Does this make sense?

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Jul 4, 2014
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One of dd teammates was excited to get her first offer today from a mid major d1. However, to me, it doesn't make much sense. Can someone help interpret this?

Coach offered zero money the first year. Would like parents to fund the first year themselves and said that the school will fund the other 4 years after that. Additionally they will be red shirting her the first year.

Why would they redshirt a freshman who is not a transfer student? Also, why isn't there any money? Not even academic? That's odd isn't it?
 
Last edited:

Me_and_my_big_mouth

witty softball quote
Sep 11, 2014
437
18
Pacific NW
One of dd teammates was excited to get her first offer today from a mid major d1. However, to me, it doesn't make much sense. Can someone help interpret this?

Coach offered zero money the first year. Would like parents to fund the first year themselves and said that the school will fund the other 4 years after that. Additionally they will be red shirting her the first year.

Why would they redshirt a freshman who is not a transfer student? Also, why isn't there any money? Not even academic? That's odd isn't it?
Yikes I'm not convinced I'd really want to entertain that offer. I mean, aren't we encouraging our girls to do this for the opportunity to earn scholarships?

I don't care if my daughter decides not to play in college (Ok, that's a lie but I'd eventually get over it). If she doesn't play, then, I expect her to earn scholarships from her academics instead. Either way, Momma wants a discount education for the years of investment.

Seems like your teammate would be committing to a school who isn't committing to her. Unless it's her dream school, I'd pass and keep looking.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
One of dd teammates was excited to get her first offer today from a mid major d1. However, to me, it doesn't make much sense. Can someone help interpret this?

Coach offered zero money the first year. Would like parents to fund the first year themselves and said that the school will fund the other 4 years after that. Additionally they will be red shirting her the first year.

Why would they redshirt a freshman who is not a transfer student? Also, why isn't there any money? Not even academic? That's odd isn't it?

First academic money is up to you - athletic department has nothing to do with that nor can they offer it directly - at best they can direct you to the right people at the university to help.

When they say 'fund' do they mean fully fund or just partial... that is something you need to be fully aware of. Also are they going to put that in writing since I believe they are now allowed to offer multi-years if they so desire or is it just going to be some verbal agreement that may not be honored for any number of reasons (change of coach, new athletic director, change of NCAA policy, don't feel like it, found someone better, etc, etc). What is your risk here? Are there other players on the same deal?

And also is there even a guarantee they will red-shirt the whole year - mid-season injury and they throw you in and you lose a year eligibility even if you just play an inning. You also take a risk with the red-shirt year - if you get injured in say your sophomore year there is no guarantee the NCAA will grant you an extra year of eligibility and the clock does start once you enroll - 4 years of eligibility over 5 years...you lose a lot of flexibility.

That said, I have seen this sort of offer from a lot of programs - often they see potential but they want basically a free year to develop it - and they have a senior (and possibly another player) who plays the same position as your DD so they don't see her contributing year one anyway. So why not see if they can get a free year out of someone and see if they can get away without having to fund it?

I have also seen schools that actually have a 'freshman' program which allows incoming athletes to red-shirt and spend their first year getting used to college (Virginia I know have this available for some players). Different situation, but again something schools do.

To me this is a "Sounds interesting, you need to give me more details on exactly what it is you are offering, how it works, what guarantees am I getting and how much is it costing me". And if you can get one offer from a D1, there WILL be more. They will not be the only program that will see D1 talent.

Last - cool. No matter the questions - getting an offer is exciting.
 
Last edited:
Dec 19, 2012
1,428
0
One of dd teammates was excited to get her first offer today from a mid major d1. However, to me, it doesn't make much sense. Can someone help interpret this?

Coach offered zero money the first year. Would like parents to fund the first year themselves and said that the school will fund the other 4 years after that. Additionally they will be red shirting her the first year.

Why would they redshirt a freshman who is not a transfer student? Also, why isn't there any money? Not even academic? That's odd isn't it?

Yeah, it makes sense. It's really not that odd of a situation.

