2011 players thinking of full ride guarantees????

[Tucson]

If I am a new coach at a top D1, I wouldn't want locked into any verbals, made by the previous coach. i would want my own recruits.

[Demonboy]

I dont know all the ins and outs of what is and isnt allowed by NCAA, but I do know that we were told 4 years ago that we could talk to colleges and they could respond, but, they could not approach us at all until the summer between junior and senior years. We were also told that no money could be discussed until this same timeframe. If in fact this is true, how could college coaches be promising money to freshman and sophomors?
Sooner or later the college coaches will figure out they are spinning thier wheels looking at the younger girls. Ya, some of them pan out, but I can probably rattle off the names of 100 girls that had college potential and quit by the time they were 18. Can probably rattle off an equal number of names of girls who were studd players at 12-15, but sat on their duffs and didnt work hard and are now the bench warmers while others worked their tails off and got better.

Simple. It's not true. They do talk money with early verbals.

[Slider]

NCAA recruiting guidelines are very specific as to when, where, and how high school players can be approached. The best advise to parents who are looking for college scholarships is to check out those rules at the following link:

[url]http://www.ncaa.org/library/general/cbsa/2007-08/2007-08_cbsa.pdf[/url]
You can view the latest 2007-2008 Guide for College-Bound Student-Athletes. If you look at page 29 & 30 there is a table that provides you with what you can and can not do at the various grade levels and it breaks it down based on Div I, II, and III.

Recruiting violations are a serious infraction that could create long term problems for high school athletes. Also softball parents need to be aware that the rules for softball, football, basketball, etc are not the same. The rules vary from sport to sport!

The reality is if your daughter is that good she needs to keep her options open. Colleges will be after her!

[Blind Squirrel]

I don't know poo about the technical aspects of FP so I'm not inclined to comment. Having a daughter that verballed last summer, I have some first hand experience in that area and may be able to provide some real world insight to the discussion. I write this to give folks of younger kids an idea of how it may play out. I was literally clueless before it happened.

There are college softball programs that seek to recruit players they believe have what it takes to help their programs down the road. They want to lock these kids up before someone else does. As a result, kids are offered scholarships in very specific terms. The percentage of tuition, the amount of the housing allowance as well as the availability of free medical and dental care.

These coaches know how to recruit. When you visit, you get seriously worked (I mean that in a good way). We had a series of prearranged meetings with academic folks, the trainer, the individual coaches on staff and were given a tour of the campus and sports facilities. During one of the meetings I specifically asked the head coach about the prospects of them leaving for another school and how much we could depend on them to make good on a verbal commitment. The coach said that if they withdrew offers that they had made and had been verbally accepted, that they would quickly get a reputation for doing so and they would no longer be able to get kids to verbal. This would completely undermine their ability to get the level of players they were interested in getting. At the end of the show, the scholarship discussion took place in the head coaches office. The coach made a detailed offer including it's monetary value, that if she red-shirted it could include a fifith year and asked my kid what she thought. My first response was shock that my kid could actually go to a decent college for free because of her perceived ability to play softball. My second thought as my kid hesitated to respond was that there is no way a 16 year old should be in this position. I had no clue what I would do after HS short of probably going to college somewhere. I had no idea what I wanted to study so I had no idea which school I should attend. After my kid responded that she really liked it, she looked at me and there was silence. I told the coach that we already had plans to visit another interested school in one month. We went back and forth a bit when the coach said that if they found someone else during that month who they made the same offer to and it was verbally accepted, then the offer to my kid was gone. I thought about it for a minute and decided, based on what I read in my kid's behavior and what I thought of the school and the coaches, that she should accept. She told the coach she accepted their offer and was very excited about playing there for her.

My view of the whole thing is that it is plain wrong on a number of levels. Coaches are forced to evaluate kid's ability years before they will be in college. Kids are forced to make decisions, albeit with parental guidance, way too early. IMO all college coaches should get together and agree to not make any offers before a kid is a senior. NCAA rules are meaningless words that coaches routinely circumvent.

Out of time.

John

[DunninLA]

Thanks for sharing that story squirrel.

I don't know why it reminded me of my first negotiation with an auto dealer when I was five years out of college.

It was classic. The salesperson and I discussed price, and I thought it was too high. He told me he didn't have the authrority to go any lower, but that if I would commit to buy the car with some concession by the Manager, he would discuss with the sales manager and have an answer within five minutes.

Well, I got one of the two things I wanted, but felt like the whole transaction was sleazy. Ever since that experience, I have made an ABSOLUTE RULE to never make a decision in front of the offeror in the same moment that the offer is made. For the offeror to ask for an on the spot decision is just plain rude, and reminds me of boiler room sales tactics.

I have purchased probably 10 cars since that time from dealerships, both new and used. My wife and I always politely excuse ourselves, indicate we will have dinner and think over their offer, and come back with our decision. Either that, or on one I bought it via emailing the "internet sales manager".

I wish everyone would learn to LEAVE a high pressure sales situation to have a cup of coffee or meal to think it over. Fewer bad decision would result.

[Fasterpitch]

They do talk money with people that verbal. It is not set in stone, but you do have a very good idea.