Question about Scholarship Offers

[Geew1992]

I was looking Vol Nation. The singing class of 2023 has approximately 10 offers. Is that normal? I understand that you offer out of needs and open scholarships. What do you think the average number of scholarships offered per year is? Let's say all 10 commit. What happens to the rest of the team?

 

[bluedevil]

Well 15 are allowed on a team so a few might have to go. That's how the world works sometimes me thinks.

 

[UcMiami]

You never really know who has an official offer - the school cannot comment on recruits/potential recruits until they sign and deliver an offer sheet and the recruits/their people can misrepresent interest with official offers. Nothing prior to the signing and acceptance of a signed offer during the official signing periods for a specific class is actual 'official'.

Schools can say we really want you, but we are interested in two other recruits for that roster spot and the first one who commits gets the spot. Is that an 'official offer'?

 

[CL82]

I don't think (but don't know) that there is a limit on offers. There is a limit on scholarships. It is probably a bad long term strategy to make a lot of offers and then end up retracting the bulk of them every year, but it would certainly make sense to have more offers than openings given that there isn't certainty that every offer will be accepted.

Jim Calhoun would often offer two guys at the same position and tell them that the first to accept will get the position. Basically he'd say take your time, look at all your options but I only have one opening at your position. It is yours if you want it but we have offered others as well.

 

[oldude]

I don’t know about basketball, but for many years, some college football programs would extend more scholarship offers then they had scholarships. The players that signed LOI’s sooner rather than later had scholarships. Those that delayed were sometimes told the scholarship was no longer available. While the practice was considered unethical, it was perfectly legal.

 

[stamfordhusky]

There is no limit whatsoever on offers. Often the players are advised that the offer is dependent on no other player accepting an offer first. Also many offers are conditional in one way or another. Once there are no scholarships available at that position a coach will simply notify the player that the scholarship offer is now off the table.If the player attempts in the interim to accept an offer but none are now available, the school simply advises them that there are no longer any available scholarships.

As an example of how extreme things can get, the Bryant men’s team currently has 143 outstanding scholarship offers while they have exactly 4 open scholarships. That is perfectly OK under the rules. Every men’s program at some point has more offers outstanding then they have available scholarships.

 

[stamfordhusky]

I don’t know about basketball, but for many years, some college football programs would extend more scholarship offers then they had scholarships. The players that signed LOI’s sooner rather than later had scholarships. Those that delayed were sometimes told the scholarship was no longer available. While the practice was considered unethical, it was perfectly legal.

Virtually every college program, football or basketball, extends more offers than they have available scholarships. That is completely necessary since no school ever lands all the players that they extend offers to. It is not considered to be in any way unethical.

 

[bluedevil]

Virtually every college program, football or basketball, extends more offers than they have available scholarships. That is completely necessary since no school ever lands all the players that

Virtually every college program, football or basketball, extends more offers than they have available scholarships. That is completely necessary since no school ever lands all the players that they extend offers to. It is not considered to be in any way unethical.

Kinda like what airlines do.

 

[stamfordhusky]

You never really know who has an official offer - the school cannot comment on recruits/potential recruits until they sign and deliver an offer sheet and the recruits/their people can misrepresent interest with official offers. Nothing prior to the signing and acceptance of a signed offer during the official signing periods for a specific class is actual 'official'.

Actually schools are allowed to extend official offers, in writing, starting on August 1st before a player's senior year - well before the official signing period. Those offers are very "official" but cannot be accepted in writing. At that point most schools have more offers outstanding than they have available scholarships. Prior to August 1st, offers are only verbal.

From having talked to a number of men's assistant coaches, it appears that most offers that players/coaches say they have are legit. No reason to lie and get a reputation among schools/coaches as an unethical person. What is not said, however, is whether the offer is conditional in some way.

 

[oldude]

Virtually every college program, football or basketball, extends more offers than they have available scholarships. That is completely necessary since no school ever lands all the players that they extend offers to. It is not considered to be in any way unethical.

“Virtually every” is not all. To the best of my knowledge, UConn WBB has never done so during Geno’s tenure.

In addition, I’m not talking about something like making 5 offers for 4 available scholarships. Specifically with regard to football, there were programs like Temple in the 70’s that would extend upwards of 40-50 scholarship offers for 25 spots.

 

[Zarathustra]

Good Clarifications, Thanks! It sounds somewhat like admission to college for
academics: Schools receive many individual admissions, accept "X", and "X - y"
accept the acceptance, and then there is "early acceptance" . Not to
mention the " student $$ aid package". It was much different we I applied
to college!

 

[Jibariqua]

unethical, it was perfectly legal.

