Scholarship details and timeline questions

Congratulations!  Exciting times for sure.  Some thoughts on your questions:

1)  The offer is as solid as the coaches word, until the NLI is signed.  Mostly, it is solid.  I know personally of a case where the coach reneged completely prior to NLI signing (kid committed as a HS frosh and never improved), or reduce the scholarship award prior to NLI signing (new coach chose not to honor prior coaches offer).  If these scenarios don't apply it is usually pretty solid from what I've seen.

2) On paper, Power 5 schools give 4 year scholarships.  In actuality, if a player doesn't cut it the coach can make it uncomfortable enough to force the kid out.  Bottom line is you have to perform and earn your keep each year.

3)  My son committed to his chosen school, then called each coach who had offered and told them of his decision.  Then he called a couple coaches of schools that hadn't offered yet but he felt were close and deserving of a phone call.  Then he told his HS coach and AD, then he told his closest friends, then he posted on social media.  In that order.

4)  The coach can renege on a verbal offer at any time.  It's up to the player to continue to get bigger, stronger, faster and deliver on his promise as a player.  The player needs to know that committing is just the beginning of the hard work he needs to do to make the team and get playing time.  Even after the NLI signing there is no sure deal.  Players get cut, transfer, quit all the time.  I don't mean to be negative but you can't look at this as the golden ticket at the end of a journey - this is the beginning.

This is the beginning.

That is the most important part of this. Son's college coach emphasized it a lot, and it especially hit home because a kid who had committed as a sophomore in HS had just announced that he was withdrawing his commitment after he and coaches mutually agreed it was no longer a good fit. I don't know this, but based on what we heard, I interpreted as code for "he stopped working."

Other kids who committed early came into the program and left within a year or two. It felt like they expected to rest on their laurels and din't realize they still had to work. So remember, a commitment to any school is just the beginning. That's when the hard work starts.

As for the scholarship — my son is at a P5 and they offered him a specific percentage. Freshman year, he got that. Sophomore year, they asked if we wanted to increase one year, decrease the next. It balanced their numbers better and worked fine for us so we did it. Over four years, it will work out the same amount.

Son followed pretty much the order Smitty says, although some of the people we had worked with most closely, and who I think were instrumental in his recruitment, knew what he planned to do — it wasn't hard when one of our last steps was to ask them — "in your professional opinion, does son have what it takes to succeed and play at this school?" When they said yes, we all kind of knew where it was going.

The NLI is signed in November of senior year of high school.  Any agreement is only verbal until that point.  You only sign an NLI if there is athletic scholarship money involved, otherwise it's always verbal.  After it is signed, both sides are legally obligated to follow it, but there is a specific protocol for annulling it.

Read this, on what actually could happen:

https://community.hsbaseballwe...tting-screwed?page=1

This is a COVID situation, but the discussion talks about it happening in normal years too.

All good stuff.

We will need to address the covid situation with the coaches.

The offers presented have been nothing short of amazing and another is coming Monday. Hopefully that one matches the others and then the decision would be simple.

Would private schools have more protection for players during the covid situation? 

My son has been very motivated and working hard and getting better will hopefully not be a worry. His goal is to get drafted and he seems to understand that requires work work work. 

NLI date seems far away so that will need to be addressed with the coaches too. 

I will put together a list of questions and issues to bring to the coaches attention. My son thinks the biggest issues are great baseball and supply of food. 

Mac

Just curious, has your son been able to see the campuses/facilities with the Covid situation? Hearing of multiple kids who accepted offers without every seeing the school. 

I didn't mean that you should necessarily ask about covid.  I meant that that thread is from someone who signed an NLI but was asked, at the last minute, not to come.  There are many such stories on here.

Yeah I read the story.  

We toured a couple campuses before covid. The next tour will be private and self guided..