How much do non-athletic ECs matter for recruited athlete?

Athletic Recruits
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<p>When you get a likely letter (in the ivies), or an NLI (National Letter of Intent) at D1’s and D2’s you have a binding commitment (actually the likely isn’t binding, buts it’s reported to be as good as gold). Which means that until you get that, you have nothing!</p>

<p>But, that is a very cynical view of the process!</p>

<p>In reading a coach’s level of interest, for D1’s a real signal is the offer of an Official Visit. An Official Visit is a visit to a school on the school’s nickel (or dime with inflation). All transportation costs, food and lodging are taken care of for the recruit. (For parents, the school will not pay for transportation; may reimburse for mileage; may pay for lodging; not for most food.)</p>

<p>This is a serious expression of “interest” – but not the end game. The reason the OV is a critical milestone is that a school has a limited budget for OV’s and, by NCAA rules, a limited number of OV’s which can be given. So, if you get and go on an OV you have made it to the semi-finals of the beauty contest.</p>

<p>But OV only means you have made it to the semi-finals!</p>

<p>In the sport I am most familiar, the NCAA allows d1’s 25 OVs; one IVY was bringing in 12 players for OVs (in their first hectic month) for 6 – 7 roster sports (backed by Likely letters). That school had identified 25 players for those 6 - 7 spots. So, the winnowing process went from literally 1,000’s, to hundreds at the end of the junior year, to dozens by the end of summer of senior year, to 25 by labor day, to 12 first wave OV’s, looking for 6 – 7 players at the end of recruiting. </p>

<p>(True story and confession: we received the most wonderful e-mail early in Junior year from a school that was beyond our wildest expectations, dreams, wishes, hopes, desires, etc… It was personal and talked about some very specific events which could only mean that the author had seen S play numerous times. [Unlike the mass mailings for camps, and other stuff we had received.] I printed a copy and proudly bored my closest friends until the piece of paper became tattered. One day, in boring yet another friend [whose S was more gifted athletically but not so academically] he reached into his wallet and pulled out the same e-mail his son received [some words were changed to make very specific references to his S’s exploits! We had a good , and sad, laugh and admired the recruiting coach’s methods.)</p>

<p>Now, how do you know where you stand? Be honest – brutally honest --with yourself. For objective sports (track and swimming), are your times today better than the others they are recruiting? For subjective sports (like baseball), can you throw harder today than the others they are recruiting? Not “will I get better”; the question is “am I good enough now.”</p>

<p>A player and the parent must be brutally honest if a happy result will be reached. If you are not brutally honest, only bad surprises await you in this process. Brutal honesty means that you look at your player in the here and now; not in the hoped for future (will he grow? Will she develop? Etc.) Coaches are not in the business of developing – they are in the business of winning – now, not in four years. Slots on these teams are in such short supply that “projects” are passed over in favor of those who can bring it to the table NOW.)</p>

<p>Recruiting coaches are great smoozers! The ones that are not are left in the dust.
Now, S was always honest with the coaches. He let them know where their universities stood on his list. Some coaches went away (they go away by not calling any more – there is not any announcement of their departure); some stayed and worked harder (but always with the same platitudes). But, while he always knew where the universities stood on his list, he really did not know with any degree of certainty where he stood on their list.</p>

<p>The “end” is interesting (and has been addressed on another thread). It has “ended” for us before the real end has actually arrived. In our case, he committed and finished the app almost simultaneously, and now we are in the never-never land of waiting for a LL. For d3’s, it’s really hard for an athlete who goes RD – at least with EA and ED you know where you stand early. For RD, some schools refuse to let you know and you twist in the wind until the end. Had a friend’s D who twisted to “death” at Wash U; she had been assured to the bitter end that she was good as gold!</p>

<p>To Pacheight’s point, I would not even trust the words “you are my number 1 recruit.” First, once a recruiting coach gets a verbal, that player is no longer considered a recruit by the coach (they have committed and, hence, are not being recruited by the school any longer). This means that during the course of the recruiting season, many “number 1’s” come and go – and who would make a commitment to a school if he/she was told “you are my back-up choice.” Second, one of the recruiting coach’s goals is to get the recruit to stop looking elsewhere – his/her goal is not to be your advocate and look out for you interests during the process.</p>

<p>Until you have something, you have nothing.</p>

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<p>Just not true. Almost all of the announcements to Ivies are early at my son’s school (for basketball). It is not against NCAA rules to offer an early verbal. I am not offering my opinion or making a point based on the written rules; I am relating actual occurences. All of my daughter’s peers in her sport compete DI as they were all national and international level athletes, some olympians. Most of them committed verbally before the end of their junior years, and some as sophomores. All went to and are competing for those same schools.</p>

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<p>okay
but i still dont understand how a coach makes a verbal commitment and public ammouncement to guarantee a sophmore or junior high school student admissions to their d1 ncaa university. ive never heard of that or read it in any sports page. or seen it in my community where 20 plus sign at cal, stanford, brown, michigan, harvard, etc every year. “commitment” is a strong word. r u sure your sophmores and juniors are getting commitments?</p>

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<p>I think it comes down to the definition of “commitment”. We all know kids who have supposedly committed to X university early in their junior year - before they’ve taken their ACTs and before a coach is even allowed to call them. And from my experience, the player usually does end up at that school. But not always. I think coaches love to identify a kid with physical tools and potential and make them feel as though they’re committed early on and stop them from shopping around. But these early commits can be broken - so they aren’t really commitments in the true sense of the word, right?</p>

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<p>I agree, Varska - maybe these verbal commitments should be thought of as “intention to commit” on part of both the athlete and the school. </p>

<p>I think they do reflect a genuine intention on the part of both the school and athlete to have the athlete attend there. The majority of the time they work out, but they aren’t binding on part of athlete or the school and occasionally one party changes their “intention,” or circumstances change - e.g. we know one athlete who committed early in junior year, but by end of senior year grades had dropped dramatically and school did not admit her.</p>

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<p>^^Agreed. Because of the school my son attends, these “early’s” always seem to materialize.</p>

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<p>In the world of High School XC and Track, Dyestat rules:</p>

<p>[DyeStat:</a> The Internet Home of High School Track, Field and Cross Country](<a href=“http://www.dyestat.com/]DyeStat:”>http://www.dyestat.com/)</p>

<p>Every year they track college choices based on reporting by athletes. Each year, many months before the LOI signing for track, kids started sending in their “commitments”. Dyestat posts the following disclaimer at the top of the list. There are D1’s, DIIIs, Ivies, and so on. Kids who post to Dyestat certainly believe they have some kind of commitment. On February 2nd, Dyestat will recieve LOI statements from kids who want to post that information. </p>

<p>"Verbal Commitments</p>

<p>Verbal Commitment vs National Letter of Intent Signing - What’s the difference?</p>

<p>A verbal commitment is an announcement by a prospective college student of his/her choice of a college. It is not binding. The prospective student may change her/his mind and other colleges may continue to recruit the athlete.</p>

<p>In contrast, a National Letter of Intent signing is a binding agreement and may be signed only during certain periods designated by the NCAA. When signed the prospective student must attend the college and other colleges can no longer recruit the prospective student.</p>

<p>ATHLETES : If you want to announce your verbal commitment, send email to Donna Dye. (Please note: emails only from the athlete.)"</p>

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<p>Fair enough. But what if the coach (D-3, individual sport) says, and the mom and son hear, something like this:</p>

<p>“I don’t cut anyone from my team. The players who can’t compete cut themselves.”</p>