When would you let your athlete commit?

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>I am the parent of a 2015 committed and admitted D1 athlete who will sign a NLI in a few weeks. We are absolutely thrilled with the choice and think it's a great fit. We got so much great advice and insight from this board during our journey.</p>

<p>A topic of debate/discussion among some friends recently is when would you let your athlete commit? If they have a verbal offer that is contingent upon a certain SAT score, is it wise to commit before that SAT score is achieved? The SAT score needed is well above average and above what the student in question achieved on the PSATs, so is it foolish to verbally and publicly commit before getting the score? What is the downside to doing so? Is there any possible advantage to committing before getting the score? A few of us who thought we were pretty knowledgeable about the process are scratching our heads at some recent announcements.</p>

<p>Any insight ?</p>

2

<p>I would commit as late as possible to keep options open in case of changes. I think parents who let their 14 or 15 year old commit to anything except working hard in HS are star-struck, not prescient. I know from past experience others will disagree, which is why we have a forum.</p>

3

<p>If you don’t have it in writing, don’t commit in writing! </p>

4

<p>I don’t think there is one answer for everyone. Everybody’s goals are different, and there is a universe of recruits out there with different requirements and skill sets. My answer is to best understand your situation and the situation of the school recruiting you. Where people get into trouble (in most cases) is not being realistic or honest with themselves. JMO.</p>

<p>There is an entire marketplace out there of supply, and demand. You need to help your son or daughter understand that marketplace in the context of their goals. Depending on the recruit, this could mean turning down offers to top athletic schools to pursue top academic schools or turning down mid-level D1 state schools or public Ivys to attend NESCAC or Ivys. Some have the dream of playing a professional sport after college and seek the best college coaching and pipeline to the pros…those are typically your early committers because there are very few slots for very few people with their talent. Committing once you’ve done your due diligence should be a natural & comfortable thing not something to dread or have second thoughts. </p>

5

<p>This is a post I copied and pasted from another board I follow. The poster is a very wise man - probably the leading authority on baseball recruiting, although much of what he says applies to all sports.</p>

<p>"Now that major colleges are looking for commitments much earlier than in he past, be careful out there!</p>

<p>Just last week, we received another example of what can and does happen to several young underclassmen.</p>

<p>Good young player (sophomore) with a nice looking swing attended a winter camp at a very large college. After watching the kid hit in the cage they offered him a 60% baseball scholarship. We knew at the time that the kid was nowhere near the level this college played at. However dad and son were so excited they went ahead and verbally committed.</p>

<p>Over the next year and a half, every time I saw them, the kid and even the dad would have on either a hat or shirt or both with the college colors and name. Obviously they were happy and proud.</p>

<p>Then last week they got phone call from the college coach. Now the young player is no longer going to that college and there will not be any scholarship. Both the kid and the dad are completely crushed!</p>

<p>The early commitments can and usually do work out for many. However, be careful if that offer is based on a one time viewing. College recruiters seeing something they like will want to sew up the player. They need to beat the competition to any possible impact player. “Early bird gets the worm”!</p>

<p>But, here’s the problem… The early offer doesn’t mean they still will want you a year or so later. The majority of the risk involved falls on the player. When things like mentioned above happen, it doesn’t really have an effect on the college program. Some might say they lose credibility, but does that even count that much when the thing that really counts is winning and losing.</p>

<p>So in the end, it is the young kid and his family that are left devastated while the college moves forward and uses the 60% on something else. Now the kid is a senior and will have to start over. There will be no 60% offers coming his way. He will likely end up at a JUCO or small college. And that is probably where he belonged in the first place. It was easy for the college to give that offer to a sophomore. They didn’t have much to lose. Guess it was easy for the young kid and his family to accept that offer. Now they have lost a lot, they are crushed and embarrassed. Their story is not a rare one these days, not many will care. Early commitments are very much one sided.</p>

<p>Be very careful out there."</p>

<p>I would add this: early recruiting and early committing is based upon the coach “projecting” the players ability well into the future. If a player does not develop along that projection, several scenarios may emerge. First, the coach may keep his non-enforceable oral commitment, but the player will not see the field, and if the program is a power program which does not require the coach to keep the player, the player will be cut after the first year. Second, the oral commitment will not be followed by the enforceable NLI.</p>

<p>The parents MUST be able to honestly assess the player’s development. Development of athletes doesn’t necessarily follow a steady upward slope. (I have seen many pitchers who throw the same velocity as seniors that they threw as sophomores [when they received their oral offers].) If the player is not equal to the incoming class, BEWARE.</p>

<p>Also beware of coaching changes and realize that the oral commitment may well evaporate with a new coach.</p>

