From signing day back in February and up through the summer there will be a number of rising seniors that 'pick up offers' from schools. But what exactly is an offer and maybe more important, are all offers the same?
Well, perhaps the question I put forth is a bit ill-posed. As I look back I can recall many a time when someone said they had been offered by a school, but when individuals in the know commented on the specific topic, it was clear that said individual had not been offered. My point with this story is that in many cases there were student-athletes that for a number of reasons, the majority of which benign in nature, simply didn't understand what constituted being offered. Moreover, based on their interactions with a specific school, they had reached a point where in their mind and potentially in the minds of some individuals around them, they had indeed been offered. In fact they had not - in many cases they were simply being recruited officially by the school. This was a recurring story and speaks in many ways to the fact that understanding the system is important to those that are a part of the process.
So what is an offer? The essence of an offer is someone with the college or university officially offering a student-athlete a scholarship [The Full Ride - To Be or Not to Be] to play football. In almost all cases this offer is going to be in the form of a 'verbal offer' initially. In other words, a coach is going to either in person or over the phone inform the student-athlete that they have decided to offer a scholarship. This is important because in some cases the process ends at this point, but in others it continues. In some cases the 'verbal offer' is followed by a 'written offer'. The written offer is literally a piece of paper, looks like a business letter, from the university or college that states in writing that the school is offering a scholarship to the student-athlete. In every instance that I've seen, this document is signed by the head football coach of the school that offered. What is not an offer, is a coach from a school simply talking to you on the phone, at a camp or in any other setting. Or a student-athlete receiving mailers from a school or being listed on a recruiting site. If the head coach or an assistant coach hasn't specifically said they are offering or you haven't received a written letter specifically stating that you have been offered - then in every instance I know, an offer hasn't occurred.
What is important to understand at this point in time is that nothing is 'binding' once all of this occurs. In fact for those that receive a written offer the details are outlined in most cases specifically about how 'solid' the offer is to the student-athlete. In most cases, the written offer will detail that the college or university has the right to withdraw the offer based on a myriad of reasons - typically these are academic, behavior, general good citizen type clauses. In other words, if the student-athlete doesn't meet NCAA or the school's academic standards or gets involved in issues outside of the classroom that might be out-of-line with the standards of the program and school, then the offer could be rescinded. That should make sense to most I would think.
Where it gets a bit interesting is with regard to the scholarship caps for each year, in other words the number of student-athletes a school can bring in each year and how many they can have total on the roster. These are hard numbers set-forth by the NCAA and each year schools have to manage their rosters and incoming classes to meet these numbers. Moreover, with each recruiting class, many schools recruit layers of athletes at positions. The result is that a school will have boards that list their top targets at each position. Student-athletes will be offered typically in that order, but as the process moves forth and targets are being offered throughout the country and accepting offers these boards will change. And it's these changes that potentially can have an impact on those that have been offered or will be offered.
The point here is that for those that have been offered in the written form there are sometimes clauses that outline the hard facts that recruiting classes are limited in size and in affect, there may come a time where a decision needs to be made as to whether or not the student-athlete will accept or decline the offer. To what extent these terms are put forth vary, but I've certainly seen and heard coaches bring forth this point while discussing the offer both verbally and when walking through a written offer.
In most cases with a number of the student-athletes that are fortunate enough to be offered the reality is that if you don't accept the offer, there is someone else on a board that is next in-line and in many cases that student-athlete that is next in-line may have been offered by other schools. The important point to take away from this is that if the school waits indefinitely for you to make a decision, options 2 through 5 might commit elsewhere. Something that is frankly not good for said school. In this environment, schools have to come up with ways to mitigate this from happening and thus protect themselves, while at the same time creating an environment that encourages your acceptance of the offer, while still setting reasonable boundaries on how long you 'look around or consider your options'.
A reasonable approach is for the school that offered you, to also offer options 2, 3 and 4 at the same time or in the general time frame that you were offered. In every instance that I've seen of this, everyone is very much in the know that all have been offered and this is even more the case because of all of the recruiting sites. Typically what follows is that the coaching staffs make clear that at a given position they have X number of slots available. The point should be clear to most involved and that is that waiting too long may mean that others accept offers and fill slots that were once available. It is at this point where offers that once existed may not be there any longer. As I mentioned earlier, in every situation I've been a member of, this entire process has been outlined in fairly clear terms. It is clear that the school is highly interested in the young man and because of this fact has offered. It is also clear that the school is operating in a fluid environment and as such in order to compete on the recruiting front has to establish boundaries and constraints on how they manage the process.
It's hopefully clear at this point that once an offer occurs, the process hasn't come to an end. In fact, as offers begin to come forth, the reality is that the student-athlete and their family are simply confronted with the next step of the process and that is making a decision. I think it's important to add that every school is different and the recruitment of every student-athlete is unique. Student-athletes are slotted on boards for a reason and the reality is that some are more highly sought after than others. In other words, there are certainly some student-athletes out there that can quite frankly wait until signing day to make a decision and no matter where they choose to go, there will be a slot available. But to assume this is the norm for everyone is unrealistic.
The important points are that if you've been offered, it means that a coach has verbally offered you a scholarship and in some cases this is followed up with a written offer. In both cases, it is important as a student-athlete and parent to ask questions concerning the offer. Ask about anything that you don't understand in the written offer and ask about scholarship limits overall and position wise. Is there a time frame that the school is working under that is not necessarily signing day? If you are the parent/guardian/coach of a student-athlete that says they've been offered, inquire with them about the details and follow-up by corresponding with the coach that recruits the area so as to make sure that everything is understood in full.
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