of 42 players on this year's Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (a team that's gotten off to a nice 6-1 start this season after their win over Mississippi State yesterday) roster are from out-of-state.  Could the staff at TAMCC been able to bring those guys in without that tuition incentive?  Compare that to a team like Jacksonville State in Alabama who also has 5 out of state players on its 35 man roster and you wonder if JSU would like to be grabbing more guys from GA, TN, and MS, but can't due to the out-of-state tuition hurdle.

This is just my idle speculation.  No idea if it's true.  It is interesting to note, though, that some schools give their coaches out-of-state recruiting quotas or targets.  Good for the school in two ways: 1) excepting TX, it's more tuition dollars for the school; and 2) it looks great for schools, in terms of academic rankings, to be able to attract out-of-state students.  So why not use athletics to accomplish this.  I guess in the end it's perhaps a net wash, even in TX, for out-of-staters looking to play in a state that's not their own.

Akron's returning baseball team will exclusively recruit from within the state.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro...kron_to_focus_o.html

There are many threads that you can search on this site regarding walk-on (and the various types of walk-on's).  It would be wise to become fully educated before seriously considering that avenue.  This from a dad who had one son that was a preferred walk-on.

JeffNNYC, this is an interesting topic and I am glad you started it.  I don't have any answers for you but I look forward to reading from those that do. 

This is not gospel (I can't point to any hard facts); what I have noted is that good private schools will create an aid package that will reduce the cost of attendance to what your "in state cost" would be at your state university (for qualified students). In our case, our son's cost to attend  a private university in Texas was equal to what we would have had to pay at the University of California (including any grants that he would have received in-state). Private universities need to stay competitive to attract qualified students. 

There are some colleges that will offer all students scholarships based on SAT scores, etc.  If you qualify for some of these, they will also throw in in-state tuition rates.  U of South Carolina and Alabama had these at least several years ago.  I know a kid that played at South Carolina on one of these scholarships and got in state tuition as an out of state player.

Check rosters.  Colleges in Texas, Florida, California don't have to look far for players.

My very first PM on this site was to a parent of a TCU player.  My son, in 8th grade at the time, thought that would be a fine college to attend.  Checked the roster:  ALL players were from Texas.  Scratched that college off the list.

I think many programs lean towards in-state so that the 25-50% scholarship simply leaves a lot smaller bill for the player (or player's family).  Did a quick search and ran across UVA where in-state tuition is around $15k and out of state is three times that at around $45k.  At 50%, that implies that the student has to come up with an extra $15k/yr.  I may have just picked the perfect example and suspect most don't have quite as large a difference, but it does help illustrate how the "fit" has to be better of the out of state student.  

As for whether the scholarship to an out of state student represents any type of concern to the program, I have read here that some programs have actual budgets (outside of NCAA restrictions) and other don't really have budgets (or at least a line-item for scholarship dollars).  It is hard enough to determine if D1 schools are fully funded for the 11.7 allowed and I have never heard of any resource where you can find actual budget dollars and their impact on out of state scholarships. That said, the rosters probably give you the best insight into how programs recruit from a geographic standpoint - probably most have large in-state with some higher value kids (SS, pitchers) coming from out of state.

2020 TCU class also has a huge number of commits from Texas already. The thing is that most of the schools in Texas are also really good.  Even for Texas kids it is pretty hard to get a look.

This is very interesting.  Although I am in Texas and wouldn't have specifically been looking for this, I had not heard of this program before.  Here is the link to Texas A&M website as an FYI only.  Looks like there is a maximum number of out of state waivers and other requirements.  https://scholarships.tamu.edu/...ident-Tuition-Waiver.  Dont believe this applies to private schools such as TCU, Rice, Baylor etc but I am sure they have their own programs.  Again, stress the importance of grades and test scores to your student so they are eligible to take advantage of these type of programs that help level the out of state playing field where possible.

Jeff,

Just wanted to add something you posted that jumped out at me, you spoke about your son selecting a school in Texas.

Has he gotten any offers from any school in Texas, because if not, it's the coaches that recruit and choose the players not the other way around.  Out of state may be a reciprocal neighboring state that gives out of state players in state and vice versa.

Schools that you mention in Texas by now, have next year's recruiting class already signed. They may pick up a player if one of their players unexpectedly signs a pro contract. Sometimes they pull from a local JUCO in that instance

Just an FYI, I wouldn't advise any out of state player to walk onto any program in Texas, unless baseball really isn't a priority.  

You are trying to figure out something that takes years for most coaches to be good at, plus they have computer programs that spit out all that information we try to figure out in our heads!

JMO

DHC17 posted:

Akron's returning baseball team will exclusively recruit from within the state.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro...kron_to_focus_o.html

 

It says they will "focus" on recruiting Ohio athletes and that teams will have a target for the number of Ohio kids....their teams won't be all Ohio kids.   Ohio has a lot of good kids, but to think that they can field teams exclusively from Ohio....especially in football is not very realistic....unless of course the entire MAC conference would decide to go the same way.  Paying $4 million+ per year in payments  to fund a ridiculous expensive stadium for a team that routinely draws only 5-7000 fans/game is why they got into this mess in the first place.  I wouldn't consider anything that their athletic department does to be a real great idea....until we get a chance to see if it actually works out lol