My son just received a 45% offer at a D-1 school here in the Midwest. Considering we are out of state, that amounts to about $10,000/year which is obviously a good chunk.

They basically told him that CF was his position to lose as a Freshman, and that they expected him to be a 4 year starter. I realize that might be a bit of a sales pitch, but if true,shouldn't the offer be a bit higher?

I understand that OF's are not typically the highest priority, but if they really expect him to be a 4 year starter, I would think they would offer more?

He has recived a full offer from a good JUCO, but Mom doesn't want that. Also, a good offer from a small D-2, but son wants a larger school than the 2000 enrollment this one has.

3 more D-1 visits planned and all have indicated that they would make an offer at visit.

Thanks for any advise on this matter!

gitnby, it's hard to know whether your son's offer at this particular school should be higher, given the coach's prediction that he'll be a 4-year starter. There are a lot of variables to consider. Perhaps the school has a lot of money already tied up with upperclassmen. Perhaps it's needing to save the bulk of its scholly money for pitchers. Perhaps the school was desperate for a catcher and threw 100% at one with a 9.5 PG rating.

I know of one '09 middle-infielder here in Texas who was offered 100% by a mid-major, 60% by a top-40 school, and 40% by a perennial powerhouse. He chose to attend the 60% school. Most likely, his decision was based on his gut feeling about the school and its program after looking at all 3 offers.

It's awesome that your son has more offers coming his way! My recommendation is to field all the offers, visit all the schools, and ask lots of questions at each school. After it's all said and done, I predict you'll have your answer of which school your son should attend.

Best wishes!

quote:

Originally posted by Infield08:

My recommendation is to field all the offers, visit all the schools, and ask lots of questions at each school. After it's all said and done, I predict you'll have your answer of which school your son should attend.

Gitnby, you couldn't have gotten better advise than that above! For those of us who've been through this process, no action is the best action until you've seen and/or talked to every school, coach, player, etc. However exciting it is right now for your son and you, it's best that you remain calm headed around your son (the best you can!) and tell him it's best that he speak to everyone he can. No need to be in a hurry, sign, and regret it later...as in the spring.

As far as how money is typically given out..Infield was correct again. Usually the Pitchers, catchers, and MIF's are the recepients up front and early.

Good luck and keep us informed as to how it goes!

People tend to throw a lot of numbers around when they talk about their kid. I cringe everytime I hear 100% thrown out there, it's very, very uncommon. Anything over 50% for a pitcher, the number one priority, is uncommon.

For the most part, outfielders are the red headed stepchild of the scholarship game.

I would guess, that if your scholarship offer is that high, and I do believe it is very high for an outfielder, they must be trying to get you to forego the MLB draft and come to school.

Just remember that these are my opinions, and by no means should you consider them expert, just an informed parent. Boil all the fluff away, and is saving $10,000 a good deal to you? Is it from the school junior wants to attend? Your gut will probably know the answers to those questions, make sure you're listening, which can be a very hard thing for a parent, and I am not the exception.

Best of Luck!

I would guess, that if your scholarship offer is that high, and I do believe it is very high for an outfielder, they must be trying to get you to forego the MLB draft and come to school

We have no indication that that is a possibility?

I'm not sure he's that good?

Excellent advice offered in this thread.

My take is a wee bit different. For starters, 45% is an outstanding offer as CPLZ noted. There are only 11.75 per team. If they start giving 100% out to a few guys, the rest of the team will be composed of walk-on players. Unless the amount makes a big difference to your family's bottom line, you might want to consider other factors such as is the school a good baseball, cultural, and academic fit for your son. Baseball wise, the most important question (imho) is do they win? Getting 100% at a loser would not be worth it to me and especially my son. On the other hand, if it were all about the finances, it just might be worth it to your family.

If you find your dream school, I would accept the offer. Playing the field after you have found the ideal fit might cost you the opportunity to play there. If the only issue is playing them for more money, then it might not be the right fit for him.

I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions!

Cleveland Dad, I am not looking to play them for more money.
I am just asking more as a matter of comparison to other offers that may be coming.
None of the other schools are promising anything regarding playing time,as it should be, so maybe the 45% is the highest he should expect?

BTW,the amount offered is way down the list of important factors for us.

My son is a couple of years away so I know very little about this subject, but can add that the center fielder from my son's team was offered 25% at a top 50 D1 this summer. I think they were going to give him the opportunity to start in his Freshmen season. They were negotiating for more but have not talked to them in a while to know the final outcome. I know that the coach was helping them get scolly $.

I am not trying to be sarcastic but every one brought in has the opportunity to start. The expectations for players will be different coming in based on what they have seen prior to coming. But the performance once they have arrived will determine the role and the playing time for each player. Regardless of how much money you are given or not given to come.

No coach trying to recruit a player is going to say "You will not start and you will not have the opportunity to start." I would be very leery of any coach at any program who promised any kid a starting posistion. Opportunity of course. Thats what it is , an opportunity.

Nobody "promised" him a starting position.
They are losing their CF to graduation and told us that they were only going to sign one outfielder this coming year.
They said that the spot was his to lose. Obviously he has to perform!

Got a PM from someone today who said that at a typical D-1 school, the scholarship breakdown can look something like this:

13 pitchers @ 50% average scholly= 6.5
2 catchers at 50% = 1
4 Middle infielders at 50% average= 2


That leaves 2.2 for 4-5 OF's and 1B and 3B, and utility players.

Interesting!

Anf then have the new rules regarding minimum 25 % for X amount of players

bottom-line: 45% for an OF is a very good offer. Mnay OF get 25%. Some 50-60% but that is rare unless someone is a top30 school player and a mid-major makes an offer to keep them away from the top schools.

