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D1 College Verbals

by C77fastpitch » Thu Sep 07, 2017 3:21 am

I had a parent ask me how late is too late to get verballed by D1 schools. They told me they thought that after the freshman year in high school, it's too late. It's been a while for me, is this really true? Please help!
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by eclipse09 » Thu Sep 07, 2017 7:22 am

C77fastpitch wrote:I had a parent ask me how late is too late to get verballed by D1 schools. They told me they thought that after the freshman year in high school, it's too late. It's been a while for me, is this really true? Please help!



My daughter had a teammate that didn't hook up with a smaller D1 school until her Senior year (no verbal at all that I know about). I think it is never too late, but I would assume the bigger D1's move on each year based on grad year.
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by C77fastpitch » Fri Sep 08, 2017 1:03 am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to be verballed means that the college must hold up to their side of the contract, while the girl can choose another team before she graduates from high school. If this is true, it seems to me that the college that's offering the verbal is taking a big chance. A lot can happen to a freshman before she becomes a senior!
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by BB2830 » Fri Sep 08, 2017 1:24 am

A verbal is just a verbal, no commitment on either side. What if a coach leaves? What if a player stops progressing? Puts all the power in the hands of the college. Unlike other sports, in softball if a player verbals it is hands off from the rest of the colleges. If that coach leaves and the incoming coach doesn't want the player they are left without an option. Had a HS teammate of my DD that committed as a Freshman to a Big 10 school, coach left after her Junior year and the incoming coach had their own recruits so she lost her scholarship and wound up at a D3. The college coaches have all the power under the current structure, think the process needs to change. Even if they honor the commitment, how do you expect a 14 year old to truly have an idea of what they want to study or where they want to attend college at that age? The system is broken.
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by C77fastpitch » Wed Sep 20, 2017 12:47 am

BB2830- If what you say is correct, it most definitely should change. Under the conditions as you explained it, it would be foolish for a high school student to verbal at all. Even if a student were to secure a highly valued scholarship to a school like Stanford, there would be no guarantee that Stanford would live up to it's side of the verbal agreement. This couldn't be called a contract, and would most likely end up in court.
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by Sid Barrett » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:38 am

My DD is just starting her sophomore year in college so my info may be a little out of date, but...From what we experienced during her travel days, most Power 5 type programs start making offers during the summer between 9th and 10th grade, with the players accepting those offers in the fall of 10th grade. Mid-majors make offers around the same time with players accepting later in their sophomore year. Smaller D-1 programs usually make offers and get acceptances later, usually during a player's junior year. The D-2/3 and NAIA programs typically make and confirm offers during a player's senior year. Of course their are always exceptions.

One of the previous comments noted that it would be foolish for a player to accept a verbal offer at all. I agree that the system stinks and the University holds all of the juice. However, if a verbal offer is made and a player doesn't accept it, that coach moves on and makes that offer to another player, probably within 10 minutes of being rejected, if its a major or mid-major D-1. Each school has only so many athletic scholarship dollars to hand out, so if a player waits, they most likely will find themselves on the outside looking in.

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by sdiamond » Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:17 pm

This is what I found regarding verbals:

The oral or verbal agreement is not binding in anyway. When a coach offers an athlete a scholarship or a spot on the roster, depending on the situation or sport, it means that if the athlete commits that spot is taken (in word only). If the athlete doesn’t commit, the offer is there until someone else commits to fill that spot. Remember, each sport has only a limited number of spots available in a year.

A verbal offer is made by the sport’s coaching staff and not by the school or athletic department. Usually, there is an agreement between the athletic director and the coaching staff that they are only offering student athletes that meet the department’s, school’s and NCAA’s requirements.

Because the offer is not binding, either the athlete or the university can back out of the commitment at any time. Many athletes do.

When I was at UCLA we’d lose one or two committed players a year at most but we could usually see it coming.

The offer and subsequent commitment is much more sacred to the school’s coaching staff for a couple reasons:

1) The PR of withdrawing a spot from a committed player is tough to overcome especially with the athlete’s high school. It may take a college coach a long time to heal that wound.
2) Other college coaches will use it against you forever or as long as it is effective, saying that a player can’t trust your word which is huge in recruiting. With the internet involvement, the word will spread far and wide.

We had a steadfast policy at UCLA that when we offered a scholarship, nothing short of legal problems, a major violation of high school rules or academic failures would we rescind a committed player’s scholarship. Even if the athlete was injured playing his sport, we would honor the commitment.

The “verbal agreement” is only as good as the word of the people involved!!
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by genbender69 » Mon Sep 25, 2017 3:19 pm

They have been verbaling 7th and 8th graders now. The system needs to change.
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by C77fastpitch » Thu Sep 28, 2017 11:32 pm

Very informative!! A lot to think about, it would seem to me that changes are long over due.
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