With Junior days just starting for Ivy football do not make the mistakes we did. There are a lot of mistakes in my opinion that can be avoided when dealing with the IVY football recruiting, and if you try to go through the learning curve yourself, it will be too late and you may not end up with any non-IVY offers from FCS or FBS in the end. You have to understand the implications of IVY football offers. Remember, there is no letter of intent for recruits when trying to navigate a so called IVY offer. Not trying to sell anyone a manual on the do’s and dont’s. My advice is free.
@FBS Father,
You may want to give a generalized post for those readers who may not want to PM you. The site has a couple of repeat posters who are quite knowledgeable about IVY football recruiting. @Ohiodad51 comes to mind. You may want to give your pointers to start a dialogue with the intent that the other veterans of IVY recruiting can chime in.
One thing that I have wondered about: If you want to take full advantage of the academic opportunities at an Ivy League or equivalent school this requires quite a bit of time and effort (as a student while there). Football training however also requires quite a bit of time and effort. What happens if you find that the two in combination take too much time and effort, and you decide to focus on the academics?
If you get into Harvard or Princeton as a football recruit, but then drop off the football team, are you still in as a student at the university?
Yes, once admitted into a university, I don’t believe you can be kicked out because you discontinue a sport. They are accepting the STUDENT athlete…
They won’t kick you out. That doesn’t happen even at non-Ivies. They’re not given you an athletic scholarship either so nothing to lose there unlike athletes at some other D1/D2 schools, assuming you were offered $ in the first place.
Once you are admitted to any of the Ivys you are in. Continued participation in any sport is not a condition on continuing as a student. It is one of the things that makes the Ivy very attractive to the right kind of student.
You are not wrong that the work load on these kids is significant, particularly in football, which I believe requires the largest time commitment in the NCAA. That said, I was honestly surprised at the relatively low number of kids who drop from a program. Last year, as an example, Princeton had 25 seniors remaining from an initial recruiting class of 29. One of those four had his career end by injury as a junior and another two will return for a fifth year this year because they had suffered an injury earlier in their career that prohibited them from playing for a season. So they lost one kid from the program over the four years. Somewhat counter intuitively, there are other sports which seem to have a higher attrition rate than football, and generally women’s sports suffer somewhat higher attrition rate then men’s, but in general a large percentage of the kids who go to an Ivy as a supported athletic recruit stick with there sport.
Good advice but for obvious reasons I am cautuous aboit what I put in writing. My story is worth telling as I found out it mirrors others kids stories about the IVYs that we conferred with on the non IVY football recruting trail. Again, I want to reiterate the fact that there is no Letter of Intent with an IVY football offer. I am not a lawyer, but obviously this means there re different implied legalisms in how they handle you during the recruiting process different from FBS and FCS football scholarship programs. They appear subtle but they can have huge negative consequences near the end of the recruting cycle. We were fortunate to pull a full FBS and FCS offer at the end of the 2018 recruting cycle by the grace of God.
There is no Letter of Intent with IVY football recruiting as you know like In FBS or FCS football scholarship programs. This means they (IVY foorball program) are not beholden to you at any point, even if they extend you an offer. So, essentially talk is cheap. Everyone is essentially a recruited walkon at best. When an IVY league football recruiter walks into your high school and makes you an offer what is really implied in that or, more imporyantly, NOT IMPLIED.
I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand your post. Are you saying that an ivy coach made you a verbal offer, your son applied ED but was rejected?
^ the one great advantage the Ivies have is the likely letter, which is effectively a notice of admission. These generally are available beginning on November 1, well before the December early and February regular signing date for football. So while I agree that nothing is over until it is done, I think it is fair to state that for most Ivy recruits, the school becomes “beholden” to the recruit prior to non Ivy FBS and FCS schools.
The NLI is accompanied by a Grant in Aid, the actual athletic scholarship. Since Ivies don’t give athletic scholarships, they can’t issue a NLI either.
It’s actually the athlete that becomes ‘beholden’ to the school. Once the athlete signs the NLI, he can’t accept a scholarship from another school that participates in the NLI process without the permission of the school. The athlete who commits to an Ivy (handshake? promise? ED application?) can still keep looking at other schools.
And likewise they can drop you at any point late in the recruitment process for any of a thousand undisclosed reasons after they have extended someone an offer in their junior year. They can leave a kid hanging till his January of his senior year when the offer was extended his junior year. This happens because a lot of the times when the offer is extended in say the junior year, they will not let the kid commit back (verbally reciprocate the offer) I jokingly call this the “offerless offer”. Anothers words you have an offer from us but we will let you know if and when you can reciprocate back to us with your answer. This is much like going to a job interview and being offered the job but then being told if and when you can accept the offer.
Still trying to understand…@“FBS Father” did your son receive a “likely letter”?
And you don’t think Texas or Alabama will drop you in a hot second if someone better comes along or if a new coach is hired in December just before the new early signing day?
All offers before senior year (new early signing in Dec, regular signing in Feb for football) are verbal on both sides. That’s the NCAA, not the school.
It might be semantics, but there are no “offers” from Ivies junior year. Coaches can and do tell athletes that they are on their recruit list and that they are holding a spot for them. However they are also (or should be) very clear that the AO office has the final say. They will also get AO pre-reads summer between junior and senior years. The AO will not do official prereads before then. Until an athlete gets a likely letter, they should assume nothing, but as @Ohiodad51 posts above, the likely letters should come out prior to the FBS and FCS signing dates.
True, but what is a verbal offer if the player cannot reciprocate with a yes or no until they tell you can reciprocate. Junior or senior year this presents the same conundrum.
True, but even with a verbal at anytime pre senior year (where at least 95 percent of verbal FBS and fCS offers are made) there is a reasonable oomponent of repriprocity afforded to to the student. Another words, at any time I can give a yes or no answer to the verbal offer and if its a yes as long as I do what is necessary to fufill the conditions of the offer before signing day. Now IVY foorball anyway does not work this way.
I have never been a fan of “non commitable” offers, whether they are made in the Ivy, the BIG, or the SoCon. Generally they are meaningless, and just a way to show heightened interest in a kid. They are unfortunately growing more popular throughout D1, at least in football.
I am really not sure that having a committable offer matters that much though in the context of this discussion. Lots of offers get pulled right up until signing day in D1 football. My son has a good friend who had an offer pulled one week before signing date by a MAC school a couple years ago. Luckily he ended up at a different school in the conference and is loving it. Lots of other kids are not so lucky.
My personal experience, meaning kids I know in real life, tells me that there are a lot more offers pulled at the P5 level, where the pressure on coaches is the most intense, then at the FCS (including Ivy) and lower FBS levels. Certain coaches, like Bobby Petrino and Jim Harbaugh, have pretty well known reps for “shuffling the deck” right up until signing day.
I agree. I am aware that some FBS schools are now engaging in this practice but you would think some of the IVYs would be more honorable. No matter who is doing it its not a above board behavior and should be admonished from any rational adult.From my experience, unless you recruiter is calling you every week after they make you so called offer - Beware. They are most likely stringing you along no matter how many assurances they have made.
You’ve just misunderstood what an ‘offer’ is. In the Ivy league a commitment is just a commitment ‘to the process.’ The coach and other ‘recruiters’ can’t do anything other than put your name in for the admissions officers to consider when issuing the likely letters. If your son’s grades or scores didn’t make the cut, there is nothing the athletic department could do.
Or are you saying that even with the grades, the AI score, and making the right Band the coaches decided your son wasn’t the right fit athletically after committing ED? That is a knock on the coach and not the Ivy league.