Verbal commitments and NCAA Golf Recruiting Rules

[leezer99]

1 hour ago, heavy_hitter said:

Have you ever heard of a College Golf Coache fired because they didn't win?  I haven't.  If they are fired it is because of something else.

Not a matter of getting fired but you’ll never go from a D3 assistant coach job to a D1 head coach position if you consistently lose. 

[tiger1873]

23 minutes ago, leezer99 said:

Not a matter of getting fired but you’ll never go from a D3 assistant coach job to a D1 head coach position if you consistently lose. 

 

It's honestly not that hard of a job. All you need to do is be honest and have kids like you.   If you do that everything else will pretty much take care of themselves. The ones that lose a lot have too much bs going on.

[heavy_hitter]

3 hours ago, leezer99 said:

Not a matter of getting fired but you’ll never go from a D3 assistant coach job to a D1 head coach position if you consistently lose. 

D1 coaching job in golf is about who you know not what you know or how many wins you have.  

[admork]

Interesting posts in here!

On a side note, the NCAA just pushed the recruiting dead period until April 15th 2021.

[Golfingdawg19]

 I was just talking to Heavy Hitter last night about recruiting. My buddy has a son who is 13 and one of the top kids in his age group. If he keeps it up, he should be able to go wherever he wants. The questions is what separates all the big programs? Is it who puts people on tour, who has the best facilities, the best degree, etc. What should you look at when considering colleges for golf. When you do unofficial visits, you can obviously stop by the course. Can anybody just walk in the college golf facilities on their own and tour them? 

[Abh159]

2 hours ago, Golfingdawg19 said:

 I was just talking to Heavy Hitter last night about recruiting. My buddy has a son who is 13 and one of the top kids in his age group. If he keeps it up, he should be able to go wherever he wants. The questions is what separates all the big programs? Is it who puts people on tour, who has the best facilities, the best degree, etc. What should you look at when considering colleges for golf. When you do unofficial visits, you can obviously stop by the course. Can anybody just walk in the college golf facilities on their own and tour them? 

 

That is a very open ended question with no one specific answer, and what to look for in choosing a school could be a whole other thread altogether. I sent you a message with my thoughts on this. 

 

To answer your other question about the facilities... Most will have signs saying they are for team members only and may even have a number code or badge reader lock on the doors (mine did at least). Even if it's unlocked it's going to be pretty awkward if you just stroll in unannounced. Your best option would be to try and contact someone from the athletic department and see if you could have a tour.

Edited November 19, 2020 by Abh159
Grammar

[heavy_hitter]

52 minutes ago, Abh159 said:

 

That is a very open ended question with no one specific answer, and what to look for in choosing a school could be a whole other thread altogether. I sent you a message with my thoughts on this. 

 

To answer your other question about the facilities... Most will have signs saying they are for team members only and may even have a number code or badge reader lock on the doors (mine did at least). Even if it's unlocked it's going to be pretty awkward if you just stroll in unannounced. You're best option would be to try and contact someone from the athletic department and see if you could have a tour.

 

 

Recruiting has changed a lot over the last several years.  From what I understand, they can't give unofficial tours anymore until your Junior year.

[leezer99]

3 hours ago, heavy_hitter said:

 

 

Recruiting has changed a lot over the last several years.  From what I understand, they can't give unofficial tours anymore until your Junior year.

 

You can still make unofficial visits but the coaches can't meet and speak with you until after August of your Junior year.

[Abh159]

13 hours ago, leezer99 said:

 

You can still make unofficial visits but the coaches can't meet and speak with you until after August of your Junior year.

 

Basically an unofficial visit is you taking your kid to campus and the facilities to look around just like any other non-athlete parent could do with their kid. My dad and I would try and do this when I was younger if we were playing in a tournament relatively close to a school I was interested in. 

 

An unofficial visit just means that the entire thing has to be financed by the kid (or his family). For the most part the coach, team, or athletic department cannot contribute in any way. They can't take you to lunch, they can't get you a hotel room, etc.

 

If I remember correctly I think you're allowed 5 official visits (and 1 per school). In all honesty by the time you get to that point you should really have your choices narrowed down to no more than 5 schools anyway. 

[chrissdc]

It is good that official visits can start your junior year. I’m the past when they only started senior year, it just didn’t seem like enough time with the whole pressure thing to announce a verbal and then sign NLI by Mid November.

[heavy_hitter]

9 hours ago, chrissdc said:

It is good that official visits can start your junior year. I’m the past when they only started senior year, it just didn’t seem like enough time with the whole pressure thing to announce a verbal and then sign NLI by Mid November.

Still can't take an official visit until Senior year.  

 

What has changed is unofficial visits.  In the past an 8th grader could show up and Coach could talk to him.  Now they can't do that until they are Juniors.

 

They still need to tighten the recruiting and reel it in.  These coaches shouldn't be able to verbally offer a kid until they are a junior.  It has clouded the process.

[chrissdc]

4 hours ago, heavy_hitter said:

Still can't take an official visit until Senior year.  

 

What has changed is unofficial visits.  In the past an 8th grader could show up and Coach could talk to him.  Now they can't do that until they are Juniors.

 

They still need to tighten the recruiting and reel it in.  These coaches shouldn't be able to verbally offer a kid until they are a junior.  It has clouded the process.

With the recent changes about a year a half ago I was under the impression that official visits can start Junior year.

I read this on several websites and spoke with a local coach about a year ago. Have the recruiting rules changed?

https://www.ajga.org/parents/recruiting/college-recruiting-overview

[heavy_hitter]

On 11/21/2020 at 1:59 PM, chrissdc said:

With the recent changes about a year a half ago I was under the impression that official visits can start Junior year.

