Was our situation unique?

First questions asked or inquired about when my son was being recruited by major D1's this past summer were about grades and ACT/SAT scores. Almost without fail. So our experience is completely different than your son's and his friends.

Maybe they knew your son's academic standing.  It would be very rare for a college to actively recruit someone without knowing his academic information. We talk o college coaches all the time about potential recruits.  Often we mention a name and the coach will simply say  ... No grades!

My son was asked....and his travel coach was asked by EVERY coach that contacted either of them.  Very surprising that a school wouldn't know....as in a lot of cases, the players HS academics (and his college academic money) can play into an offer.  I know my son likely got less baseball money due to the fact that he was going to get a very nice academic award.  The "total" is right where we wanted to be...we don't necessarily care how he got there.  That could work in one of two ways.  If he doesn't keep his academics up in college, he loses the academic money....but if for some reason he quits baseball and loses his scholarship, he'll still have the academic money to fall back on

If you look at all college baseball players across all divisions, the large majority who are getting money toward tuition are doing so mostly via academic scholarship and/or needs based.  Unless parents have deep pockets, if a HS player does not attain high academic marks in HS, he has likely eliminated the option of private or out-of-state schools (reducing choices significantly).  The few who get a high % athletic scholy offers from a D1 school of their choice are certainly the exception.

 

More importantly, I'm pretty sure that the focus on academics will pay off for your son several times over in every way other than baseball.  Furthermore, having developed the necessary work ethic, study habits and decision-making skills that allowed him to be successful on the field and in the classroom in HS will be very instrumental in his success as a college student athlete and beyond.

Through my 2015's recruiting process, most coaches looked for the "big 4":

 

Transcripts

SAT/ACT scores

Updated video

Coach Contact info

 

If interest was still high then the HS/summer/showcase schedule was requested (though we often sent it ahead of time)

That definitely was not the case for PO jr. The grades question came up very early on in every recuriting scenario. Hard to believe the coaches would no nothing aboug grades until fall review. PO jr coaches have a binder on every player that I s reviewed weekly. Regardless, good grades will take him way farther in life then baseball, even if he I s a stud.

 

Buckeye 2015

"I know my son likely got less baseball money due to the fact that he was going to get a very nice academic award".

In our case, coach had zero to do with academic money. Offer was presented way prior to even filling out application. Not sure that a coach would have any access or knowledge of how much academic on need based money prospective student would receive.

Years ago they used to pass bb players through admissions with little questions asked, until someone figured out that they were not graduating or keeping on task with yearly requirements.

So this became a very big issue a few years back and I suppose with limited scholarships available as well as mandatory 25% when you offer a scholarship academics became very important to D1 coaches and the AD's.

Now here is what I am thinking, that they inquired about your sons grades through the clearinghouse. They had to make sure that your son was academically eligible as well as graduated. If they had an issue then they would have let him know.

However, what I dont get is that in most D1 programs the HC job is to make sure that players are staying on task and they receive the grades from the academic counselors.  Is your son on an athletic or an academic scholarship? Is he a walk on?

 

One more thing, very important the only one that you should worry about is your son, not anyone else.  

 

Enjoy the ride.

my son too will be playing at same level next Fall.

first thing HC coach did on our visit was to give tour of athletic academic bldg and discussed grades, tutoring, etc. big impact on parents

My 2015 talked mostly to lower level DIs and higher level DIIIs. Grades were at the top of every conversation.

 

Here's my guess. Your son's grades and test scores were so far above the minimum at those schools that the subject never came up during recruiting, and they were interested enough in him to know his grades and didn't have to ask him. Once school started, they spent all their watch-dogging time on the borderline guys and didn't pay much attention to your son.

 

You mentioned that your son's grades were better than most of his travel teammates, but you didn't say whether or not those guys talked grades during the recruiting process. Do you know if it did?

You know how I feel, if a coach has to ask the player what he got in semester grades, he isn't really paying attention to the whole person,is he?

