Replayed from our Communications : Profiles, Letters, Contacts Communications : Profiles, Letters, Contacts thread, the following information should help guide some of the discussion to be held with the college coach during a visit to the campus.

How to Ask the Tough Questions to a College Coach

This is one topic with which many parents (and some club coaches) struggle when it comes time to seal the deal for a potential collegiate opportunity. Remember the ground rules where athletic money from a coach and/or athletic director is only available for NCAA Division I and Division II schools. All NCAA coaches can help with placement of your application for academic and grant money from your chosen university or college. Additionally, they should be willing to help you connect with your institution’s financial aid office so that you can receive an early indication of what your family can expect to be paying to attend and play for the school.

The questions to ask boil down to three simple themes : What is the whole picture for my son/daughter's class, how many total scholarships will be available, and where your son/daughter ranks on the coach's depth chart.

As for questions to open the discussion, the easiest question BOTN Industries has found as an ice-breaker is typically, “What does your funding look like for the Class of 201x recruits?” Let’s spend some time going over what a sample exchange might be and some follow-up questions for the newbie parent or coach.

The college coach will likely respond with an initial answer such as “Well, we have three graduating seniors and one junior who we do not think is returning next season due to her major.” This is your opportunity to narrow down on the number of scholarships available so you might want to ask “Is the program fully funded for next season and how many scholarships will be available?” The fully funded question is important as it tells you how many scholarships across the team are awarded. The second half of this question narrows the discussion to what is the pool for your child and what the coach might have already committed to other players.

The coach might respond with “We have 3.5 scholarships coming free but we will use 0.75 of those to cap off three rising juniors who are expected to be starters for next season.” As with most schools, all of the money becoming available is not plowed directly back into the freshman class as awards for existing roster players might be increased during their collegiate careers.

So, you now know that 2.75 scholarships are available and you should know how many freshman recruits are coming into the class along with your son or daughter. Now is the time to ask the ultimate question. “Based on the recruiting class, where do you see my son/daughter in the scholarship pool?”

Say there are eight incoming recruits with 2.75 scholarships available. Anything between 0.25 (25% for a more average player, limited playing time first year) and 0.50 (50%, significant minutes expected at some point during season) would be a reasonable offers. Once the discussion starts narrowing down these numbers, you can move into academic awards (perhaps another 25% to 50% of tuition for excellent grades or SAT/ACT results) and financial aid for the family.

Most coaches will guarantee a scholarship for the year that a player is injured, but more than a year might be difficult (and unlikely). All agreements and discussions should be captured in writing, via e-mails with the coach, to be sure that there are no misunderstandings between the parties. Remember that there is no such thing as a "four year ride" and each year, the player's contract is "renewed" and reviewed with the institution each year.

If a players scholarship is reduced or eliminated after the first year is a player allowed to leave and go to another team that is willing to give them money. Secondly at what point during the year do you find out what you will be receiving for the following year.

Note that the NCAA heavily regulates player discussions with other coaches while you are currently enrolled as a full-time student at an NCAA institution. In general, the player must secure a "permission-to-contact" release from his or her athletic director before any (and we do mean any) discussions are permitted to take place. BOTN has covered this issue in the NCAA Rules and Regulations thread and will repost the relevant material in our next posting.

This will vary by institution, but the discussions are formally held during the Spring season for the following year.

Reprinted from the BOTN College Board's NCAA Rules and Regulations Thread

First thing was to find the NCAA Reference Guide on the subject. The following link (Adobe Acrobat format) has the document for the 2010/2011 School Year.

Transfer 101 : Basic Information For Divisions I, II, III

Written permission-to-contact
Generally, if you are enrolled as a full-time student at an NCAA or National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) four-year school and you want to transfer to a different NCAA school to play, your current school’s athletics director must give written permission-to-contact to the new coach or member of the athletics staff before you or your parents can talk with one of them. That is called having a permission-to-contact letter.

You may write to any NCAA school saying that you are interested in transferring, but the new coach must not discuss transfer opportunities with you unless he or she has received written permission-to-contact from your current school.