I read this on several websites and spoke with a local coach about a year ago. Have the recruiting rules changed?

https://www.ajga.org/parents/recruiting/college-recruiting-overview

Interesting.  That must have changed and I was unaware.  I really haven't done my due diligence to keep up with it.

[TripleBogeysrbetter]

Good read for recruiting.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Athletic-Scholarship-Playbook-Complete-Recruiting-ebook/dp/B07475HCHH

 

https://recruit-me.com/system/ 

 

There is a lot of information on the website but the podcast discusses unofficial and official several different times. 

 

Having gone through it now with my son it's a marathon not a sprint.

Edited December 1, 2020 by TripleBogeysrbetter

[nuthin but a hacker]

We went to a college day for kids looking to play college golf last year. There were 18 coaches there from schools in this area, both boys and girls coaches. Half said they didn’t want to sign kids to play who were going into any kind of medical field. Several said they didn’t want kids going into engineering fields. They all said the academic time requirements left too little time for golf. 

 

Our kid is a junior and has made one official visit to a school. We’ve been contacted by a couple of other coaches but they’re not places she’d want to go. 

[Golfingdawg19]

What is the rule on colleges giving golfers in-state tuition rates to entice them to come to their school? It seems like staying in state would make the most sense for kids who have that opportunity. I live in Georgia and we have the HOPE scholarship which pays a percentage of the kids college costs based on what their grades are. You couple that with a golf scholarship and you would have most things paid for. If you were to go out of state, then you have out of state tuition (normally double the in state cost) plus no HOPE scholarship. That is why I wondered if school can waive those out of state costs to help lure recruits.

[Abh159]

4 minutes ago, Golfingdawg19 said:

What is the rule on colleges giving golfers in-state tuition rates to entice them to come to their school? It seems like staying in state would make the most sense for kids who have that opportunity. I live in Georgia and we have the HOPE scholarship which pays a percentage of the kids college costs based on what their grades are. You couple that with a golf scholarship and you would have most things paid for. If you were to go out of state, then you have out of state tuition (normally double the in state cost) plus no HOPE scholarship. That is why I wondered if school can waive those out of state costs to help lure recruits.

 

There are no rules specific to athletes that are any different from all other students. If you qualify for in state tuition you pay it and if you don't you pay out of state. 

 

Scholarships aren't necessarily based on dollars if that makes sense. For men's golf they have 4.5 scholarships available. Those can be used for either in state or out of state tuition. If you receive 0.5 of a scholarship then you get 50% of your tuition paid for regardless of how much that it.

 

You could definitely use the in state vs out of state costs to entice someone, but you can't give an out of state student in state tuition rates just because he/she is an athlete. At least you can't do this legally but that doesn't mean teams/schools don't find a way to do it.

[Golfingdawg19]

20 hours ago, Abh159 said:

 

There are no rules specific to athletes that are any different from all other students. If you qualify for in state tuition you pay it and if you don't you pay out of state. 

 

Scholarships aren't necessarily based on dollars if that makes sense. For men's golf they have 4.5 scholarships available. Those can be used for either in state or out of state tuition. If you receive 0.5 of a scholarship then you get 50% of your tuition paid for regardless of how much that it.

 

You could definitely use the in state vs out of state costs to entice someone, but you can't give an out of state student in state tuition rates just because he/she is an athlete. At least you can't do this legally but that doesn't mean teams/schools don't find a way to do it.

Makes sense what you are saying for sure. Based on that, you would be crazy in most cases to go out of state for golf unless you just have a bunch of money. Assuming my daughter plays well enough to receive a scholarship to play golf, if she stays in our state then everything should be covered. Between her golf scholarship and her academics, we wouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket. If she goes out of state, she would get the golf scholarship which would only pay a small portion and that would be on out of state fees. Just makes sense to stay in your state to play if you have the opportunity based on what I'm seeing. 

[Abh159]

52 minutes ago, Golfingdawg19 said:

Makes sense what you are saying for sure. Based on that, you would be crazy in most cases to go out of state for golf unless you just have a bunch of money. Assuming my daughter plays well enough to receive a scholarship to play golf, if she stays in our state then everything should be covered. Between her golf scholarship and her academics, we wouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket. If she goes out of state, she would get the golf scholarship which would only pay a small portion and that would be on out of state fees. Just makes sense to stay in your state to play if you have the opportunity based on what I'm seeing. 

 

It makes sense from purely a financial standpoint, but getting a 17-18 year old to understand that isn't always so simple. There are also so many other factors that come into play so you really have to consider the whole picture and not just the cost.

 

Maybe they don't get any offers from in-state schools, maybe they don't feel like any of the in-state school programs are right for them, maybe they have the chance to play at one of the top programs and that happens to be across the country, and so on... 

 

Academic scholarship requirements can also vary from state to state and school to school. You may have the grades or GPA to get a good bit of academic scholarship money in Texas (out-of-state) but not Georgia (in-state).

[Golfingdawg19]

5 hours ago, Abh159 said:

 

It makes sense from purely a financial standpoint, but getting a 17-18 year old to understand that isn't always so simple. There are also so many other factors that come into play so you really have to consider the whole picture and not just the cost.

 

Maybe they don't get any offers from in-state schools, maybe they don't feel like any of the in-state school programs are right for them, maybe they have the chance to play at one of the top programs and that happens to be across the country, and so on... 

 

Academic scholarship requirements can also vary from state to state and school to school. You may have the grades or GPA to get a good bit of academic scholarship money in Texas (out-of-state) but not Georgia (in-state).

All of that makes sense as well. Golfers generally come from somewhat "comfortable" financial backgrounds. Some of these parents could care less what the cost is whether its staying in-state or going out of state. I see that by how easy the parents throw around money in the junior ranks.