Yes, no obligation as compared to a D1 or D2 athletic scholarship. That said, I assume they see it as a “two-fer” going in - they get an ED admission of an academically qualified applicant and they get a student-athlete, in that order.
@eastcoast101, given the strength of the XC team, I think the coach would definitely use it for someone who could immediately be a scorer, so top-5 on XC team.
@Chembiodad agree–given the strength of their team it’s hard to believe that he doesn’t have some pull, but that’s what he told us. My kid did not end up applying there (nothing to do with the running program).
Speaking to a coach for a different D3 swim team, he said he had some pull, but only for a select few.
@vhsdad, agree, I think they only get a couple of slots for non-position sports like swimming and xc/track. That said, tips are effective as well as a tie-breaker.
How good of a swimmer are you? Can you make it to Div 3 Championships freshman year? This makes a big difference wether or not a coach is going to make an effort to recruit an athlete.
I’m decent, “a good fit” in the words of the coach, by no means #1 but not too far down. I can make UAAs no sweat, but D3 champs will take some work on my end
@mhsmi18, if you are a senior have you contacted the coaches and asked for a pre-read as that’s the best way to find out (1) if the coach is interested enough to put you on their initial slot or tip list and (2) if admissions agrees that acceptance is likely via a positive pre-read. If you are a junior, you’ll want to start the discussion in the spring.
My D is a few years removed from the recruiting process. She is a D3 swimmer. Our impression was that at some schools, the coach could have some influence. She did not apply to any high reach schools and was not seeking that help, so I can’t speak to it personally. However, at the school she attends, she knows of cases where a recruit did not gain admission and the coach, though he tried, was not successful at flipping the decision.
As others have said, it really does depend on the school, the team, the coach.
In response to post #3 which stated at top D3 schools, athletes are considered lower caliber students, I don’t believe this is the norm.
" For example, athletes at schools like CM or Williams or UChicago or MIT are often looked at like a lower caliber student. Not sure if that is still true, you might get an advantage in the admissions process, but face negative bias once you’re there."
I have kids at two of the schools mentioned. They have not faced any negative bias at all for being a Varsity athlete.
Agree with @shuttlebus, given the top-LAC’s usually have every varsity sport, the student-athlete population is 30-40% of the total. So “no” they are not looked down upon, given they are equally qualified acceptances as all of the other students. The advantage in the admissions process is not having to be weighed against 9 others for the 1 spot.
At the same time, they aren’t put on a pedestal like may happen at a D1 - having a balanced lifestyle is part of the LAC DNA, so one may be a student-athlete, an acapella singer, a volunteer at a local children’s learning center, an avid member of the outdoor club, a writer for the student newspaper, or a combination of a bunch of them!
It also helps having strengths at a discipline the coach might need. For example, in T&F, a long/triple jumper might help more than being a strong distance runner (or the opposite might be true). Depends on the coaches needs at the time. I would look up the schools past event results/records and compare them to your own. In addition, the number of potential recruits competing for similar positions on the team will have an effect on your chances (most likely you will not know this but can ask the coach about other potential candidates they are looking at).
If you are flexible, look for schools that have needs for your skill set in addition to those already on your list.
To answer your initial question, coaches do have an influence. Statistically, being a strong academic athlete offers oppertunities at school’s not available to other students. My daughter’s acceptance into a UAA school was a relatively easy process (received a likely letter shortly after applying ED). As Chembiodad mentioned, pre-reads are available both academically and financially from interested coaches.
At two D3 upper level LAC’s my son was told by both coaches that they did have pull to get him in … however his ACT/SAT was pretty much the deciding factor. Both schools were in the 30-33 ACT range and he was told if he had at least a 32 - and no red flags anywhere else (GPA, types of HS courses) - he would be set. However he was also told that he would have to apply early in order for the coach to support his application.
I believe in these cases you had to be in the upper 50% of standardized test scores. So as long as you’re an upper level candidate and the coach wants you, he can support your application. I also believe he could support only 2-4 players each year.
ED1 decisions for Pomona came out last Friday. (No my D did not apply there). Of the 5 athletes posting in the Pomona tab here on CC: 2 were accepted, 1 deferred and 2 rejected. The deferred said they did get a positive pre-read, not sure about the others, but I assume they did. That seems like a high number of athletes not getting in. 
40% acceptance is much than the RD acceptance rate of 10%, so I think that’s a good outcome as in the case of XC/track student athletes they usually only receive admission tips and aren’t considered slots like football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and even then they are only covering half their need, at best, with slots.
Sometimes, students don’t have a clear understanding of just what kind of support the coach is actually giving. “We’d like to have you on the team,” is much different than “You have my full support.”
@vhsdad, agree that it can be fuzzy, because at the same time Pomona isn’t likely to have any “walk-on” tryouts, so they’ll expect to catch some more “recruits” in ED2 and even the RD bucket - the coaches all know the whipsaw and rebound effect of recruiting at these highly selective schools, and they’ll wait under the basket.
Our experience with Pomona was that the coach outright said that there was not a lot of pull with admissions. The comparison was made with the NESCAC, and according to the coach, there was none. The coach essentially said that if we had an offer of support with a NESCAC school, we should move in that direction. There also was an encouragement to apply to Pitzer instead of Pomona.
The problem with this for athletes is that the coach must “over-recruit,” which makes it a vicious cycle. In the days when you could identify the email addresses of the recruiting emails, I remember thinking that 50 recruits was a pretty big number for that point in the process. The coach submits a huge list to admissions, knowing few will get in. Some athletes will drink the Kool-Aid and think they are being recruited. Since the list is so long, there are bound to be many disappointments. If you have uber high grades and scores, it might be the place for you. If not, there may be more reliable options. That said, and maybe it is because the schools combine for teams, the teams themselves seem to be doing respectably well.
It does depend entirely on the school and how much pull the coach has. At a few D3 schools my soccer son has been told a fairly consistent story. The coaches can help ‘pull in’ about 3-4 players if, and a big if, their SAT/ACT scores are at a certain point and everything else is good. So they recruit these 4 players for ED1 and if, say, only 2 end up applying (and get in) then the coach moves to the next recruits on his list and recruits them for ED2, knowing he only can really help out about 4 student-athletes in total. If he gets another 2 to commit for ED2 then he’s done. But if he only gets 1 in ED2 then he can recruit in RD for the final player. And he’s always talking with other prospects hoping they will apply and attend the university, filling out the roster.
@SoxDog pretty much our experience with our son, as well. He was told at his #1 they could put a “spotlight” on his application for ED1, but make no mistake: he absolutely had to have the grades to even be considered - that part of the equation absolutely had to match first. At his #2,(Academically the same level college), they couldn’t even do a pre-read. 2 pre-reads later and ED1, he got the wonderful news on Monday that he’s in at his #1…It’s been an exhausting, grueling, sometimes scary, but wonderful experience.