{"id":3489,"date":"2018-01-26T13:54:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T18:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2018-02-19T15:53:11","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T20:53:11","slug":"whats-in-a-college-football-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/whats-in-a-college-football-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"Is A College Football Offer Really An Offer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog<\/strong>
\n Twitter: @GridironStuds<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was a kid growing up, we had something known as Cracker Jacks. \u00a0Cracker Jacks was a box full of candied popcorn that was very tasty. The candied treat was only part of the allure of Cracker Jacks. \u00a0What really drew people to the treat was what was inside. \u00a0Inside the Cracker Jack box was a prize. \u00a0It could be a tattoo, a magnifying glass or any other assortment of bite size toys to occupy an adolescent mind for hours (it was a simpler time then). \u00a0That toy was everything and so that Cracker Jack box was important.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2018. \u00a0Cracker Jacks may still be around but it’s not nearly as prominent and I can’t tell you the last time I saw a kid holding a Cracker Jack box on purpose. \u00a0Times have changed and so has college football recruiting. \u00a0If I compared college football recruiting to Cracker Jacks then I would say Cracker Jacks in 2018 would have no prize inside or the box would include a note inside that read “we may have a prize for you later but for now enjoy the candy.” \u00a0There was a time when an offer was everything. \u00a0If a college program offered you that meant they would sign you right then and there if they could.<\/p>\n

During my junior year in high school, \u00a0the starting free safety on our team came into our English class holding up a letter from USC over his head like Deion Sanders holding up an errant throw from a QB over his head as he high stepped to the end zone. \u00a0That letter meant, \u00a0USC has been watching and they had an interest in him. \u00a0It certainly wasn’t an offer but it was a reason to be proud. \u00a0USC knew who he was. \u00a0I was full of envy and ready to prove to USC that I deserved an envelope too. \u00a0The letter from USC merely stated their interest and included a questionnaire for our free safety to fill out. \u00a0Letters were not plentiful back then, \u00a0they meant something but not everything.<\/p>\n

Over the course of time, \u00a0letters became more plentiful and less important. \u00a0My sons have letters in our\u00a0house from Top 10 schools that they have yet to open and likely never will. \u00a0Had the free safety on our team or had I received those letters we would have passed out right there in room 1101. With letters flooding recruits’ mailboxes in spectacular fashion these days, \u00a0recruits are ignoring them. \u00a0So how do college programs let kids know they are interested?<\/p>\n

Enter the college football scholarship offer in this modern era. \u00a0Mail delivered by the postman is considered deathly slow. \u00a0A college football coach who sees a potential prospect on a high school campus can ill afford to wait till he gets back to the office to have a letter sent to that recruit. \u00a0First, that’s too slow, second a letter is meaningless and third other schools are going to have already offered the kid. \u00a0In 2018, \u00a0an offer is the letter that our free safety was high stepping across the front of our classroom with. \u00a0See a prospect, \u00a0offer a prospect or face the consequences when his senior year comes.<\/p>\n

Our free safety never received that offer from USC as their interests turned to other players with greater intensity as we got closer to our senior season and signing date. \u00a0It didn’t stop him from being encouraged and motivated to play his best. \u00a0Offers in this modern era as they have always been are not binding for either party. \u00a0However, \u00a0they are less meaningful today than they have ever been. \u00a0An offer to a prospect before his senior year is basically a letter in 1988. \u00a0That college football coach and program is basically telling you that they are interested in you. \u00a0Most of the time they can’t accept your commitment at the time of the offer and don’t really want you committing in your junior, sophomore or freshman year. \u00a0Often times they accept the commitment if the prospect\u00a0pushes for it because they don’t want to ruin the relationship they seek to build with the prospect.<\/p>\n

As I observe high school football players on an annual basis, \u00a0I notice them “chasing offers”. \u00a0It has become a drug for high school football players. \u00a0They will do anything to get it. \u00a0Sometimes that means going to four, five or even six different high schools to chase offers. \u00a0Has it gotten out of control? \u00a0Probably. \u00a0Others may just look at it as the way of the times. \u00a0Whatever the case may be, \u00a0people involved need to understand where we once were and where we are now. \u00a0This will allow you to understand what is in an offer. \u00a0An offer in 2018 to an underclassman merely means that a college is interested in you and you will need to continue to progress for that offer to turn into a commitment that a school will accept. \u00a0Hell, \u00a0schools are even accepting commitments from prospects that they really don’t want to sign. \u00a0They do this so as to not cancel out the kid later on in case they fail to secure some other guys they are after or they don’t want to ruin a relationship with a school that is pumping out top talent every year.<\/p>\n

Perhaps at some point, \u00a0some wise individual will come up with a name for what it is when a team is 100% interested in signing you to a scholarship to join their college football program. \u00a0Until then, \u00a0prospects, high school coaches, parents and other interested parties will continue to joust over how real an offer is when a prospect announces it to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds When I was a kid growing up, we<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[829,1,4,767],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-football","category-general","category-high-school","category-recruiting-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}