Verbal Offers prior to early signing period...

We never had any coach give their offer in writing and I wouldn't ask a coach to put an offer in writing. The NLI is the written offer and the player's signature on that NLI is his written acceptance. Understand that nothing is etched in stone until the NLI is signed.
As far as the scholarship, rest assured there are no games being played between the coach and the NCAA. The compliance guidelines are black and white. If there are any questions about the scholarship amount and who pays what, I suggest the parents talk to the coach about the scholarship amount ..... unless the player is handling ALL the financial responsibility for his education then he can do the talking.
Fungo

I am not sure I understand your post.

If a coach says he will give your son 50 per cent (example), you need to ask 50 percent of what.

I feel it is then the responsibility of the parent and player to do their own homework as to the school costs, so that you are aware in advance of what you will have to pay. Most coaches do not know all of the fees involved or the costs, plus annual tuition and all fees rise every year. If a coach says he will give your son 50 per cent, you need to ask 50 percent of what. If a coach says he will give x amount of dollars towards costs, you need to know the bottom line, or how much you will have to be responsible for.

I am also not sure of what you mean by playing a game with the NCAA. A coach is given a budget by the school to work with, the NCAA couldn't care less if it is 50K or 500K. All he has to do is stay within compliance of his baseball scholarship allotment (div 1,2, Juco, etc) by springtime for the NCAA and your son has to be in compliance as well. The NCAA doesn't care and has nothing to do with what your son is offered or not offered.

After an agreement is reached, I see no reason not to ask for it in an explanation before he signs his NLI.

I see Fungo was posting same time I was. Fungo is correct the NLI is the written offer.

I guess I am a little concerned of seeing contract (NLI) on the day of signing for the first time. Being a 17 or 18 year this is a very exciting time and if the contract is improperly worded, you are stuck with it????? Maybe I'm just old school or conservative and would like to review prior to having my son sign it without seeing before NLI.

The NLI is received before it is signed. If it differs from what was agreed, make a phone call.

The NLI is sent from the athletic department of the school you are agreeing to play for. It usually is a standard document. My son's NLI gave the percentage, it did not state what the percentage was for, so we did ask in advance for it to be explained in writing, only after he made a verbal committment. I do believe that I had read that as a suggestion here on the HSBBW many years ago. That would be a personal decision on your part. Also, the school should send him a financial agreement before each semester, and notice if tuition costs have risen (as they have every year).

These are very important documents and schools and coaches have reputations to uphold. Nothing is intended to be misleading.

All you have to worry about is figuring out the the bill when you first see it.

Illinirock,
No problem. We are (or were) just as excited and a little skeptical that everything would fall into place when it should and as it should. There is nothing wrong with you discussing the scholarship with the baseball coach. He understands this is your first time too. Just explain you are trying to work out your son’s college budget and I’m sure he will give you all the information you need. Yes there are a few horror stories about coaches reneging on their offers or changing their offers but for the most part if a coach and a player agree to the terms and the player verbally commits to the school there should be no problem. However you can’t expect to hold on to five or six offers for very long. Even though the schools may have offered your son a scholarship, if he fails to verbally commit, they will continue to search for his “replacement”. I would also ask the coach (or have your son ask) what their deadline is for a verbal.
Fungo

Fungo thanks for the feedback. I only brought up the subject, as a division 1 recruiter from a school my son has no interest in, says the offer should be in writing. As for the time frame of a verbal, I understand colleges want comittments, but since all these offers are from out of state schools, we can not take an "official" visit until school starts.I think it would be an unwise decision to make a verbal without seeing the schools. This has been conveyed to the recruiters.

illinirock - You are asking great questions and getting great advice from the others.

On your last post you stated another D1 recruiter said an offer should be in writing. I really don't understand that. As the others have implied, a coach who makes a verbal and later reneges won't be getting away with that too often...parents talk too. I really think you can count on a verbal offer being solid and not changing. The whole process depends on everyone keeping their word.

Justbaseball...here is the condensed email from the D1 recruiter that got my curiosity started. I removed the college name and recruiter. I am just looking for some other peoples opinions...THANKS

Summer E-mail Series : Choosing a College

I won't lie, recruiting involves a lot of hype and we use it just like everyone else. That's why we have kids visit on football weekends...those are the weekends when *** hype reaches it's highest level and it has helped us get a lot of signatures on National-Letters-of Intent!! But, as a baseball recruit, I would recommend that you make your college choice based on intelligence, not emotion caused by hype. Cool your emotional jets and make a decision based on which school will best allow you to reach the goals you have related to attending college and playing college baseball.

