What is an Offer?

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DaTiger

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I’ve followed college basketball for years and I really don’t understand what an Offer is.

A college coach sees a kid playing a sport and concludes; this student-athlete could help the coach’s team win. The coach then strikes up a conversation with said student-athlete which essentially ends with the coach Offering the student-athlete free tuition, room and board if the student-athlete plays the particular sport at the coach’s school.

Typically, an Offer is accepted with a verbal commitment or a letter of intent? A verbal commitment would still allow the student-athlete to change his or her mind?

Does the Offer have an expiration date? For example, the student-athlete must accept the Offer by the end of the month, if not, the Offer is null and void, or does the Offer exist in perpetuity or until the student- athlete has exhausted his/her eligibility.

Is an Offer a formal written document or is it just a verbal thing? It seems like it must be a written document which would also explain why we sometimes hear of kids getting ‘Offers’ when they do not seem athletically capable of playing at a certain level.

Does the offering institution limit the number of Offers issued? Could a school issue 50 Offers for 4 spots? As a casual observer of Offers, it seems most schools extend many more Offers than they have scholarships; St Johns/Lavin did not.

What are the consequences for the school, if too many kids accept Offers thus exceeding the maximum allowable scholarships allowed by the NCAA?

Do student-athletes have any obligation to notify the school that they are no longer considering in the Offer?

Do schools/coaches revoke Offers, should there be an unfavorable development in the student-athlete’s profile? For example, a student-athlete sustains a serious injury or is arrested.

Are Offers conditional upon future athletic or academic performance? The student-athlete must play for this AAU team and average this many minutes per game or maintain a "B" average?

Do schools/coaches withdraw Offers? Suppose another student-athlete accepts the Offer and the coach decides he/she no longer needs student-athletes who play position X. Does the coach formally withdraw the Offer or is the coach obligated to have a roster with ten kids who all play the same position?

Does an Offer include any implication that the student-athlete will be accepted by the offering institution’s admission department?

Prior to making an Offer, does the coach review the student’s academic transcript, to confirm that the student will meet the school’s academic requirements?
 
I’ve followed college basketball for years and I really don’t understand what an Offer is.

A college coach sees a kid playing a sport and concludes; this student-athlete could help the coach’s team win. The coach then strikes up a conversation with said student-athlete which essentially ends with the coach Offering the student-athlete free tuition, room and board if the student-athlete plays the particular sport at the coach’s school.

Typically, an Offer is accepted with a verbal commitment or a letter of intent? A verbal commitment would still allow the student-athlete to change his or her mind?

Does the Offer have an expiration date? For example, the student-athlete must accept the Offer by the end of the month, if not, the Offer is null and void, or does the Offer exist in perpetuity or until the student- athlete has exhausted his/her eligibility.

Is an Offer a formal written document or is it just a verbal thing? It seems like it must be a written document which would also explain why we sometimes hear of kids getting ‘Offers’ when they do not seem athletically capable of playing at a certain level.

Does the offering institution limit the number of Offers issued? Could a school issue 50 Offers for 4 spots? As a casual observer of Offers, it seems most schools extend many more Offers than they have scholarships; St Johns/Lavin did not.

What are the consequences for the school, if too many kids accept Offers thus exceeding the maximum allowable scholarships allowed by the NCAA?

Do student-athletes have any obligation to notify the school that they are no longer considering in the Offer?

Do schools/coaches revoke Offers, should there be an unfavorable development in the student-athlete’s profile? For example, a student-athlete sustains a serious injury or is arrested.

Are Offers conditional upon future athletic or academic performance? The student-athlete must play for this AAU team and average this many minutes per game or maintain a "B" average?

Do schools/coaches withdraw Offers? Suppose another student-athlete accepts the Offer and the coach decides he/she no longer needs student-athletes who play position X. Does the coach formally withdraw the Offer or is the coach obligated to have a roster with ten kids who all play the same position?

Does an Offer include any implication that the student-athlete will be accepted by the offering institution’s admission department?

Prior to making an Offer, does the coach review the student’s academic transcript, to confirm that the student will meet the school’s academic requirements?
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Thanks for posting this - great questions! I'm right there with you, and I have a feeling you and I are not alone - I'm looking forward to reading the answers!
 
Anyone who even attempts to answer all of those questions has way to much time on their hands. :)
 
Anyone who even attempts to answer all of those questions has way to much time on their hands. :)
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The only reason it wasn't answered yet was because the guys who are experts on that stuff were likely busy with Easter.

