College has some

[Orange Socks]

Forgot to add, I know a currently highly recruited class of 2025 pitcher. She did go tour SDSU but was not impressed with their facilities. Definite curb appeal turn-off. And yes @RADcatcher, the Pokerface appears to be a turn-off as having a coach's enthusiasm makes the player and the parents special.

Casual observations: Kennedy Powell from North of Houston played for UCLA last year. Hit the portal and is now at A&M. Wonder why? Homesick? Academics? Financial? Parents want to see her play in person? Got attacked by some "non-housed" people?

Lauren Hatch also a Houston area talent. Is a Jr. ONLY used as a pinch runner with 0 AB's. Several transferred back to Calif from Arizona too.

 

[D500]

Casual observations: Kennedy Powell from North of Houston played for UCLA last year. Hit the portal and is now at A&M. Wonder why? Homesick? Academics? Financial? Parents want to see her play in person? Got attacked by some "non-housed" people?

Lauren Hatch also a Houston area talent. Is a Jr. ONLY used as a pinch runner with 0 AB's. Several transferred back to Calif from Arizona too.

Definitely agree, they get the experience and adventure of being away and may want to head back home. Might be they've gotten it out of their system, the reality doesn't match the vision, homesick, etc.

 

[earlg3]

Does anyone remember being a 17 or 18yr old with their future in front of them and the chance to live AWAY from your parents? These women have a chance to play in a great program at a school with great curb appeal and experience college life. Why wouldn't they go to college out of state instead of living close to home, so it felt like an extension of high school? Many are being recruited because of their strong mental and physical skills.

The only reason I would think SoCal would have better talent is the fact many of the schools mentioned are state schools, so it would be more affordable. But then they are likely attending more locally as they are not getting offered incentives to play out of state, which likely means you have the better talent recruited out of state.

It seems to be mentioned a lot that fully paid scholarships for softball are pretty rare, so if they have to pay for some out of pocket then out of state is way more expensive, no?

 

[angispeds]

It seems to be mentioned a lot that fully paid scholarships for softball are pretty rare, so if they have to pay for some out of pocket then out of state is way more expensive, no?

Fully paid softball scholarships are rare but fully paid stacked scholarships with academic and/or financial aid are not rare at all. Many coaches will literally calculate what they expect their players to be offered academically and offer the difference athletically to create a full ride.


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[Westwind]

Casual observations: Kennedy Powell from North of Houston played for UCLA last year. Hit the portal and is now at A&M.

Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing specific about this situation.

I can say I have casually observed the A&M coaches and I like what I see. If I had a daughter being recruited I would be investigating A&M. I try to really pay attention to how coaches interact with players. Really noticed that the way they talk to hitters after at bats and when they chose to do it.

As far as the financial stuff- don’t forget the opportunity for NIL money. UCLA is in the Big 10. The Big 10 is light years behind other conferences in television coverage, facilities and my guess is they are also *likely* behind scholarships, cost of living money and NIL.

A&M has an awesome facility, a new stadium. Beautiful campus. The most pleasant school staff I have ever met at a softball stadium. That town just felt polite and orderly. At UCLA she would have found herself pitching in 45 degree weather in the Midwest in a dump stadium with ear warmers on. And she has to live in L.A. DD plays with kids from SoCal. 100% of them absolutely will not go back there after living someplace else. No joke.

 

[Westwind]

I’m also guessing that there is a large pool of NIL for football at A&M. When that happens, it is only a matter of time before someone says “what about the girls?”

People think of NIL as being a big check and a Range Rover for big name recruits. It is also an opportunity for “no name” athletes to make appearances and make real cash that can help them with expenses.

All this is evolving. What is happening at DD’s school wasn’t happening last September and some schools are doing more, some are probably doing nothing so take this with a grain of salt.

 

[Orange Socks]

Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing specific about this situation.

I can say I have casually observed the A&M coaches and I like what I see. If I had a daughter being recruited I would be investigating A&M. I try to really pay attention to how coaches interact with players. Really noticed that the way they talk to hitters after at bats and when they chose to do it.