Defining scholarship percentages by position does have some validity but is confusing the issue. My son was a two way player and different schools recruited him for different positions. In talking to the coaches during the recruiting process (prior to the offer) I listened as they prefaced their scholarship offer. Most will tell you WHY they have come to their conclusion. I think there are many factors that determine the scholarship amount. Some are:
Funding
Scholarships Available
Team Needs
Talent
Player Needs

At the school my son ultimately signed the coach also signed an outfielder at the same time. My son and he were both 5th round draft picks and I will wager they both had identical scholarships because the factors listed above were basically identical.

Do individual pitchers get more? Yes but it's because their talent and the team's needs CAN elevate them to a higher level than most position players. At the same time there are a lot of "walk-on" and "books only" pitchers too.

In my opinion talent is the major influence controlling scholarship amounts. A D-1 offered my son a 100% scholarship and since my son was a two way player I asked at what position they wanted him. The coach's answer surprised me. "Any position he wants to play".

One thing I would keep in mind is that scholarships offers are often withdrawn. When we din't accept the 1st offer the coach started withdrawing offers to accumulate the money to make us a counter offer.
45% for an outfielder is a decent offer. Most athletes will not reveal the amount they get and are told by nthe coach to not discuss the offer with anyone.
I would seriously question anyone who says they got a full ride. I see this all the time and the public believes that all BB players get one. 1 BB player doesn't make a team no matter how good he is.

IMO, the offer is only a good one if all criteria are met for the right fit for the player.

Son would have received state money if he attended UF, they threw in the balance, which would have made it a "full ride" to some. It would have cost us nothing to send him to Gainesville, but for him, it was not the right place for him.

Never base your decision on who will give you the most, consider all factors.

We didn't. We had better offers in terms of money but the location and competition was not as good.

BHD,
Hopefully with the hiring of Lake, CSU will be able to get back on track, play a more competitve schedule and be able to compete in their conference.
We passed by the school a few years ago, great location, I love Charleston.

My son is very excited about the changes. They have a great P coach which is the 4th in 4 years. They have also vowed to get back to playing the top teams again. It may be late for my son but they have committed more funds . They even dropped the successful tennis team are are diverting those funds to BB.
We were dissappointed with the changes that occured and especially the lack of a good P coach after the freshman year. My personal feeling is that the coach dropped the teams like FS,USC Mizz S and others to try and save his job with a better win/loss record but it demoralized the team.
My son chose the school because of location and the schedule. Thank god Charleston is still there. We are heading down for the parent weekend Oct 17th. I haven't seen my son this excited for awhile.
I knew last season that the coach would be gone. There were too many seniors complaining on their exit letters. I did feel sorry for him because he was recruiting some very talented players but couldn't get the team to perform. One guy just quit in the middle of the year last year and several were not coming back until they heard he was gone. We had 3 freshmen on the louisville freshman 1st team out of 5. The talent was there but the coaching wasn't.
The 1st P coach was very good but he left due to issues with the HC.
This is why recruits should be careful when picking a college. Coaches change quite often and some times with devastating results. I have always pushed location and academics as the most important factor in chosing a college.

One thing that is often not discussed here on the HSBBW, all programs, even the best have issues.

We could all relate to that because we work, we have days we don't want to go to the office and other days we can't wait to get there. All depends what's going on with the boss that day, or how well or not well the company is doing, etc. In other words there's lots of BS and PC we have to get through in a day, and college sports programs are no different in that respect. I worked for a top fortune 500 company that you are all familiar with, it was not the best years that I put in on my job or my career. Yet when I told people where I worked, they thought I was such a lucky person to be there. It became especially difficult after changes began to take place, new bosses with different views from the last one. Or in a few cases, supervisors who most likely shouldn't be in that position. The one saving grace for most of us is that we loved each other as coworkers.

Since most of our son's never worked, it's hard for them to relate. So it's our job to try to make them understand that there are many considerations in the recruiting process.

That's why I cringe when I hear folks say their players choose the school primarily for baseball or for the offer. The baseball program should be only one PART in the decision.

Mine went to a program with a winning tradition and everything one would want from a baseball program. But there were times (luckily not that often) that he was glad when he left the field or after a tough loss that he loved where he was to offset frustrations he felt from the pressures of baseball.

First point in response to all the above:

I spent some time looking into what might be considered "going rates" for D-I deals, assuming the school has funded its full allotment.

There basically seemed to be two separate scales for pitchers and for offensive players.

Pitchers: 50% indicates you are considered a strong candidate to really get time on the mound. Weekend starter potential could mean 70%. If you want more than that you need to be in a great negotiating position, someone viewed as having immediate impact and perhaps being courted by other schools (bidding war).

Offense: 25% is not really the minimum, 0% is. Lots of guys get 0% and are happy for the opportunity, maybe a thumb on the scales with admissions. 25% is the minimum for those who get some baseball money. This is a tough threshold for many to get. Offers of 1/3 or higher indicate you are projected as a future starter. 50% indicates stud hitter. 70% indicates elite hitter, immediate impact player.

Now, this is sweeping with a pretty broad brush. There are hundreds of programs and they all do things differently, so this is admittedly just a very rough guide. If you live in FL and you qualify for Bright Futures, baseball might pick up room, board and books and you are attending school for free at that point. If you want to play for Miami, the fact that they have so many studs wanting to play there allows them to force players to take lesser percentages, which in turn allows them to get more stud guys on the team (quality roster depth). Some schools rely on their academic reputations to sell the school and thus get guys to take lesser %'s as well, to the same end.

All of which means, any given school might scoff at my numbers above, but I think they are OK as a general guideline. All of which leads me to say that 45% to a catcher is a darned good offer.