Not sure this helps, but to my knowledge all the NESCAC recruited athletes at our feederish HS this year applied ED 1.
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My daughter is a recruited athlete at Wes. and it was expected (required?) that she would apply ED1. All of the teammates in her class applied ED1. Iâm pretty sure ED1 is expected of all athletes.
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The only loophole I have heard about is potentially if you actually got rejected (or I guess deferred) by your ED 1, despite a favorable pre-read and the coach submitting you as one of their recruits, then maybe another coach that also recruited you would agree to support you in ED 2, IF they actually still had a spot available for you after their own ED 1 cycle.
I gather that does happen sometimes, but it seems like it would be naturally rare for all those conditions to be met.
On the other hand, I guess I could see it happening a little more often if, say, the first round was an Ivy or something and then the second round was NESCAC. I actually have not heard of any of our Ivy recruits ending up at a NESCAC that way, but frankly we have a lot more athletes who are NESCAC from the beginning. Bigger schools with more athletes who are recruited by Ivies might see it happen more often (although this is just speculation on my part).
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This occurred recently in our family, at Wes, in ED2 for athletics, after a non-recruited ED application deferral at a non-NESCAC school.
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Thanks to those who responded. Seems like the numbers of recruited athletes in ED2 are probably small (or at least closer to 5 than 50).
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That is definitely my guess.
Whether it is closer to 20 or 5, I am less sure about.
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Interesting! Not obligatory, but do you mind sharing a little more about the ED 1 school (not necessarily the name but generally why it was the ED 1 choice)?
Larger, elite D1 with walk-on spot.
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Thanks!
Agreed. I have never heard of a coach commit a slot and say, âbut feel free to consider your options and apply ED II if youâd like.â The ED 1 agreement is consideration for the coach using a slot on the athlete. That admissions sometimes kicks the student to ED2 doesnât change how itâs all supposed to start, except in the less frequent circumstances outlined by @SportyPrep . By the time youâre talking to a coach for ED2 admissions, the spots are typically filled for athletic recruits.
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It would be my strong hunch that most years, even with ED1 overflow to ED2 for athletes who for whatever reason didnât clear ED1, that ED2 will have relatively fewer athletic admits.
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I do think there are a non-trivial number of cases where a school thinks they have a kid and then the kid late in the game decides to apply early to an Ivy or EDs to a different LAC. So the school finds itself with some open spots and tries to get a recruit or recruits to apply ED2. Or there may be a kid who was a D3-level recruit but decided to apply to an Ivy ED without a hook and doesnât get in.
I think this has happened in the crazy thread in the Athletic Recruits forum about the girl swimmer who applied to Brown ED and now seems to be applying to a D3 school with support ED2.
Thatâs all to say, my guess is maybe closer to 20-30 rather than 5.
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Thatâs definitely where the real action is.
O/U at 14.5, Iâll be bookie . . . .
If I recall correctly, the D3-level girl swimmer had previous contact with the D3-level (probably NESCAC) coach before applying to Brown ED1, getting rejected and applying ED2 to the first school. You really think there are 20-30 cases like that every year? 
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Like I said, Iâm looking for distractions in the next few weeks. Iâll take the under 
Iâve worked with many recruited athletes and agree maybe just a handful will go through ED2. Some will go through RD too. All variable from year to year. Things have settled down though since the first two crazy and wild pandemic years.
Generally, ED2 is the most unpredictable round even for the colleges, according to some AOs Iâve spoken with. Beyond having some hooked students in there like athletes or QB unmatched finalists, they are never quite sure what that pool will look like. So they are opportunistic so to speak.
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Agree with all this. Itâs unusual, but even if spots/slots are filled in ED1, a coach can sometimes ask the AD/Admissions for an additional slot for ED2. Not a frequent occurrence, but it happens. In this circumstance, Admissions may ask the coach to give up a slot the following year, depending on the sport and other factors.
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This is my thought too, that something happened to some of the top ED1 recruits (even that they got an offer from another school they preferred) and it was too late for the coach to get the next recruits ready in time for ED1. Or, if the tennis team didnât get their recruits in through ED1, maybe the AD gives those spots to the baseball team or swim team for ED2 just for this year.
I really think there are more EDII athletes than 5.
Didnât want to leave the impression this is a normal thing. In our case, the coach âreallyâ wanted the recruit, and had been in discussions for many months. Recruit was very upfront with the Wes coach that ED would be made elsewhere, and coach said that ED2 would definitely be fine if ED didnât work out. Pre-Reads had been done in the summer.
This wasnât a last minute call to the coach.
Last minute calls to coaches for ED2 definitely occur, but there are so many reasons why these may or may not work out. As pointed out above, not all coaches land their ED/ED1 recruits, so openings can occur. But very unpredictable.
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Friendâs recruited kiddo did ED1 at MIT last year (knowing that it only improved odds to 50/50) was rejected, and then applied ED2 to Wesleyan where they are now attending.
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