SEC and High-Academic

@adbono posted:

I think this is a parody post designed to see how many people will take it seriously.

This was my first reaction as well, but after digging deeper I believe the original poster was being sincere, while possibly being unaware of how the question came across.

A similar post would be:

"My child just landed a major role in our community theater's production of "Cats".

He's looking to perform on Broadway in a year or two. Which theaters have the best acoustics for a tenor?"

It's not impossible to play in the SEC. As we have multiple posters on here that have had the fortune to see their children succeed at the highest levels of college and MLB.

But it's extremely rare to be able to choose your path to the top of the mountain.

I am all for dreaming big, but step 1 is succeeding where he's at now and then go from there.

In a forum like this, I feel the goal should be to help and forgive both inexperience and parental emotions/bias. Life sorts everything out, and anonymity if desired is an important part of feeling safe when asking questions that some may find inconsistent or unknowledgeable.

Firstly, I believe the poster, but if there were an improbable troll post, what’s the harm in attempting to help to the best of our ability? Making some troll’s day by this community selflessly trying to help seems like a small price to pay to ensure we don’t make a joke out a parent’s questions or their place in the process.

@adbono posted:

I think this is a parody post designed to see how many people will take it seriously.

Hmm, sorry to disappoint you...no parody post here. Just a parent trying to navigate and help their son make the best decision for his future. Something that I'd imagine all parents tend to do. Have a nice day.

@Beisbol Life

If baseball and getting drafted is the primary goal, then it really doesn’t matter which major D1 he plays for, assuming he can differentiate himself from the average though performance.

Maybe things have changed in juco since ’16, but marketing your son, and parental involvement pretty much go out the window. Good parents are supportive spectators, letting their young adults drive the process

If my son had the pick of SEC schools (and he did – Arkansas or LSU) and was highly academic (he was not), I would have been thinking Stanford (and he still would have went to Arkansas). LOL.

@Beisbol Life posted:

So respectfully asking...where do you think there is a disconnect? Could you clarify?

See the post by @DaddyBaller for the clarification you requested. Someone else also said, you don’t choose the SEC - the SEC chooses you. That’s something your advisor would know. You either have one of the most unusual circumstances ever (not very well) described on HSBBW or you have a poor understanding of the recruiting process. Maybe both.

@Beisbol Life posted:

His major is Economics. I'm wanting to get advice on which universities might be the best baseball/academic option for him. We'll see what his spring season looks like and start reaching out at that time to schools. From what I can also see is that if prospective players don't make themselves known they might fly under the radar. Players need to be the ones that are proactive - I've read several interviews from this site and that seems to correlate with what I've read so far. Marketing yourself and your talents is on the player.

You've gotten great advice from people whose sons were drafted (e.g. TPM, Keewart), one whose son went to juco and then SEC and was drafted (jucodad).

Every college and university has an Economics department.  No school with a big-time baseball program has a bad Economics department.  So if baseball is his focus, then let it be his focus.  And include the other P4 conferences.

There are several good threads about being recruited out of juco, all of which say that the juco coaches play a major role:

https://community.hsbaseballwe...-for-a-juco-freshman

https://community.hsbaseballweb.com/topic/moved

@314Calhoun posted:

And a bird dog scout. 🤣🤣

Thank you for jogging my memory. As I recall the exact description was “bird scout”

@Beisbol Life posted:

So respectfully asking...where do you think there is a disconnect? Could you clarify?

I will clarify.

When a parent comes here stating things about their player more than likely they need realignment on their parent perspective about the process along with sons talent in the classroom and on the field.

Your son is no different than anyone that posts here.  The dream for most of them is to play professional ball. Going to college for most happens first, every once in a while you will get that very special talent that gets drafted out of HS and a few years later, is on the ML roster. Also that person usually has the best of the best in the business helping them make those decisions.

My son was a highly recruited player out of HS who received an out of state offer and with the pcoach insisting he went to college. His dream was the same, but never played on a ML field.  He did have that plan B.

So you can't imagine how many have passed thru this door with the same story. Sometimes it just sounds like we are being trolled. I have been here a long time so I usually read more than I post.

I am going to give you some info on how it really is. I don't hide anything about who I am. I appreciate those that post where they live, gives me an idea on where I can help a parent in the process, if I find them legit.

Your location, USA, doesn't help anyone's credibility.

So here is the brutal part. My son is the pitching coach for one of the programs mentioned here, going into his 4th season at that program.   After a grueling season,  which is normal for a successful SEC program, he was on the recruiting trail ALL summer (ended up with covid) in the southeast as well as in Cary, NC watching the best of the best HS players for USA Baseball. Then on Aug 1 he started the day with 20 phone calls with pitchers entering their junior year. In 3 days the number per day dwindled down pretty quickly. These programs (not all) are very selective in their recruiting. Florida's HC's program is about winning championships and turning out MLB players. They don't intentionally recruit JUCO and use the portal sparingly. Most of their roster includes Florida HS recruits.