If your current school does not give you written permission-to-contact, another school cannot contact you and encourage you to transfer. This does not preclude you from transferring; however, if the new school is in Division I or II, you cannot receive an athletics scholarship until you have attended the new school for one academic year.

Also, if your current school officials deny your request to permit another institution to contact you about transferring, they must tell you in writing that you have a right to appeal the decision. In that instance, a panel of individuals from your current school who are not involved in athletics will conduct a hearing to decide the issue.

Do not talk to another school’s coach until you know the rules about receiving written permission.

When do you not need written permission-to-contact?
In Divisions I and II, if you are transferring from a school that is not a member of the NCAA or NAIA, you do not need written permission-to-contact.

Also, if you are now in Division III, you may issue your own release (called a self-release) to allow another Division III school to contact you about transferring. The self-release applies only to transfer student-athletes from a Division III school to another Division III school.

How can you find out the number of scholarships a particular men's or women's D1 soccer program has funded? Is there a resource for this?

There is no resource (web site or NCAA report) of which BOTN is aware that details the number of funded positions at an institution. The only way to know for sure is a discussion with the recruiting coach, academic director, or compliance officer.

BOTN would be happy to share such data if it were available publicly. Note that it is not in the interest of Division I or Division II schools to say that they are underfunding a program by NCAA standards - hence, the schools opt to say nothing on the subject.

Do you know if an athlete that chooses a very vigorous major such as pharm d or pre-med has ever been given an extra year to finish the program in order to reduce the work load so they can play in a sport.
I am concerned that my daughter chooses to play soccer on a D1 level that the commitment would make it hard for her to complete the 18 credits required by some of her career options and in the later years impossible to be on the team during rotations.
Secondly would a coach still be interested in a player that would have to leave the team as a senior in order to complete her schooling

The difference between High School and College is that you can continue to take courses towards the completion of a major at college beyond the four years in which a standard BA/BS/BBA type degree is conferred. The key point here, of course, is that you will continue to pay per semester. Remember that a student-athlete only has four standard years of NCAA eligibility which means that if there is scholarship money involved from the athletics department, that will run out with an extended program - factor that into your cost analysis.

There are many NCAA Rules covering this type of issue related to funding. As an entering freshman student, this is not a typical area of concern from the outset.

Many NCAA Division I programs will suggest that a student-athlete should complete one or two courses over the summer in order to lighten the load during the standard academic Fall and Spring terms. This is one vehicle used for the university to continue moving a student-athlete through their degree program while also allowing full sports participation.

Degrees that involve the hard sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) where lab sessions are involved are obviously the hardest to complete. The student-athlete must be extremely dedicated to both their academics and their athletics in order to complete the degree in four years and compete all four years on the field.

How would you know as a pre-college freshman parent what is going to happen with the student-athlete four years down the road? Honestly, the student-athlete should be concerned about getting through the academic years one at a time.

When you choose a major such as pharm d or P.A the courses are usually set in stone due to the small amount of students accepted in the program. They usually have your schedule set for all 6 years of your schooling. I am concerned if the coaches know that the athlete might not remain on the team for all 4 years they might shy away from the athlete.

Are we talking about the programs at St. John's (NY), Northeastern (MA), or somewhere different? Interestingly, Quinnipiac's soccer program actually seeks students aligned with specific disciplines (like physical therapy) so that the soccer practices during the season are easier to schedule around less often scheduled courses. When in doubt on scheduling, always speak to the head coach who can provide guidance on the scheduling of practices.

Within those six year professional degree offerings, there are ALWAYS liberal arts and core university requirements not tied directly to the major course of study which can be shunted into a summer semester course to save on the in-semester (in-season) workload.

No matter how long the course of study, your student-athlete will only have four years of eligibility under normal circumstances. This implies that years five and six of the degree program would not overlap with athletics.

In summary, we still do not see a problem here. If the fear is that your student-athlete will not be able to balance all of the academic and athletic requirements, now is the time to have that family round table discussion about what is truly important in your child's future.