Deciphering Offers

The “Offer”

When a university “offers” you, it means that they have verbally told you that they are offering you an athletic scholarship that will be available after you graduate from high school.  The timing of when this offer is made can vary greatly from one school to another, and from one player to another.  There is no uniform standard that applies to everyone, however there are some general guidelines that can be followed:

1) When a school offers a player they are effectively saying that they are convinced that you have what it takes to make it at their school.  So, in general, the more talented the player the earlier a school will offer.

2) Once the offer has been made, the timeline that a school gives for the player to make a decision can vary greatly, but is basically based on two factors: a) how talented the player is, and b) how good the university’s volleyball program is.

Essentially, the more impact the player would have on the program the longer the offer will stay open.  Some examples:

#1 Recruit  in the country: this is the player who will be the franchise player the minute they walk in the gym, (Sarah Pavin and Stacey Gordon come to mind).  Every school in the country will keep the early offer open to them for as long as they want to make a decision.  If the player waits so long that the school has no more scholarships available then the school can choose not to renew the scholarship of a player currently on their roster.

Top Recruit—“Elite”: This player will help most programs, though may not be a franchise player.  A top 10 program will probably keep the offer open for a limited time since there are more of these types of players out there to offer to.  A school that is not as good will probably keep the offer open longer since the “Elite” recruit might still qualify as a franchise player for them.

What this means to the player

If a school offers a player early then she is faced with two options: she can  ccept the offer verbally, then sign with the school officially during the early signing period in November of their grade 12 year.  Or, he/she can wait to see what other offers come from other schools.  There are risks and rewards to both.

The reward of accepting early is that you have firmly committed to a school and they have done the same to you.  Once this verbal commitment is in place schools almost never (less than 1% of the time) will go back on that commitment—the player, in effect, has a guarantee of their scholarship.  The risk of accepting too early is that the player’s dream school may come by later with interest.  Since the player has already verbally committed he/she is morally bound to the school she committed to.

The reward of waiting longer before accepting the early offer is that the player may get exposed to more schools and get more offers.  This can give you more choice—never a bad thing.  The risk is that the school that offered you originally may take that offer off the table, or begin to make the same scholarship offer to more players.  If the player waits too long to accept the offer then he/she may be left with no offer at all.