So here is the brutal part, if your son or anyone else's is a 2025, 2026 and not been contacted by a coach he is really very late to the party. He won't get discovered with Mom or Dad posting about what a great student or player he is....trust me.

So I ask you whoever you are, besides your son wanting to play baseball at a top program then get drafted, what has his JUCO baseball coach done to help him achieve his goal, has he been out grinding all summer?  The JUCO coach, at this point is the the most important person involved with your son moving forward. Not you posting about playing professional ball. I want to add, be careful, over anxious parents about their sons ability is often a reason for coaches to pass. You see, many coaches recruit the parent along with the player.

If contact hasnt happened, it's may not ever happen.

JMO

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Golden advice from @TPM   

Some of the top college programs recruit out of a JC, and in my experience with our local JC who sends players to the SEC, the JC coach usually has a network of schools that regularly contact them as well as he will call a program if he thinks there is a fit. Some programs will also peruse the JC regional  stats for an outlier. As TPM pointed out the JC coach will usually be responsible for placing a player.

The Juco programs in FL send their players to the mid D1's here in FL. Many of those players do get drafted and end up on a ML roster.

The FL Big 3 programs now use the portal.

A JUCO player must be proactive in attending the big JUCO tournies with help from the coaching staff.

Probably not common, but here's a thought. Even at a high academic institution there are still some who are not challenged academically. Those who can say that are blessed, but it happens. So even if he does eventually go to a high academic...there is potential for it to still be easy. It's what you do with that spare time or things you come up with to provide stimulation.

@Momball11 posted:

Probably not common, but here's a thought. Even at a high academic institution there are still some who are not challenged academically. Those who can say that are blessed, but it happens. So even if he does eventually go to a high academic...there is potential for it to still be easy. It's what you do with that spare time or things you come up with to provide stimulation.

My cousin is a bright guy. He went to Harvard pre med and Tufts Med. He said the hardest part of Harvard was getting accepted. He didn’t think classes were that hard overall.  

He had a friend who left Harvard after a year for Boston University's six year pre med/med school program. His friend said Boston University pre med classes were more challenging than Harvard’s.

Perhaps the only questions that I would add here are:

1. Have non-"high-academic" SEC teams shown interest in the player?

2. Have high-academic non-SEC teams shown interest in the player (even pre-JUCO)?

One of the better recruiting tips that we received for our '25 related to figuring out the potential universe of interested programs.  The tip was simply, if a program in a conference was interested in your player there is reasonable chance that other programs in the conference would also have some level of interest.  To a certain extent this can carry over to the academic profile as well.  If you can't say "yes" to both questions then don't even worry about fine tuning it for HA SEC.

JUCO -> HA is very much the exception rather than the rule.   HA aren't crazy about (or willing to)  transferring in 1/2 the college credits from a "lesser" institution and eventually walking out the door with their "prestigious" degree.  

*with the caveat that I know next to nothing about JUCO or transferring process (but quite familiar with HA P4 programs), I would offer the following*

If the desired path is truly JUCO -> HA SEC, then I think it is a bad idea to do two years at JUCO.  Crush it for one year at JUCO.  Either transfer to 1. Strong academic D1 program or 2. Top half P4 program.  Crush it for a year academically and on the field in that situation.  Then see if you can transfer to a HA SEC program.

I kinda like that your son is a bizarro Owen Holt (Harvard->JUCO->MLB Draft).

I'm way too long in the tooth on this site and reactive to this sort of thread to ignore it.

The original post here is a red herring. "Oh, my God. I don't know what we're going to do. My son scored 1600 on the SAT and has a 6.0 grade point average; but, every coaching staff in the SEC is approaching him with a full ride plus $500k a year in NIL; and, we don't know what to do."

"If he chooses to go with an Ivy League program, he wouldn't get as much financial assistance while there, but he'd be set up for life after baseball. Can a former baseball player run for President?"

"What could we possibly do?!? Life's just too full of choices that are too extraordinary to choose among!"

"Not only do we have to choose between the SEC and the Ivy League, but I have only 3 months to figure out how to compose our annual letter to family and friends; describing how wonderful our lives have been this year."

Whew.

If your dilemma is as binary as you originally presented to us, your son needs to decide which is more important to him: his baseball career in the SEC or his academic pursuits in the high academic realm. The two are difficult to reconcile.

HE needs to decide. Either path offers one that is exceptionally better than the vast majority of his peers face.

Best wishes to him for his success, regardless of which path he chooses.

@Prepster

That was golden. I miss your presence and wisdom.

Event in Charlotte was cancelled. Not sure of the exact reason or will be rescheduled.

Hope that all is well with the family.

Thank you @Prepster, thank you!!!

