Verbal commit

You are one of many.  Both the college and the player can change their mind.

you have just entered the meat grinder, what I have told my son is to find a school you love, that wants you. IMO it is better to be the top of the recruiting class of a D3 over the bottom third of some low level D1.

 

College is your 4 or maybe 5 years to finish growing up, think about how you want to spend them. I don't believe any of the D1's give a damn about the kids, maybe they don't at any level but they certainly don't at the top levels.

I think there is a fine line between "pursuing" and "keeping in touch".  Personally, I think it is wise to "keep in touch" with other schools that offered or demonstrated serious interest in a recruit. Especially if the recruit has been offered by top baseball conference school or a top academic school (Ivy, Patriot, etc...) due to the competitive nature of athletic scholarships and Admissions. 

 

If your son doesn't like his current situation, I would think about doing something about it, and quickly. I'd involve your travel coach or anyone who has been helping you.  I've known a few D1 recruits  over the years who have been in the situation you describe.  I think the question you have to ask yourself is this going to get better subsequent years and can you trust the coach.  In the two D1 cases (top conference recruits) I'm most familiar with they landed in a better overall situation and had great careers.  One of the parents had an older son go through the same thing, and he saw the writing on the wall.  

 

Good luck!

Fenway makes a great point about trust. If the coach has proven his word doesn't mean much, I would have reservations about my son playing for him unless this is the school your son would want to attend if baseball wasn't in the picture. A person's word / trust is VERY important to me. Others may not feel the same, just a personal thing with me. I was very clear with my son during his recruitment that he better be 100% sure when he gave a coach his word because once he verballed, that was it outside some very extenuating circumstances. I don't know that I would agree with the earlier post that D1 coaches don't care about the kids, but it is a business and their jobs are on the line. In that light, I can only imagine the pressure these guys are under. A coach that practices these tactics will not last long in my opinion because the word will spread and recruits will avoid him. I will second fenway's advice to get busy without delay.

I have a question. What was the commitment and how or why has it changed?

 

While I have no reason to doubt what you say, I am in agreement with younggun. Coaches are not out to deliberately screw the kids but situations do change and because its a business and that means things happen.  So before your son goes scrambling  what exactly happened over the last year and a half? Did your son keep his part of the bargain? How are his grades, did he continue to develop, did he get hurt?  Were lines of communication left open. Did your son ever show further interest in the program? How did they do last season? Is this a D1 or D2.

 

There is always two sides to every situation.

 

I always feel its best to give us as much info as possible. I just can say the coach is all at fault without knowing how it all went down.

 

JMO

Thanks everyone for the replies. Here is more info on our situation.
It is a D1 school, communication has been great, no injuries.
Our understanding was that he could get a 3.5 GPA OR an S.A.T. score that would qualify him for not having to pay out of state fees. Then he was going to receive books,tuition,fees and 500 per month for housing. Now they are saying that is hinged on the 3.5 GPA not S.A.T.
They said the baseball program would have to pay his out of state fees and not the university.
They are not withdrawing his scholarship but are expecting the 3.5 which will be tough but not impossible.
Everything may end up working out, its just frustrating because we have kept our word without question.
Thanks again for the input!

Thank you for the response. I think an agreement sometimes made too far in advance has hiccups! 

I dont find this unusual, and I always thought the GPA was the indicator. After our son made his commitment I was advised to speak to admissions as a follow up. Always do that because coaches are there to coach and not admission experts.

I understand your frustration, but I am glad that it wasnt one of those stories the coach was being a bad guy because in general they are not, IMO.

 

Was your son to be a walk on commitment, by that meaning that he would receive no baseball funds?  

I don't know, but this sounds to me like it could have been much clearer if the commitment was written.  In many conversations we think we hear things and then come to find out what we thought we heard was different when the written document comes out.  IMO, time to do away all this verbal stuff -- put it in writing. 

