verbal to a college

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May 13, 2008
29
3
Raleigh NC
in a perfect world

I think it all goes back to the original post. If he hears kids saying they verbaled to a college, in reality it should be after an offer was made. I think you and I understand that. But the concept that a verbal is only as good as the paper it's written on isn't true. Kids who truly have accepted a verbal in reality should stop wasting other coaches time. You should not accept a true verbal offer and continue you're recruiting process because it waste's everyone's time. My daughter had a few colleges on her list. She got a few offers but there were two at the top of the list she was waiting on. We were entirely up front with the other coaches telling them she would be done with the process within a month and she would let them know. She didn't accept any offers and keep talking to the other coaches. In fact, after she did accept the verbal, she wrote all the other coaches thanking them for the interest but she accepted a verbal elsewhere.

A coaches offer is greatly different from that of a players verbal.

At the D1 level, most " verbals" seem to put you on the radar of other schools, especially if it comes during the soph or junior year.
There are certainly talks that go one between a recruit and coach, prior to her senior year, but they are always contingent on the recruit continuing to meet the standards expected by the coach. On the other side, if the coach leaves for what ever reason, all verbal "offers" are off or subject to approval from the new incoming staff.

Signing the NLI secures the athletes position at the school..

D2 and D3 are certainly different. D2, with limited scholarship dollars, tends to sign more kids in the spring, after the fall signing period. The available pool of players get bigger after the fall early signing period. D3, with zero athletic money, also completes their incoming classes in the spring.

My experience ( 11 years D3 Head Coach ) is to recruit everyone, and don't write off anyone. D3 schools typically package all students in the spring, after the parents have filed the previous years taxes, and filled out the FAFSA. Whatever merit scholarship monies awarded, based on academics, along with Pell and Stafford assistance, and other awarded monies ( community based, church, endowment, work study etc) finalize the D3 students package.

The one thing I have learned at D3, it is never over. I have lost kids to D2 and D1 schools, after they have deposited, been assigned roommates and attended orientation at my school. I have also had kids show up the first day of classes, when I was told they committed elsewhere...

Congrats on your daughters signing.
 
Feb 6, 2009
227
0
Understood.
One thing for sure is it's a crazy process lol. We definitely learned alot. I know my DD and I are both glad it's over. She got on a very good team with the right exposure in her Jr Year. We learned that earlier is better and if my younger one wants to play college, we'll definitely start the process a bit earlier.

Thanks for congrats. I hope she enjoys and has a good college experience. She worked hard
 
May 12, 2008
2,214
0
A coaches offer is greatly different from that of a players verbal.

At the D1 level, most " verbals" seem to put you on the radar of other schools, especially if it comes during the soph or junior year.
There are certainly talks that go one between a recruit and coach, prior to her senior year, but they are always contingent on the recruit continuing to meet the standards expected by the coach. On the other side, if the coach leaves for what ever reason, all verbal "offers" are off or subject to approval from the new incoming staff.

Signing the NLI secures the athletes position at the school..

D2 and D3 are certainly different. D2, with limited scholarship dollars, tends to sign more kids in the spring, after the fall signing period. The available pool of players get bigger after the fall early signing period. D3, with zero athletic money, also completes their incoming classes in the spring.

My experience ( 11 years D3 Head Coach ) is to recruit everyone, and don't write off anyone. D3 schools typically package all students in the spring, after the parents have filed the previous years taxes, and filled out the FAFSA. Whatever merit scholarship monies awarded, based on academics, along with Pell and Stafford assistance, and other awarded monies ( community based, church, endowment, work study etc) finalize the D3 students package.

The one thing I have learned at D3, it is never over. I have lost kids to D2 and D1 schools, after they have deposited, been assigned roommates and attended orientation at my school. I have also had kids show up the first day of classes, when I was told they committed elsewhere...

Congrats on your daughters signing.

I'm fine with the D3 limitations...except...the spring financial offer part. The crunch comes when a kid would rather go to your D3 but is not sure she can afford it and she has an athletic offer on the table in the fall she has to answer now. The only thing I'd change about D3 is I'd have the financial package be offered in the early fall instead of the following spring.
 
May 13, 2008
29
3
Raleigh NC
I wish

I'm fine with the D3 limitations...except...the spring financial offer part. The crunch comes when a kid would rather go to your D3 but is not sure she can afford it and she has an athletic offer on the table in the fall she has to answer now. The only thing I'd change about D3 is I'd have the financial package be offered in the early fall instead of the following spring.

