He was in band 2 on the cusp of band 3. Has a 4.plus something GPA. Cant be because not right athletic fit becuase he got a full FBS offer and a full FCS offer.
@FBS Father, I think I get where you are coming from now. I think you are saying your son was supported for a likely letter but admissions said no, is that correct? And I agree for a kid in the bottom two bands, the Ivy system can be difficult. The pre read system is supposed to manage some of that risk by letting kids know if there might be problems come the likely letter review. Did your son have one done last summer?
Pre reads all were good. We even got a signed letter from the football staff at one of the top two IVY early in the summer of 2017 that he was one of the recruits they wete committed to get through admissions. Assured us early in August of 2017 that they were recruiting three DLs for the class and he was in the top three. At the time I did have concerns about the band 2. Lets face it - they reserve those bands ( 1 and 2) for the running backs and defensive backs that have SATs well below 1250. They never readily admit to that but we all know that is the case once you really figure ouy what the band thing is all about. My son just above 1250. And lets face it if they did explain the band thing up front early in the process most kids would head for the door. What kid who is an FBS caliber propect (like my son) is going to play that game of chance with admissions when they could be focusing on true scholarships offers. We waited around and almost lost FBS offers at the end because the coaching staff at one of the major IVYs was assuring us all along. Now there was some staff turnover in early January of 2018 so that could have screwed us. But getting back to this band thing. We were at a junior day last spring 2018 at one of the less than stellar IVY football programs. If you wondering which one it is its one of last two at the bottom in foorball. There were over 200 parents in the question and answer period. A parent succinctly asked the head coach to explain the band system and how that would effect the recruitment of their son. Now realize that all these newbie parents there, at least 95 percent, have no understanding of it at this point. This head coach had the audacity to answer that that was as an admissions question and he does not get involved in that process. In my opinion a total lie. Of course he understands the band system. That is how he strategically builds his roster for each incoming class.
@“FBS Father” , sorry to hear what happened to your son. I am not sure if the school to which you refer (which I am guessing was Yale) ever promised to seek a likely letter for your son or whether they just told him he was at the top of the board. It kinda sounds like they were slow playing your son either hoping that he could goose his SAT/ACT score up a bit to get into the third band or waiting to see if they would have a band two slot to spend on him at the end of the recruiting cycle.
I agree with you that admissions are a huge hurdle in the Ivy. This is why the likely letter system exists, and quite frankly I think your experience is another reason why parents of recruits who have committed to an Ivy need to ask very specific questions about when the likely letter will be requested, when the request is supposed to be reviewed, and what the general time line is.
It cannot be stressed enough that until there is a clear and unqualified commitment from a coach to request a likely letter from admissions no committable offer has been received. And equally important, until the likely letter is received, or the NLI is signed, recruiting is not over.
You have encapsulated the perfect bullet points. If only we knew about and understood this likely letter process and the timelines. The obfuscation needs to stop. I dont care how much they want an otherwise FBS recruit or non-IVY FCS recruit. They need to be upfront about this process as well as how the band system effects your recruitment early on. In my opinion they obfuscate to retrain as many possible recruits as they can no matter how improbable at the other end of the process This is great for them but could have dire consequences for the kid. Never forget how a head IVY football coach (school shall go unnamed) at Junior day 2017 obfuscated to 200 plus parents that he did not have the the knowledge to answer a parents question about how the Band System worked. I was dumfounded at his response even with the little knowledge I had the time of the Band System. It’s like if I the coach answer that question now 150 people will get up and head for the door.
Father, generally in recruiting, anything other than a “yes” is a no. The “your son is my top recruit”, “choice”, “will start as as a freshman”, “I’m so lucky to have him”, if not accompanied with a firm, “yes, I want your son and would like to to offer him a commitment”, is unfortunately fluff. If you do get the “yes”, the coach should automatically reach out to you for test scores and grades.
@"FBS Father: “…obfuscated to 200 plus parents that he did not have the the knowledge to answer a parents question about how the Band System worked.” I think he knew full well how it worked.
This really could have happened at any program, except that there is now early signing in Dec so that throws the Ivy/ED applications off the other schools. The recruit is waiting for the offer from his favorite school so doesn’t want to commit to a second choice and the coaches are trying to get their first choice in recruits. If those are the same, great. It sounds like your son wasn’t the favorite and someone from a higher band got the spot. Do you think Nick Sabin isn’t telling every recruit he is #1, that he’ll start as a freshman, that he’ll be the last piece of the puzzle to get the next championship?
But it usually works out. They could have told your son ‘no’ in October, and he would have moved on. You moved on in January instead. You stayed on top of it and he got into another school/team.
If the coach didn’t know about the band system and the parents didn’t like that answer, the parents could have called admissions to ask. I had a division 3 coach tell me exactly that, that if I wanted to know about FA or admissions, I needed to contact admissions, even if the coach could have an influence on admissions. She didn’t want to talk about it at all. And I did walk away when she gave me that message. You had that option too.