Yea I think I am in agreement with Golfman on this one. There may be some issues that I am not considering, but if an offer could be made at anytime and accepted and all was in writing, I think you would see an abrupt halt to the early recruiting issues that I just see as skewed way to far to the benefit of the school. The player really has very little, if any,  protection. Then, if a school wanted to offer an 8th grader and he wanted to accept and everything was in writing, go for it. At least in that instance the player would be off the market but the school couldn't continue to recruit with that player's scholarship money.

I agree that sounds good now, but when we were in the coaches office and he made the offer we were told that it could not be in writing because of NCAA rules with his age. Maybe that was us being inexperienced but it sounded normal with all of the rules.
I'm sure things will work out one way or another, but if this can help others with the process then great!

No, that is exactly the problem.  The NCAA is "protecting" the kids. 

Why does a player feel the need to commit early? The benefit is to the school only if the player has placed himself in that position. How will you stop two interested parties from coming to a non-contractual agreement? Nothing has actually happened, as both parties may discover later.

The NCAA makes the old Soviet Union look open and honest IMO. Quite possibly the most worthless organization in the history of our nation!

I know from experience that it goes "dark" when you commit. Maybe if your kid is a top D1 stud, it doesnt but my kid verbally committed to a northern school and changed his mind after 6 months. During that time, it was remarkably obvious that no one wanted to be associated with a "committed" player. When/if things change like this it is murky territory because once again, then school has all of the leverage. IMHO committing prior to the Junior summer is touch and go. I hope he can get the 3.5 and everything turns out ok. 

While I agree, think of the implications if it were written.

 

IMO what has to stop is this early commitment thing. If  the recruit wants to commit early he has to understand that things change and can a few months before the signing. In this case, it not like he is getting dumped, and he has to all next spring to work his butt off for the 3.5.

 

The whole idea of early recruitment is so that the recruitment stops, if you want to keep other lines of communication open, don't commit until you feel comfortable.

 

 

My son's committment was the same.Once he committed, it went "dark", and it made it difficult to get back on the radar.

If I were advising a HS freshman, I'd say:

 

"Sure. Commit. Then do what they do. Keep looking."

 

 

I quickly looked up one school I know that offers this type of scholarship and it clearly states a GPA and SAT requirement for the reduced in-state tuition.  It is a scholarship that ALL students, not just athletes, can qualify to receive.  Is this true at your son's school?

 

If so, it looks as if the coach doesn't want to use one of his 11.7 scholarships on your son, but get him in using a school scholarship through academics.  I would ask some questions NOW, before the NLI signing in November, so you know exactly what your son is being offered.  

 

Then get your travel coach involved if it looks like you need to move on.

The school offered my son tuition, books, fees and 500 per month for housing from baseball. The GPA or SAT would cover the out of state fees which makes it academic. Now we are being told that if he does not get the 3.5 GPA, we will have to pay the out of state fees.
Also, I agree with those that have said once the word gets out that you are committed, you kind of fall off the radar.
We are scheduled to talk to the coach tomorrow to figure things out.
Thanks for all of the input.

Good luck, Lewman, and keep us posted.

 

(I agree.....it "went dark" for keewartson as well, except for some emails from D3s that looked to be automated)

I hope it works out for your son. I am with some others on this post as I don't really get the early commit thing from a student-athlete's perspective. It seems very one-sided. It's non-binding and as other posters have articulated, it may even lessen an athlete's marketability... but I'm a newbie at this from a parent perspective, so still ttying to figure it all out.

 

My current thinking is that unless it is your dream school, I don't see the upside of committing early. I know that doesn't address your question though.

 

For what it's worth, I seem to think Keewart's post makes a lot of sense. Sounds like this will be coming from academic funds versus athletic funds and with that comes the academic benchmarks. I am not up to speed on whether the SAT or GPA is the hurdle at your school. But I distinctly remember at my school it was both (Many moons ago).

 

 

It sounds to me like maybe there was a miscommunication, but of course I was not there.

 

Again, good luck to you and your son and I hope all works out the way you/he want.