I hear ya......unfortunately, I don't see how that will change.....
Best of luck this season.
 
May 12, 2008
2,214
0
Yeah you'd have to use the previous year's W2 to fill out the FAFSA and it's just not going to happen.
 
May 7, 2008
20
1
Yeah, the FAFSA I think can be submitted Jan. 1, so there is no way to move the timeline up to the fall. It's frustrating for us D3 coaches. It's even more frustrating that often times a recruit's parents don't believe us when we tell them in the fall we really don't know how much the bottom line will be and we have no way to tell at that point in time.
 
Feb 6, 2009
227
0
What I found odd was that at the DII level we dealt with 6 schools. 3 of them were readily able to say that they could give a certain amount of athletic and a certain amount of academic based on her grades and SAT's. It was all non need based. So based on that, we had a good idea where we stood. Of the other 3, 1 was a state school so there wasn't much if any acedemic money. The other two schools are good private schools that would not recruit by making an upfront offer. They were both asking the girls to apply and would make decisions after girls were accepted and filled out an estimated FASFA. These two schools are typically in the middle or bottom of the division because they are losing recruits like my daughter to the first 3 schools.
 

MTR

Jun 22, 2008
3,438
48
A verbal isn't on a piece of paper. For that matter, other than acknowledging coaches and players make such informal agreements, the NCAA doesn't recognize them as part of the process.

Verbals became popular as a method to circumvent the NCAA recruiting system. When it comes down to it, they are nothing more than a prospective student-athlete and school agreeing that they are interested in each other. It does not prevent the PSA from talking to any other prospective school or even committing to another school. However,there seems to be a belief among the PSA's supporters that the school should remain true and honor such a "promise".

I can understand a PSA changing their mind finding a different path or set of priorities, but I don't understand why people believe the folks on the other side of the table cannot. Things change, teams change. Verbals are being offered to players at the 14U & 16U level.

At the recent NFCA Convention, it is reported that the college coaches believe the "verbals" have gotten out of hand and something needs to be done.

This is from the 2009-2010 Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete:

Verbal commitment. This phrase is used to describe a collegebound
student-athlete's commitment to a school before he or
she signs (or is able to sign) a National Letter of Intent. A collegebound
student-athlete can announce a verbal commitment
at any time. While verbal commitments have become very
popular for both college-bound student-athletes and coaches,
this "commitment" is NOT binding on either the college-bound
student-athlete or the institution. Only the signing of the National
Letter of Intent accompanied by a financial aid agreement is
binding on both parties.

http://www.ncaapublications.com/Uploads/PDF/2009-10 CBSA_Web5f0f3230-c5fb-422c-8c69-a572338d05be.pdf
 
B

Blind Squirrel

Guest
A verbal isn't on a piece of paper. For that matter, other than acknowledging coaches and players make such informal agreements, the NCAA doesn't recognize them as part of the process.

Verbals became popular as a method to circumvent the NCAA recruiting system. When it comes down to it, they are nothing more than a prospective student-athlete and school agreeing that they are interested in each other. It does not prevent the PSA from talking to any other prospective school or even committing to another school. However,there seems to be a belief among the PSA's supporters that the school should remain true and honor such a "promise".

I can understand a PSA changing their mind finding a different path or set of priorities, but I don't understand why people believe the folks on the other side of the table cannot. Things change, teams change. Verbals are being offered to players at the 14U & 16U level.

At the recent NFCA Convention, it is reported that the college coaches believe the "verbals" have gotten out of hand and something needs to be done.

This is from the 2009-2010 Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete:

Verbal commitment. This phrase is used to describe a collegebound
student-athlete's commitment to a school before he or
she signs (or is able to sign) a National Letter of Intent. A collegebound
student-athlete can announce a verbal commitment
at any time. While verbal commitments have become very
popular for both college-bound student-athletes and coaches,
this "commitment" is NOT binding on either the college-bound
student-athlete or the institution. Only the signing of the National
Letter of Intent accompanied by a financial aid agreement is
binding on both parties.

http://www.ncaapublications.com/Uploads/PDF/2009-10 CBSA_Web5f0f3230-c5fb-422c-8c69-a572338d05be.pdf

Anyone who wants to determine for themselves what a verbal actually means can easily go to Spysoftball.com and find a list dated at least 2 years ago of 2009 verbals. Go down the list and check the current softball roster of each college and see whether or not the kid's name is there. It takes very little time to locate the rosters using Google. I did just that and stopped after all of the first 10 kids that had verballed were on that college's roster.

End of story.

John
 

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