@bewilderedmom, I understand your frustration but I think you are drawing an incorrect conclusion. My understanding of how the band system works generally is that a coach has a total number of slots for his/her sport. The slots he/she can use for lower academic bands are more limited than for the top band, but if the coach’s top 4 recruits in terms of athletic ability are all within the top band, and he/she only has 4 slots, then the coach can use all 4 slots on these 4 recruits, and the AO would be thrilled. The coach does not have to use the lower band slot for a lower band kid. The situation you describe might occur if you have a lower band kid who is either better athletically than the higher band kid or the 2 are very close athletically and both on the athletic bubble with the high band kid having a decent chance of getting admitted without the slot, in which case the coach is gambling that the lower band kid will be accepted and the higher band kid will still apply and get in. Remember, the coach’s primary drive is putting together the best team athletically. I can’t speak to how “tips” work because our experience has always been about slots. If tips are something less than slots, I can see how a coach might game the system by using a tip for a top band kid and using an allowed lower band slot on a lower band kid who otherwise would have a hard time getting in.