I read this a lot, and my son is considered an "early commit".  He committed this past summer before his Junior year.  We actually pushed it out about 7-8 months as he received his first offers mid-way through his sophomore year.  I wanted him to wait as long as possible for all the reasons stated, however, unless the "no early commit" applies across the board, i.e., NCAA would have to dictate it, it leads to situations such as ours where the pressure to accept an offer early began to intensify.

 

My son was fairly sought after.  Great offers from big D1 schools.  Most were starting their recruiting class by going after their top choices at positions.  Fortunately, NukeJr was one of those.  Offers came in with no time pressure to accept.  As he got into summer and it wore on, inquiries started coming in about when he might make a decision. As they looked at their boards, some of their 2nd, 3rd, etc., choices were committing, and they didn't want to get left out or fall too far on their target recruits.

 

If the schools go after their top 3's first, then look at what they have left to begin filling their next 3, then repeat, repeat, until the recruiting class is filled, the kids in those top 5-6 spots will get pressured to commit early.

 

One school advised that they had two spots for NukeJr's position to fill and they would be making 3 offers.  First two to accept got the spot, and therein lies the problem to a kid like mine.  I'm sure this same scenario plays out again as they get deeper in the recruiting class, but it also gets later in the calendar when that happens.

 

In our case, the risk was lose a school altogether or lose the size of the offer at the school because someone else scooped up the offer.

 

The anxiety is real on both ends.  Kids who are pursued hard and early get pressure to accept or lose out on a school or the size of scholarship, and kids who are pursued later feel pressure that they aren't going to land something because they haven't committed yet and they see other players committing.

 

The answer to this problem would be to lift the LOI date limit as well as the official visit date limit, but then a host of other problems detailed on this thread and others would result (recruiting/showcase calendar,  coaching changes, etc., etc.).

 

Anyway, as I see this question posed by a lot of people, I wanted to give my perspective having just gone through this in the current environment and shed some light on the thoughts and pressures he felt.

Here's something I thought of with your scenario.  Coaches have their baseball scholarship allotment.  Let's say 11.7 for D1.  But, they also have a budget to work with within those scholarships.  So, let's say COA for the school is $20,000 for in-state students and $40,000 for out of state students.  Coach's budget could be $234,000 ($20,000 x 11.7) or it could be $468,000 ($40,000 x 11.7).  More than likely it falls somewhere in between.

 

I think what the coach may be telling you is that he budgeted his offer to your son as an instate recruit based on his academic numbers.  If your son does not meet those numbers, he does not have the budget to pay your son what he offered.  The baseball allotment equivalent scholarship might be there, but he can't afford to give it to an out of state student.  

 

Hope that makes sense...

As Nuke points out, this process is very challenging.  I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, and no two players experience will be exactly the same.  My son was a 2015 so we went through this process a couple years back.  He was a little later than what would be considered an "early recruit", mostly because we are from small town USA and he really didn't get in front of the "right" people until his junior year.  The program he played with the fall of his junior year of high school and the following summer opened so many doors.  I cannot think of a single game, much less tournament, that there weren't numerous college coaches present.  Then again, every single player on that team was a draft pick this past spring or playing major D1 or top level JUCO.  That's not to brag, but it just confirms what so many on this site continue to say, find a great organization to play for that promotes their kids or have a track record of having high level talent coming  through.  If I were a recruiter / scout, would I rather spend my time watching one prospect or go where I could see a dozen or more between the two teams competing.  I know where I would spend my time and energy!  For us personally, almost every kid on that team had verbal commitments in the fall of the Junior year or by June the following summer.  So it was VERY stressful to say the least for my son.  It all worked out for him in the end.  The bottom line advice I would give anyone in the situation is not to get too anxious or worked up.  You cannot change anything anyway.  You have no control.  All you can do is advise your son to continue to work hard, compete hard and return any and all inquiries about him.  If your son has the necessary talent, I believe he will find a home.  I do feel very fortunate that my son was able to not only find a home, but find a home exactly where he wanted to be.  Now that may be the most difficult part.