This should be the motto of the NCAA

 

[LwrcasefaN]

I was looking Vol Nation. The singing class of 2023 has approximately 10 offers. Is that normal? I understand that you offer out of needs and open scholarships. What do you think the average number of scholarships offered per year is? Let's say all 10 commit. What happens to the rest of the team?

Bless you. I find that echo chamber to be quite depressing. Reading it makes me want to hurt myself. lol

 

[uconnfan68]

This should be the motto of the NCAA

Legal like retroactive penalties?

 

[LwrcasefaN]

I don’t know about basketball, but for many years, some college football programs would extend more scholarship offers then they had scholarships. The players that signed LOI’s sooner rather than later had scholarships. Those that delayed were sometimes told the scholarship was no longer available. While the practice was considered unethical, it was perfectly legal.

I hosted many a college house parties where the late arrivals were told...the food was already eaten. The whole bag of chips. lol. Now that's unethical!

 

[stamfordhusky]

“Virtually every” is not all. To the best of my knowledge, UConn WBB has never done so during Geno’s tenure.

In addition, I’m not talking about something like making 5 offers for 4 available scholarships. Specifically with regard to football, there were programs like Temple in the 70’s that would extend upwards of 40-50 scholarship offers for 25 spots.

Most football programs today make more than 50 offers for the possible 25 spots. Some make well over 100.

I will have to check, but I am fairly certain that there have been years when Geno extended more offers than there were open spots.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Most football programs today make more than 50 offers for the possible 25 spots. Some make well over 100.

I will have to check, but I am fairly certain that there have been years when Geno extended more offers than there were open spots.

I just took a look at Rivals data base for football. The majority of D1 programs made over 150 offers to the Class of 2021. Auburn had over 250.

And it's not just football-mad schools. Of the three Patriot League schools where there are good data bases (Holy Cross, Lehigh, Bucknell), all made over 100 offers for about 20 spots.

 

[oldude]

I just took a look at Rivals data base for football. The majority of D1 programs made over 150 offers to the Class of 2021. Auburn had over 250.

And it's not just football-mad schools. Of the three Patriot League schools where there are good data bases (Holy Cross, Lehigh, Bucknell), all made over 100 offers for about 20 spots.

Where on Rivals is there any mention of how many official scholarship offers each D1 school extended to recruits? Schools are prohibited from talking about recruits until they sign LOI’s.

 

[JonathanXIV]

I was looking Vol Nation. The singing class of 2023 has approximately 10 offers. Is that normal? I understand that you offer out of needs and open scholarships. What do you think the average number of scholarships offered per year is? Let's say all 10 commit. What happens to the rest of the team?

Ten offers? That’s a slow day with Jeff at Louisville.

 

[bluedevil]

Ten offers? That’s a slow day with Jeff at Louisville.

Has he stopped recruiting at day care centers?

 

[stamfordhusky]

Where on Rivals is there any mention of how many official scholarship offers each D1 school extended to recruits? Schools are prohibited from talking about recruits until they sign LOI’s.

There are other sources that are over 90% reliable according to various coaches. It's possible that Auburn's 270 offers were really only 255.

 

[Vowelguy]

I will have to check, but I am fairly certain that there have been years when Geno extended more offers than there were open spots.

I’m sure he has too. How can you not?

maybe if you’re at the top of the pecking order, like UConn has been the last 15 years, you can be very conservative in your offers, but no one else can.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I've always been curious about how the Ivy League operates. Yes, they don't offer "athletic scholarships." But I keep hearing that coaches make "offers" to student-athletes, and that the students "accept" some sort of offer sheet. Anyone know how this works? They are D I, but no explicit athletic scholarships, supposedly.

Curious.

 

[oldude]

There are other sources that are over 90% reliable according to various coaches. It's possible that Auburn's 270 offers were really only 255.

Reliable sources? Call me skeptical. I have no doubt that schools initially contact 100’s of prospects starting after their sophomore year in HS. But from my experience, most schools boil down those prospects to 30 or so whom they offer, with the hope of signing 20+.

 

[UcMiami]

I think as mentioned above August 1 of their senior year is the earliest date that an actual legal documented offer can be extended (signed by the school representative. As an example right now in the 2022 class 50% of the top 50 recruits (ESPN) are already verbally committed and I expect a lot more to make commitments in the next month. I would imagine on August 1 Uconn will send the verbally committed players a signed offer. I suspect that they will not send out any other signed offers until they get another verbal commitment (whether that is made public of not.) And like playing time, I doubt Geno has made a firm commitment to any other players verbally, except to say 'if you verbally commit before anyone else, you have a place on our team.'

I think the above is probably standard practice - I cannot imagine any University being happy with a coach who has legally guaranteed a scholarship that may not be available if the athlete accepts.