5) Get the scholarship offer in writing

Don't settle for phrases like "70%" or "you will only have to pay $1000 to go to school here"...those are just words and have little meaning. Trust me, the first time to see your scholarship in writing should not be when you sign your National-Letter-of-Intent. There are way too many stories of mis-communication on this topic. Problems like this can be avoided by getting your offer in writing. You should ask to see the scholarship amount and also the cost of attendance for that school (how much tuition, fees, books, room and board costs)...now you can then take the scholarship amount and see how much of the cost of attendance it is paying for.

Also, if you are a good student, be sure to ask how much of your scholarship is academic and how much is baseball. NCAA rules allow college baseball programs to combine baseball and academic scholarships into one offer AND for some reason they don't require us to tell you how much is academic and how much is baseball. For example, I could tell you that we are giving you a $10,000 scholarship with $20,000 being a full scholarship (meaning an offer of 50%). But, I've done my homework on your academic info and have figured out you are eligbile for $9,000 academic aid. Well, you sign a baseball scholarship for the $10,000 I told you about...then when your academic stuff kicks in later on you end up only being on a $1,000 baseball scholarship with the other $9,000 coming from the academic award....that's just a 5% baseball scholarship, not much of a committment from the coaches to you. Ouch!...the $10,000 (or 50%) offer sounded so much better!

Get everything in writing. Don't be snooty about it by saying "I need to see that in writing" because that might upset a coach and make him think you are some sort of negotiator. Best approach, just say something like "Hey, that sounds like a great offer, I'm really exciting about it, would it be possible for you to write that down so I can see the details?". If they balk at doing that, cross them off the list!! College coaches don't like pushy kids, so choose your words carefully but don't commit without seeing it on paper...just a little advice.

Well I certainly couldn't argue with his advice...he's in the middle of it. And he really does have some very good points about academic/athletic mixing.

Obviously all I can go by is our experience and that of some friends of ours. Everything was done verbally and it all rang true in the end when the NLI arrived.

It seems to me that a coach who plays too many games with scholarship amounts will pay a price down the road. First of all, rumors of those situations spread quickly...there's one on the Left Coast that most/many? good players know about. Second, if that practice were exercised more than once I believe it would find its way to this board among other places. I just still believe that their word will be honored 99/100 times. But maybe I'm naive.

There's nothing inappropriate about asking for something in writing. I like to see a player get an email or letter spelling out exactly what the school is offering. It should give a $$ amount...percentage is nice too but bottom line aid $ is the key.
However, this is still not a binding document, and circumstances can still change prior to the LOI date.

everything you want to know about the NLI

http://www.national-letter.org/

We made a D1 unofficial visit 2nd week of July, received a verbal offer that was followed up in writing in less than a week. This is our first (and only) trip down the recruiting path - seems if the offer is genuine, there shouldn't be a problem offering it in writing in advance of the NLI.

Nothing wrong with asking for the verbal offer in writing. However, I wouldn't ask everyone who gives you a verbal, just the one you decide to sign with. But that is just my opinion.

UF gave my son their offer in writing, so we could see it in black and white because it was a bit complicated with his bright futures money.

We asked the night son verballed to CU and it was in an email, in writing, explaining the terms, the next day.
Illinirock,
Sorry to have not understood your original post.

This is not to say that everyone has to abide by this suggestion, but if it makes you feel more comfortable, go for it.

PawMom "sometimes I dont write how I thinks". I appreciate all the comments regarding this topic. Some great advice.

quote:

Originally posted by illinirock:
You should ask to see the cost of attendance for that school (how much tuition, fees, books, room and board costs)...now you can then take the scholarship amount and see how much of the cost of attendance it is paying for.

This is probably the key thing to know. Many of the schools we dealt with didn't know the COA for the 06/07 school year until Spring. If the coach doesn't know, try to ask the FinAid dept.

EDIT: Illinirock - I was going to offer to send you my daughter's NLI so you could see what one looks like but I only have the signature page (pg 2) of the NLI. All of the specifics of the offer are on pg 1.