I hope you are doing well.

It's a wonder any parent (and I mean someone who is trying to navigate through this process) would ever post to this site. I still like to get on and see what's going on in today's recruiting journeys but I have to admit, I can't imagine posting any questions myself! My inclination is to PM people like the OP of this post just to tell them to use this site as I did: read any and all information you can but go with your gut; everyone's journey is different so navigate your own path.

How I *could* interpret this original post:

"My son is currently at a Juco as that was his only option at the time he committed. He is a HA student who just finished a season where he had a lot of success and is currently talking to several SEC RC's.  I would like to know which of the SEC schools would be considered top tier in academics."

Please, give the guy/gal the benefit of the doubt!

@ABSORBER posted:

It's a wonder any parent (and I mean someone who is trying to navigate through this process) would ever post to this site. I still like to get on and see what's going on in today's recruiting journeys but I have to admit, I can't imagine posting any questions myself! My inclination is to PM people like the OP of this post just to tell them to use this site as I did: read any and all information you can but go with your gut; everyone's journey is different so navigate your own path.

How I *could* interpret this original post:

"My son is currently at a Juco as that was his only option at the time he committed. He is a HA student who just finished a season where he had a lot of success and is currently talking to several SEC RC's.  I would like to know which of the SEC schools would be considered top tier in academics."

Please, give the guy/gal the benefit of the doubt!

Hard agree.  100%.  Completely.

@ABSORBER posted:

It's a wonder any parent (and I mean someone who is trying to navigate through this process) would ever post to this site.

Go back and read the other 2 topics by Beisball Life.

Pro/Con of going for senior year and  Not  playing HS ball.

RHP 90 velo//103 ex-velo bat.

Might help you to understand.

@TPM posted:

Go back and read the other 2 topics by Beisball Life.

Pro/Con of going for senior year and  Not  playing HS ball.

RHP 90 velo//103 ex-velo bat.

Might help you to understand.

Yes, these other 2 topics support my posting, thank you.

Questioning a parents sincerity because they wish to be anonymous and only list 'USA" in their bio is my point exactly.

It doesn't change the fact that none of us know this person or their son's journey. Do you know whether he has SEC interest after 1 year of Juco ball? Lots of Juco players recently transferred to SEC and other P4 schools this summer.

Why should this player's experience be any different next summer?

@ABSORBER posted:

Yes, these other 2 topics support my posting, thank you.

Questioning a parents sincerity because they wish to be anonymous and only list 'USA" in their bio is my point exactly.

It doesn't change the fact that none of us know this person or their son's journey. Do you know whether he has SEC interest after 1 year of Juco ball? Lots of Juco players recently transferred to SEC and other P4 schools this summer.

Why should this player's experience be any different next summer?

I don't have the answers to her or your questions.

Apparently neither does anyone else.

Mom got good advice.

Say thank you and move on.

A couple years beck I’d IM’d with original poster and got the sense she had very good intent. Is she completely aligned with reality? To varying degrees, I’ve never met a parent that was – not even in hindsight (me included). The most unaligned parent I’ve ever known was one of the best parents I’d ever met – he died young a few years ago and his two boys (neither made the MLB) are still devastated – we should all hope that our children value us half as much.

I have a kid that’s successfully navigated HS, Juco, SEC, the draft, MiLB, MLB and the only thing I have to offer this site is what I learned in hindsight and how an uninformed parent doesn’t get in the way of allowing those things to happen. My baseball dad journey is nothing if not improbable – improbable is not impossible…

Life is too short to look for negative motivation in others, I’d rather trust and forgive…

@JucoDad posted:

A couple years beck I’d IM’d with original poster and got the sense she had very good intent. Is she completely aligned with reality? To varying degrees, I’ve never met a parent that was – not even in hindsight (me included). The most unaligned parent I’ve ever known was one of the best parents I’d ever met – he died young a few years ago and his two boys (neither made the MLB) are still devastated – we should all hope that our children value us half as much.

I have a kid that’s successfully navigated HS, Juco, SEC, the draft, MiLB, MLB and the only thing I have to offer this site is what I learned in hindsight and how an uninformed parent doesn’t get in the way allowing those things to happen. My baseball dad journey is nothing if not improbable – improbable is not impossible…

Life is too short look for negative motivation in others, I’d rather trust and forgive…

Excellent post.

This is the way to build a baseball community.

Uninformed parents might ask what appears to be stupid questions to the informed. I have a philosophy regarding fear of asking stupid questions. “Fear of asking what might appear to be a stupid question may cause stupid results.”  Don’t discourage people.

Even though I was recruited for major college baseball in the 70s everything about recruiting had changed when it was my kid’s turn. I knew nothing about softball recruiting (oldest).  I latched on to a teammate’s dad with older daughters already playing college softball.

When it was my five years younger son’s turn I still had to learn the when and where.