There's many reasons to redshirt a student athlete: Not medically ready, not academically ready, not transitionally ready, not physically ready, the team is too deep in talent, etc. The redshirt allows the athlete to practice and workout with the team without burning a year of eligibility. There might not be any money because the team has no money to give for that year. Academic money comes into play only if the student athlete meets the criteria for the academic money at that school.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
Coach offered zero money the first year. Would like parents to fund the first year themselves and said that the school will fund the other 4 years after that. Additionally they will be red shirting her the first year.

They probably don't have any money left to offer players in her graduating class. It's an offer like any other that you just have to weigh the pros and cons.

I mean, aren't we encouraging our girls to do this for the opportunity to earn scholarships?

I think we encourage them to do it (hopefully) because they enjoy it and will benefit from the journey of playing the sport. Most travel ball girls won't play in college, and many of those who do will not get large enough scholarships to off-set the money spent on training and travel. So I don't think it's wise to encourage them to do it b/c of scholarship opportunities. Economically, it would be better to pursue scholarships that aren't so expensive to pursue. Such as academic scholarships.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Is it the academic situation their DD really wants? Is it out of state, if so if they can waive residency requirement that's not terrible. I would look for some sort of commitment, maybe if she pitches they have two senior starters that share the duties but only a junior and sophomore backing them up and they did not get innings last year. If she is just a position/utility player I would be hard press to jump at the offer and certainly would not sign anything although since you are not getting anything, would there be anything to sign? This could go sideways quick and even cost her a year of eligibility if things get crazy definitely keep looking, is she a senior?
 

Me_and_my_big_mouth

witty softball quote
Sep 11, 2014
437
18
Pacific NW
They probably don't have any money left to offer players in her graduating class. It's an offer like any other that you just have to weigh the pros and cons.



I think we encourage them to do it (hopefully) because they enjoy it and will benefit from the journey of playing the sport. Most travel ball girls won't play in college, and many of those who do will not get large enough scholarships to off-set the money spent on training and travel. So I don't think it's wise to encourage them to do it b/c of scholarship opportunities. Economically, it would be better to pursue scholarships that aren't so expensive to pursue. Such as academic scholarships.

I meant overall - I am encouraging my daughter to push herself academically and on the field, so she can get as much scholarship money as she can.

With her travel ball approach, I think it's a two-fer to coaches: Come for the softball, stay for the grades.

She might not be offered big money for DI and that's ok - there are other schools and other oportunities. I just don't know that an offer like that - even though it's exciting - makes sense for a girl who has busted her butt to make the grades, too.

I am not there yet - so it's just guessing on my part. When/if dd gets offers, I guess I'll have a better idea of what is out there for her. Maybe we have unreasonable expectations - but high grades should be good for something, to someone.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
Progressive scholarships have become more and more popular, especially with college coaches verballing 8th and 9th graders.

12 players @ 25% = 3 scholarships freshman year
6 players @ 50% = 3 scholarships sophomore year
4 players @ 75% = 3 scholarships junior year
3 players @ 100% = 3 scholarships senior year

25 players = 12 scholarships

If a players stays all 4 years they will average 62.5%, which is pretty good, but if you look at the numbers you can see the anticipated attrition rate is pretty high.

I would also like to point out that some position players may get more that others, so the % listed are averages across a class.
 
Last edited:
Feb 17, 2015
318
18
USA
Progressive scholarships have become more and more popular, especially with college coaches verballing 8th and 9th graders.

12 players @ 25% = 3 scholarships freshman year
6 players @ 50% = 3 scholarships sophomore year
4 players @ 75% = 3 scholarships junior year
3 players @ 100% = 3 scholarships senior year

25 players = 12 scholarships

If a players stays all 4 years they will average 62.5%, which is pretty good, but if you look at the numbers you can see the anticipated attrition rate is pretty high.

And that's if they are fully funded. My DD visited a D2 last week and they only had 1.5 scholarships available for the whole team.
 

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