 

 

The coach of a Big XII Team wanted my son to retake the ACT to see if he could get higher than the 24 he received, so that he could put his offer together.  He wanted to know how much Academic Money they could offer, and then he would offer the athletic money.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong and I can look it up if necessary, but almost positive about this at the D1 level: any academic money or awards counts towards the teams 11.7 scholarships so essentially if the coach gives a "package" of 25% athletic and 25% academic it counts as 50% towards the total schollys of 11.7.

 

That is why I don't understand everyone talking about the coaches needing your grades to put together a "package" and also another reason I felt the academic piece just didn't matter to them as much. It all counted towards the total scholarships given out anyhow. Yes, they want you to qualify and stay eligible but explain to me how almost all these kids signed NLI's in NOVEMBER of senior season (before senior baseball season in spring) and vast majority of them HADN'T EVEN TAKEN ACT YET, my son included? Yet, these schools signed them.

 

Not sure what I am missing, seemed to me they recruited kids that could play and fit their needs. If kid didn't qualify, then the money just opened back up and they went after another kid in late spring or summer for that class.

 

Thanks for all the feedback!

I wont comment until our resident expert 3fingeredglove or someone else might advise.
A scholarship funded due to academics is a walk on.  I believe many players might verbal on that alone but keep that to themselves.

Just found this, seems to explain what I was saying...when they changed the number of guys that can be "counters" on athletic aid down to 27 and they upped the minimum scholarship to 25%, they must have instituted this rule to keep people from cheating with academic awards. See below (sorry for length).

 

Do Academic Scholarships count towards Athletic Scholarships in Baseball?

 

You would think this would be an easy question to answer. And it is for NCAA D3 schools since they aren’t allowed to offer any athletic scholarships. As for D1 or D2 schools, if you just stop and think about it a little, you would begin to realize that there’s no way it could possibly have a simple answer.? 

Why is that? Just imagine if schools could freely give athletes scholarships for academic qualifications instead of athletic abilities. There’s no limit on the number of academic (or merit) scholarships that colleges and universities can award. And there are no minimum qualifications. Schools give out scholarships for music, art, drama, leadership, and community service without demanding excessive academic qualifications.

Surely you can see the issue here. What’s to stop schools from providing all of their athletes with merit scholarships and just skip the limitations of athletic scholarships?

There is something in the NCAA, it’s called Bylaw 15.02.4.3. This rule states that any financial aid except that which is specifically exempted is going to count as athletic aid and make the student a “counter” in terms of scholarships.

Federal and state financial aid based on need is exempted. Academic scholarships for freshman may be exempted if the students meets one of the following conditions depending on the division:

Division 1

• Top 10% of the high school graduating class

• Achieve a cumulative high school GPA of at least 3.50

• Score 1200 or higher on the SAT or ACT sum score of at least 105

Division 2

• Top 20% of high school graduating class

• Achieved a 3.5 cumulative GPA out of 4.00

• ACT Sum score of 100 or SAT of 1140

The schools also have to certify that athletic information was not required as part the application process although students may voluntarily list athletic achievements.

Then there is the counter and fully funded issue. This isn’t an easily explained subject. It has to do with athletes receiving non-athletic aid but having it count as athletic aid for purposes of limiting the number of athletes receiving athletic scholarships.The best explanations I’ve found so far are at Daily Compliance Item Institutional Aid (which is straight forward and I understood) and Fixing the NCAA’s Approach to Non-Athletics Aid which suggests that the entire process works against the benefits of the athletes.

I’ve also found two forum discussions that appear to have explanations by people who seem to understand the process. One is lacrosse specific while the other is a general discussion on College Confidential. And Rick Allen at Informed Athlete has an explanation and offers to answer any questions as well.

There is a potentially useful table and diagram to determine scholarship counters that you can download in PDF format.

Why not just go to the NCAA for the information? Because the NCAA basically punts the question. “Sometimes student-athletes cannot accept certain types of aid because of NCAA amateurism or financial aid requirements. Student-athletes and parents with questions on additional financial aid should check with their athletic department or college financial aid office.”

Of course, given that the school decides how much to fund programs and has to certify academic scholarships, you can’t really blame them. Well, maybe a little…

hardgame,

 

Your son got a great high school education, and will now play for a top college program. Your son learned about hard work in the class room and probably appreciates how fortunate he is to be where he is.  Congrats to him and you for showing him the way.

