Do athletic recruits get decisions before ED?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No athlete is accepted to a school junior year so the verbal commitments mean nothing.

Pretty sure coaches need approval from admissions to recruit. It means something; exactly what varies from school to school and with the recruit’s academic qualifications. The assumption on this thread is that athletes are stupid and have lower scores than traditional admits. Maybe in some sports, but not all

Most athletes are very smart and they have an amazing ability to balance academics and sports. I would hire a college athlete over one who wasn't any day.

And I have two college athletes. I laugh at the "I am going to Stanford to play some non-revenue sport" that is posted in September of Junior year. Recruiting has just started, coaches don't have the definite list they want to give to admissions and a lot can happen between Sept junior year and September senior year.

Also, recruits to top ranked schools usually meet the academic standards also.

Most of this post is pretty solid but this part is 100% wrong for D1 recruiting even at the high academic schools. Mine kid plays a non-revenue sport but had offers starting July of her Junior year. Continued to get more over the course of the year but schools go early and hard for their top recruits.

the coaches job is to recruit and they are ever changing the list when the kids are juniors.

Not for top recruits. My kid had somewhere between 15 and 20 offers had high academic D3 and mid-major D1 schools. She was sometimes given a deadline by some of the D1s but nobody dropped her for another kid without trying to get a commitment instead. Kids getting offers the first week of July are in the drivers seat.

That’s only 1% of athletic recruits. For girls maybe 20%. But it’s a small %.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I follow lacrosse and know some kids who play. Many of the top recruits who are currently juniors (i.e. just started junior year) have very publicly in the last few weeks declared where they are going - fancy IG posts, etc. I'm guessing they wouldn't be doing this unless they had an almost iron clad guarantee they were in (barring them totally screwing up academically). I'm almost sure the same applies for baseball. And likely some other sports.

It is a totally different process. And it is amazing to me that admissions is willing to commit to these kids so early. I'm a huge sports fan but this is really the tail wagging the dog. This is obviously the top, top kids I am referring to but it isn't just one or two it is still a lot.

They have "committed" to the school, they are not "admitted" until Fall of their senior year. They can still be rejected if they change their senior year classes to something less rigorous than agreed upon, or have a disciplinary issue, or their sport gets cut by the school, etc. There is nothing in writing. The coach has committed to give them a roster spot, and admissions has pre-read their transcripts and SATs (and sometimes required an essay/writing sample and list of other ECs) to validate they are admissible.

So the students were cleared by admissions, but there is no contract, either side can break the commitment and the only thing at stake are reputations. Kids won't commit to a school that has a reputation for reneging on offers, and other coaches aren't interested in recruits that have backed out of a commitment. Both do happen tho.

Coaches love their recruits to post publicly because it tells other coaches to back off, and the kid feels more social pressure to follow through on their commitment. Even though no guarantees have been made in writing. Have you noticed that the schools don’t post that a recruit has been signed a year in advance?

This

[Anonymous]

I dont think our high school has ever had a committed athlete not gotten a admission letter.

We've had more regular kids get admitted and then have that admissions rescinded. That's rare but less rare than a committed athlete have the rug pulled away. That school would never recruit again - unless it was a clear violation. We've had kids get seriously injured and unable to play the sport and college kept their word

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont think our high school has ever had a committed athlete not gotten a admission letter.

We've had more regular kids get admitted and then have that admissions rescinded. That's rare but less rare than a committed athlete have the rug pulled away. That school would never recruit again - unless it was a clear violation. We've had kids get seriously injured and unable to play the sport and college kept their word

Athletes who are committed have already had their application reviewed and that’s why they rarely get denied by the school.

Athletes who are recruited by a coach who is fired at the end of the season all lose their offers.

Football players lose their commitment in the summer before senior year all the time.