Too bad Fordham disappeared. That sort of stuff is up his alley.
 
Typically, an Offer is accepted with a verbal commitment or a letter of intent? A verbal commitment would still allow the student-athlete to change his or her mind?

An offer is accepted with a verbal commitment. A letter of intent makes it officially binding. If it is just a verbal, either side could back out.


Does the Offer have an expiration date? For example, the student-athlete must accept the Offer by the end of the month, if not, the Offer is null and void, or does the Offer exist in perpetuity or until the student- athlete has exhausted his/her eligibility.

Offers may be given expiration dates by the coaches -- if you don't accept by this time, we're moving on. But an offer is out there until it is either accepted, the player signs with another school or the coach pulls it for whatever reason.

Is an Offer a formal written document or is it just a verbal thing? It seems like it must be a written document which would also explain why we sometimes hear of kids getting ‘Offers’ when they do not seem athletically capable of playing at a certain level.

Offers are usually verbal. There may be something some schools send out to for to make it official but all it takes is a coach saying we are offering you a scholarship

Does the offering institution limit the number of Offers issued? Could a school issue 50 Offers for 4 spots? As a casual observer of Offers, it seems most schools extend many more Offers than they have scholarships; St Johns/Lavin did not.

There is no limitation on offers. Just because you have four spots doesn't mean you can only have four out at a time. But kids understand that there are only a certain number of spots open on a roster, especially in basketball.

What are the consequences for the school, if too many kids accept Offers thus exceeding the maximum allowable scholarships allowed by the NCAA?

The consequences for the school are they have to meet whatever the scholarship limits are per season. In basketball that is 13. If they are over, they either have to have someone leave the roster or not add any kids that put them over the limit. Indiana is bad in this regard. Most schools, once they hit their limit, let kids know and the kids start looking elsewhere.

Do student-athletes have any obligation to notify the school that they are no longer considering in the Offer?

They do not. Coaches can usually tell about the level of interest as things go on however. If you are a kid and get to the final five or whatever stage, normally they will call all the coaches once they make a decision.

Do schools/coaches revoke Offers, should there be an unfavorable development in the student-athlete’s profile? For example, a student-athlete sustains a serious injury or is arrested.

They can, and usually do, if it involves an off-the-court situation. In the case of serious injuries, there are schools that will still honor the scholarship offer/letter of intent signing.

Are Offers conditional upon future athletic or academic performance? The student-athlete must play for this AAU team and average this many minutes per game or maintain a "B" average?

There certainly could be but I've never heard of it. A lot of kids get offers based on their potential upside from an athletic standpoint.

Do schools/coaches withdraw Offers? Suppose another student-athlete accepts the Offer and the coach decides he/she no longer needs student-athletes who play position X. Does the coach formally withdraw the Offer or is the coach obligated to have a roster with ten kids who all play the same position?

If spots are filled, they will tell kids at that position they are no longer recruiting that spot. If a team needs one center and gets one, it normally lets the other centers know. The kids also know that sort of thing -- I need to look at another school now because that spot is full. A lot of coaches will tell kids during the process, I need to shooting guards and the first two that commit are the only ones we are taking.

Does an Offer include any implication that the student-athlete will be accepted by the offering institution’s admission department?

If you are getting an offer, it almost 100 percent of the time means that the athletic department and the admissions department have worked together to determine they would be able to receive the scholarship. However the athlete can be accepted to a school even if they would not normally be accepted as a regular student due to their academic profile.

Prior to making an Offer, does the coach review the student’s academic transcript, to confirm that the student will meet the school’s academic requirements?

For the most part, athletes have already been accepted because they have to apply to the NCAA clearinghouse and meet certain requirements. As long as you do that, have the core course and get the right ACT-SAT numbers, you are good. If you are at a school like Northwestern or Stanford, the coaches may have to do what you ask because certain schools have higher standards for kids to meet.
 
Here's an answer to one of your questions:

Verbal commitment. This phrase is used to describe a collegebound
student-athlete's commitment to a school before he or
she signs (or is able to sign) a National Letter of Intent. A collegebound
student-athlete can announce a verbal commitment
at any time. While verbal commitments have become very
popular for both college-bound student-athletes and coaches,
this "commitment" is NOT binding on either the college-bound
student-athlete or the college or university. Only the signing of the
National Letter of Intent accompanied by a financial aid agreement
is binding on both parties.

Other answers are found at:http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/CBSA15.pdf
 
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