Assuming it’s EA and not ED, it seems unlikely that he didn’t get merit aid just because he “committed to the team.” But I guess we’ll never know.
FWIW, DS28 (XC/TF) applied ED to a SLAC and got $30,000/year merit aid, at a school where I think practically everyone gets some merit aid. We hadn’t asked for a merit pre-read, and we didn’t apply for FA, so they had no real incentive to give him any merit aid. But the school said they considered all applicants (ED or RD) equally for merit aid, and that seems to have been true.