 

My personal experience/opinion is that different levels of D1 college baseball are going to look at gradesSATs through different lenses relative to their skill.  In our case, we spoke to a couple programs in the top 5 conferences, many D1 mid-majors, and D1 Patriot and Ivy schools.  There were extreme variances in the degree to which the coaches were interested in my son's grades/SATs, and the same can be said about his pitching velocity, approach and number of pitches.  In our mind, this was a good thing as it gave him many options, and options are always good.  Always, JMO.

Others know more about how the 11.7 works, but keep this in mind, hardgame: Whatever criteria a school sets for academic aid has to apply equally to all students. So setting the bar low just to get athletes wouldn't be sustainable.

 

To your original post, our experience was nowhere close to yours. Major D1 wanted SAT or ACT scores before making my son an offer. Made sense, since when it came, it was a package.

 

But as fenway says, all schools are different.

So, can my son get any academic money if he is on scholarship for baseball? I had been told about academic $$ available for entering school with a 3.5. Son has 3.73 now.

I suppose he can, but again---the article above and everything I have been told is that in D1, any academic award counts against athletic scholarships so really, they are one in the same. Unless he meets the above criteria on GPA, rank in class and SAT/ACT scores. Then he would be exempt from counting against the athletic scholly's on team.

Hard game, 

 

I can pretty well guarantee that the reason the subject of grades didn't come up was that the schools that were interested in your son got the information easily elsewhere and knew his academic credentials were solid.

 

Did your son take an official visit?  If so, he was required to provide a transcript to the school before the visit.

 

Did your son sign a release when he uploaded transcripts to the NCAA eligibility center?  If so, schools had access to them.

 

Please trust me on this.  College coaches care about grades because they don't want to waste time recruiting people who can't attend their school.  Their first question about any player they think they might be interested in is whether he is academically qualified for admission. 

 

Regarding the other issue:  Yes, players receiving athletic money can also receive academic money without the academic money counting against the 11.7 scholarship money if they are qualified and the academic money is equally available for non-athletes to compete for.

No, the article you posted does not say this.  It says if the athlete meets the academic criteria listed it may be exempt from being counted as athletic money.

 

"Academic scholarships for freshman may be exempted if the students meets one of the following conditions depending on the division:

Division 1

• Top 10% of the high school graduating class

• Achieve a cumulative high school GPA of at least 3.50

• Score 1200 or higher on the SAT or ACT sum score of at least 105"

Correct.

Thanks Swamp, we are covered on GPA and SAT....we'll see if he can complete the trifecta with the ACT next weekend. A friend, who's daughter is applying to the same college told us about the extra $5k for a 3.5 GPA. I need to confirm that on my end.

So hardgame, what exactly is your sons scholarship situation?
Academic or athletic or combined?
I just cannot imagine not one college coach never asking about grades. Were your sons offers academic or athletic?

Why have none of the more experienced people on the board zoned in on this tid-bit it the OP?

 

.and this team had 4-5 guys go on academic suspension in fall due to grades and not able to practice or may miss games in spring.

 

Or is that just normal on any D1 baseball team?

Didn't comment because I didn't know what the OP meant by "academic suspension."

 

It's not an NCAA term. 

 

Many schools use "academic suspension" to describe the status of students who actually have to leave school for a semester or more because they continued to have low grades after being placed on academic probation or warning status. 

 

But from the context, it sounded like the OP used the term to describe some school, athletic department or team disciplinary action while students were still on campus. 

 

So I don't know what she meant.

 

In answer to your larger question, no, it is not normal for five players on a D1 baseball team to be in such serious academic trouble that it keeps them from playing or practicing.  Having zero, one, or two kids struggling to that degree would be more normal. 

My son is a D1 player at a private university with both academic and athletic aid.  Out of high school one of the three academic requirements are required for academic money to be non countable aid.  This was an important factor in my son's commitment and a big selling point of the recruiting coach.  Keep in mind for the academic aid to continue to be non countable aid the student must maintain a 3.0 gpa while in college.  They lose a few players every couple of years due to the loss of their academic money which then is taken from their athletic money to equal their original scholarship amount, although not less than the required 25%.