6

<p>Just to add some context , the sport in question is a relatively small one where most coaches and players know one another and I believe coaches talk a lot! De-committing on the part of the player or coach I believe is relatively rare. I think my question was more around if the player was offered a spot if they get XYZ on their SAT but they don’t eventually get that score. What happens? Or is that dependent on the school? Would some schools have more wiggle room with that? Or does it depend on how much the school wants the player? I’m not talking about meeting the minimum required by the NCAA - I mean a pre-defined score that the school has established to meet their academic requirements.</p>

7

<p>In the sport I am most familiar with, football, I think any “commitments” made prior to the spring of junior year are pretty much meaningless. While some of those commitments do stay in effect, many more kids flip at some point. Sometimes to a percieved higher level program, some times to a lesser. Whether that is because an offer is pulled, or just that the kid finds the grass greener as he matures is really unknowable. </p>

<p>Personally, I would not consider a contingent offer a real committable offer. I think a committable offer means that the recruit is required to do nothing more than say yes to be offered a scholarship/likely letter/coach support, etc. Until that point, it is just recruiting, IMHO.</p>

8

<p>"…a committable offer means that the recruit is required to do nothing more than say yes to be offered a scholarship/likely letter/coach" I agree.</p>

<p>One reason that it’s almost always reported as a kid flipping instead of an offer being pulled is that it’s in both parties best interest to report it that way. The kid/parents don’t want the embarrassment of not clearing the academic hurdle and the coach doesn’t want the public perception that his offer is anything less than solid. </p>

9

<p>I believe Ohiodad51 is describing D1 football recruits in general, the vast majority of these only have to meet the NCAA clearinghouse numbers.</p>

<p>In general I would approach the situation described in post #1 and post #4 as follows. NCAA rules allows recruits to continue to talk to other coaches before signing a NLI even if they have verbally committed to another school. The athlete may wish to continue to occasionally communicate with other coaches. I would be open about making a verbal commitment and any restrictions placed on the offer. If things do not go well then the athlete can simply call another coach and move on. I have recently seen a D1 recruit go from almost zero interest to a very nice offer in about six weeks so this process can move very quickly if the athlete and the team are well matched.</p>

10

<p>Swimkidsdad is correct, I was referring to “regular” D1. Three kids in my son’s class committed either before or very early in their junior season. All three had flipped by the end of this summer, heading into their senior season.</p>

11

<p>There’s a difference between verbally commit and signing the NLI, correct? Also, OP, is your son already admitted to the school or is his admission contingent upon meeting a certain threshold?</p>

12

<p>“One reason that it’s almost always reported as a kid flipping instead of an offer being pulled is that it’s in both parties best interest to report it that way. The kid/parents don’t want the embarrassment of not clearing the academic hurdle and the coach doesn’t want the public perception that his offer is anything less than solid.”</p>

<p>Interesting observation, varska. I’d never thought of it that way. Makes perfect sense.</p>

13

<p>goinggoing, yes, the verbal is the period before the NLI. The NLI is for D1 and D2 and requires the school to give some financial incentive, with the minimum amount being book money and the max a full everything scholarship. Once the NLI is signed, it cannot be changed for a year. The coach can release the athlete, or the athlete can play club or D3 for another school, but otherwise it is the final agreement; of course, the student has to be accepted to the school academically and has to qualify for NCAA participation.</p>

14

<p>And, that is exactly why we wouldn’t/won’t let our child sign anything (i.e. NLI) until it’s in writing – which seemed like it was the Original Poster’s question. :slight_smile: </p>

15

<p>Well, the NLI is the ‘in writing.’ Very very few athletes get multiple NLIs with a choice of which to sign. You sometimes see football players with several offers on signing day, but even that’s rare. Before NLI signing day, you’ve come to an agreement with the coach with an offer, either a set $$ amount or a %. That figure will be in the NLI. You can’t actually negotiate it on signing day.</p>

<p>I think the real question is whether you’d allow your child to commit a long time before the NLI can be signed before the early signing date in Nov of senior year (for many sports), for example as a high school sophomore or junior. Unless you have a super athlete who can make his or her own rules and the coaches will wait (Missy Franklin), most kids are just going to have to do what the majority of the recruited athletes do. My daughter and another on her team committed to D2 teams in October and signed the NLI in November. However, girls from her team going D1 already committed in their sophomore years, or early in junior year. Why? They felt those were the best offers they were going to get and the coaches would give away their spots (with scholarship money); coaches only have so much money to give, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. One teammate got an 80% of COA offer. She’d been looking at schools for 2 years, has older siblings and is confident in her commitment. Could she still get a better offer? Yes, but she’s not looking anymore so the offer would have to come to her. Most D1 teams in daughter’s sport fill with sophomore commits. When she contacted several as a junior, they were full, so her options were limited to lower D1 schools, D2 schools, or no money in D3’s.</p>

16

<p>They always somehow find a spot for the better player…</p>