Verbal commit

A verbal commitment is worth the paper it's printed on. In the absence of a scholarship offer on the early signing date, a coach that isn't willing to state in writing a program's reciprocal commitment to the athlete is not actually that interested.

A verbal commit isn’t legally binding on both the part of the athlete and the coach. The athlete can continue to talk to other coaches, while the coach could change their mind about scholarship money. Nothing’s official until the NLI.

I’m a current D1 runner who went through this entire process last year. It was fun, but also kinda stressful!

If coach this late in game commits to you, is it a "done deal", meaning you can count on them? Those seen committing on milesplit do not have NLI, signing not til Nov, and the Ivies have no NLI, but yet some kids announcing their commitments. Just wondering how sure/not sure to be by a coach's commitment this late in the game (meaning not sophomore or junior year, but fall of senior year).

Ask them to send scholarship specifics by email. If they aren’t planning to honor that they probably won’t be comfortable putting it in writing.

This isn’t late for this sport. The only commitments at this point are usually national class studs. Is your son even being offered a scholarship or is it just a roster spot?

runlikeamom wrote:

If coach this late in game commits to you, is it a "done deal", meaning you can count on them? Those seen committing on milesplit do not have NLI, signing not til Nov, and the Ivies have no NLI, but yet some kids announcing their commitments. Just wondering how sure/not sure to be by a coach's commitment this late in the game (meaning not sophomore or junior year, but fall of senior year).

The kids who have committed on milesplit don’t have signed NLI yet. They have given a verbal commit to the coach. At this point, if a coach is offering a roster spot and your athlete wants to commit, he can give a verbal commit as well. You ask how sure you can be of the coach’s commitment...it is a two way street nothing is final or binding until your athlete signs his NLI. If the coach is offering a roster spot, he is offering a spot. I wouldn’t be too worried about that. If he wasn’t sure, he wouldn’t offer up the roster spot. He would be waiting (maybe to hear from others higher up on his list first). The bigger and more uncertain question is money! Has the coach talked money with your athlete? If a scholarship is being offered, have your athlete ask the coach to send him an email with the details of the scholarship offer. Often times this discussion has just been between the coach and athlete and has only been verbal. This was the case for our son last year and he asked for the info/scholarship offer to be emailed to him so he could have all of the details to discuss the information with his parents. The coach had absolutely no problem with doing this. That said, the email isn’t binding like a NLI, but I don’t think many coaches would take the offer away.

If your athlete isn’t being offered any money but is being offered a roster spot and wants to take it and verbally commit then go for it if it is the right fit! If the issue is over the scholarship/money make sure to get all of the details and clarify any questions you have before giving a verbal commit. With the signing in November, the school would present your athlete with the NLI that will outline the terms of the scholarship and you will have everything in writing (a contract). You then have 7 days to sign the NLI. Best of luck!

Verbal commits are common, especially with only one month to go to signing.

A coach can put an offer in writing, but there is nothing binding to sign until mid November.

Both parties are supposed to be acting in good faith once a verbal commitment is received.

If nothing has been offered to the athlete, then there is nothing to commit to.

Lastly, and most importantly, commit has only one meaning. It is not good faith to commit and then talk to or visit other schools. If you want to keep shopping then don’t commit.

Division I and II have moved to one signing period for the NLI. November 14 – August 1. No more early or regular signing periods.

This is normal. Most coaches are as good as their word on this. My daughter was offered money the fall of her junior year. Of course, it is not binding and both can walk away until signing an NLI.

My son was offered money in September of his senior year. Of course, he could not commit until the NLI period opened up. But he committed the week before the signing period opened and the school sent the NLI as promised when it opened.

Coaches absolutely do not want to get a reputation for making an "offer" and then taking it away for no reason other than they found someone a little bit better. Early offers will generally be small enough for that reason.

But, for example, my daughter got an offer from an SEC school where the coach called her and said you have 24 hours to accept or I'm going to offer your money to others. (She said she would wait.) Since my daughter is a senior this year, she still can't sign yet.

If he likes the school and wants to lock it up, he can commit. It's easy enough to ask the coach about money if it hasn't been discussed. They expect the question.

Definitely apply to other schools as a safety net. For my son, we went to the Common App site and applied to a number of schools that had no application fee just to be safe. But it all worked out and he is running for the school he signed with.

Thank you for pointing this out. It has changed somewhat quietly unless you have a real reason to pay close attention. I predict that a high percentage of signings will be done before Christmas.

OP hasn’t told us if a scholarship was offered. I am guessing not so there really isn’t much risk of an offered roster spot being pulled.

"preferred walk on with admissions support" is what he was told, scholarship possibility by November. Though money would of course be welcomed, question was more about how sure of a thing is it for roster/admission when you don't have NLI, when just coach's word, as there is no real mechanism in place when money is not offered.

Sounds pretty legit. They aren't going to pull a walk-on spot but probably will never give money. Why does he need admission support unless it is an Ivy? If it is a regular school and he needs support, you should consider if he is getting in over his head academically.