My son has been told he will get an offer after a future competition finishes. He has one open offer now. However, he made UVs to those schools in the spring. However, there are several schools he wants to make OVs to in fall. The early signing period is in mid Nov. This is a nonrevenue sport. The one with current open offer has more players graduating- more open spots-so there does not seem to be a push. At that school son will get academic scholarship higher than athletic $ and between the two, it is affordable but doesn’t cost coach much-that is why he is probably OK with waiting. That coach usually signs some spots in spring so he wont fill all in fall. The school that will make an offer after competition may be the last spot as the team is a young team of mostly underclassmen.That school is the most expensive school so it might be a quick decision that it wont work out depending on the amount of the partial-likely to be low due to mostly full roster. However, that school has a great academic reputation so it might be worth financial stretch. No chance of academic scholarship there. Some of the schools he has not visited yet are ones that could offer the most athletic aid. They are OK academically but have good facilities, good location, son’s major, etc. Son has good grades but not the most rigorous schedule or best test scores so we are OK with B level academics as sport will take a lot of time. He would not get in the 2 schools with A level academics ( selective D1 publics) without coach support. He has coach support for one of those, and he just recently started talking with the other one. I think he has a shortlist of about 4 schools where he knows he will have offers from at least 3, and another 3-4 that he likes Ok, should get offers, and are a pretty good fit but not as good as his top 4. I hope he can fit in OVs before he has to make a decision. Some schools dont start until after Labor Day so it will be a push to get OVs in.
The only actual question I see is the title of the thread. The answer is there is no usual - depends on the sport, depends on the coach, depends on the situation, depends on the time of year, etc. Ultimately it depends on how bad the coach wants your son. The general advice is go where the kid can see himself if there was no sport, go where you are utilizing your sport to get the best education (or best financial deal) possible. If you get the right offer that checks your boxes, take it. Just remember, it’s as much, or more, about the kid’s next 40 years as it is about the next 4.