As far as the financial stuff- don’t forget the opportunity for NIL money. UCLA is in the Big 10. The Big 10 is light years behind other conferences in television coverage, facilities and my guess is they are also *likely* behind scholarships, cost of living money and NIL.

A&M has an awesome facility, a new stadium. Beautiful campus. The most pleasant school staff I have ever met at a softball stadium. That town just felt polite and orderly. At UCLA she would have found herself pitching in 45 degree weather in the Midwest in a dump stadium with ear warmers on. And she has to live in L.A. DD plays with kids from SoCal. 100% of them absolutely will not go back there after living someplace else. No joke.

On other sites, there are a bunch of Ford Naysayers and bashers. I have no opinion thus far. Yeah, CSTAT is a sterile college town with not much to do or see. It's a pretty conservative campus as far as colleges go, but it has been infiltrated by the wokeness as most have. The student population is pretty polite for the most part. They cheer hard and are also polite in defeat too.

And like you said. NIL!!! The motto is "Aggies take of Aggies" and it is very true. The network extends deeply, along with deep pockets. Half of my friends are Aggies and it is so weird that they make that their personality for the rest of their lives. It's a thing for sure. Bama and LSU fans are similar but Aggies take it to another level.

This might be the first year in the past 5 or 6 years that things seemed to have settled down with roster movement. The team seems to be performing well too. Let's see how it plays out.

 

[4Martini]

It seems to be mentioned a lot that fully paid scholarships for softball are pretty rare, so if they have to pay for some out of pocket then out of state is way more expensive, no?

This really depends where you live. Some states fund higher ed more than others. I’m hearing it’s usually cheaper for good students to leave CO because our state schools are expensive and merit money is meager.

 

[bsbs]

Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing specific about this situation.

I can say I have casually observed the A&M coaches and I like what I see. If I had a daughter being recruited I would be investigating A&M. I try to really pay attention to how coaches interact with players. Really noticed that the way they talk to hitters after at bats and when they chose to do it.

As far as the financial stuff- don’t forget the opportunity for NIL money. UCLA is in the Big 10. The Big 10 is light years behind other conferences in television coverage, facilities and my guess is they are also *likely* behind scholarships, cost of living money and NIL.

A&M has an awesome facility, a new stadium. Beautiful campus. The most pleasant school staff I have ever met at a softball stadium. That town just felt polite and orderly. At UCLA she would have found herself pitching in 45 degree weather in the Midwest in a dump stadium with ear warmers on. And she has to live in L.A. DD plays with kids from SoCal. 100% of them absolutely will not go back there after living someplace else. No joke.

The best girl in our area is going to A&M next year, she'll be fun to watch.

 

[Hillhouse]

I can't believe it got all the way to page 4 before anyone mentioned NIL. The can be, and is becoming, the reason kids pick the school they do. Even the D1, P5 football coaches are famously speaking out regarding it's effect on the game. While softball NIL's don't compete with football NIL deals, it's still a factor. There are kids playing football making more money through NIL than some NFL receivers make.

Someone mentioned there not being a lot of full paid scholarships, which is true. The max in D1 softball is 12 scholarships. Coaches can divide those any way they want. But, if you're a highly sought after recruit, especially for pitching, full scholarships are something to choose from. D2 has less scholarships, and of course, D3 doesn't offer any (athletic) scholarships. That said, NAIA schools have no rules. One school here in the outside of Omaha, Bellevue University is an NAIA school and I throw BP to them a lot in the spring. Bellevue has every single player on their team with a full scholarship. Every one. So, if a kid can bypass their desire to be on ESPN and take the education without being $300k in debt afterwards, it's not a bad deal!!!!! And, since they're I'm allowed to throw BP. It would be an NCAA violation if I threw BP to Creighton, UNO, or Nebraska as a team on their campus. Usually closer to the end of the season, I'll get individual requests from players from schools for me to throw BP to them. They use it to prepare them as best they can for the postseason.