Question....if the coach is using an academic scholarship, and not any of his 11.7 scholarships would there be an NLI in November?  I thought NLI's were only used when some of the 11.7 was used....I probably have that wrong, can anyone clarify? Just curious.

That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that either...

Thanks again for the input!
I think what we will do if things don't get straightened out tonight I will talk to his travel coach and pitching coach. Maybe hold off on the early NLI signing.

Coaches can only offer part of their 11.7, NLI's are for athletic money only. Most coaches we dealt with sent us to admissions for academic money questions. 

 

To answer your question, The NLI is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and an NLI member institution. No athletic money, no NLI.

@lewman,

 

Is this school in a power five conference or maybe now paying stipends to athletes? I've heard of schools lowering scholarships but players receiving more money due to the new stipends being paid.  

It's not a power 5. It's Mountain West

My son is at a Power 5 and football gets alot of money, baseball......zilch, that he knows of.

I'm fairly certain that stipends only apply to basketball and football. My son has friends that are in Power 5 schools playing baseball...they get nothing

Must be up to the school. My boys play in the Pac-12 and are getting stipends. Football and Basketball get much more but at least they get something.

I've tried to get some input on stipends on a separate thread to no avail.  I reading up on them, it appears they are all over the board with some schools giving out 100% stipend to all scholarship athletes (regardless of scholarship percentage), some are pro-rating based on scholarship percentage, others only give these out to the non-equivalency sports of football and basketball and then others simply do not give out any.  I think schools have only been provided permission to proceed but have not been given restrictions or guidelines so to each his own.

 

On a related topic, would be interested to see how the changes to the athlete meals has impacted scholarships and/or out of pocket costs.  Saw one poster mention that coaches were talking up the athlete meals and suggesting scholarship monies be allocated to tuition, books, fees, rent, etc. and have the student/parent purchase a less expensive meal plan with the assumption that the athlete will be fed at least once a day. 

I can't say this is true everywhere but at my college if you lived on campus, i.e. in the dorms, you were REQUIRED to buy a meal plan that had 3 meals a day on it.  When I complained I was told that since we didn't have a kitchen in our rooms the college wanted to be assured we had the option to eat 3 meals a day.  Moving off campus actually saved me money!

Same deal for my son at Power 5 conference school.  Stipends are paid to baseball players at what I believe is the same % as the scholarship... i.e. 50% scholly = 50% of the standard athletic stipend. 

Well that's one reason why you see the Freshman 10 so often.

 

I've toured a lot of schools over the past couple of years and what I've seen most often is a choice of plans based on number of times the student's ID card is swiped at the cafeteria. Usually you get a choice of something like 10, 15, 21, or unlimited swipes. Often there are supplemental dollars or points you can add for snackbars or cafes.

Agreed, the school had multiple meal plan options including flex dollars that could be used across campus...BUT...if you lived in the dorm you had a very specific minimum plan you were required to purchase. It appears most schools require this.  What's an extra couple grand per semester between friends?

 

Just for giggles I looked up some schools talked about on here a lot:

 

Vanderbilt = "First-year students are automatically enrolled in the First-Year Meal Plan.This plan is required for first-year students residing on-campus."...this one is 3 meals a day

 

Clemson = "All first-year students who live in University Housing are required to select an Unlimited meal plan for the first two semesters, fall and spring"...it is what it sounds like unlimited access to meals.

 

Stanford = "all students living in an undergraduate residence must purchase the meal plan offered by their residence. In most cases, this is a R&DE Stanford Dining Meal Plan."

 

 

Just to give an update.
There was confusion on where all of my son's scholarship money was coming from. If my son does not get the 3.5 overall GPA then the baseball program will have to pay the out of state fees. I am very happy to say that the baseball program said that they honor the scholarship in full even though he will probably not get the 3.5.  It is reassuring  to feel that my son committed to a school that kept their word through this confusion, even though it will cost the baseball program a significant amount of money.
Thanks again for the replies and input.