• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Pulling a Scholarship Offer

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
wadc45

wadc45

Bourbon, Bow Ties and Baseball Hats
Staff member
BP Recruiting Team
This idea has been talked about a lot...the DaJuan Morgan situation was one that I think we all remember and there have been others. Dennis Kennedy is another one that comes to mind. This article really got me thinking about the topic and thought this would be a good place to discuss...

Mentor football player loses scholarship offer from Eastern Michigan Ohio High School Sports - cleveland.com

by Tim Warsinskey, Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday November 17, 2008, 6:30 PM

Mentor senior defensive end Ben Pike thought the recruiting process ended last month when he made an oral commitment to Eastern Michigan. Instead, he is tucking away his frustration and heading to Kent State today in the hopes of procuring another offer.

Eastern Michigan coaches rescinded their football scholarship offer to Pike last week because they wanted to offer another player, Pike and Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno said. Pike initially received the offer during the summer and accepted, making a non-binding oral commitment to EMU last month.

"I'm still upset about it," Pike said Monday. "I've been taught you give your word and it's your bond, and to have adults like that go against their word definitely hurts.

"It's been a real tough thing for me and my family, but we think something good will come out of it."

Having been absent from the recruiting loop for more than a month, Pike does not have another offer. He recently was contacted by Bowling Green, Northern Illinois and Kent State, which invited him to its home game tonight.

Eastern Michigan plans to give Pike's scholarship to a junior college player who would be ready to play next fall, Trivisonno said. Pike (6-3, 225) likely would be a redshirt freshman and sit out his first year.

"It's unbelievable, but that's why they don't win," Trivisonno said.

Eastern Michigan is 2-8 this season and 15-41 in four-plus years under coach Jeff Geynk.

NCAA rules prohibit college coaches from commenting publicly on recruits until they have signed letters of intent. Football signing day is in February. Messages left with EMU athletics officials were not returned.
Click to expand...
 
I would think so. It would not only benefit the player who gets screwed over but also the school who often times get kids who decide at a later date that they want to go somewhere else and the school is stuck. It would benefit both sides. They do it in basketball and it has worked out pretty well. I guess the only thing that I would question is when you would start the early signing period. Perhaps for a period in October and pushed the late signing period to sometime in early March. That would be my only question because I do think the early signing period would benefit both sides.
 
Upvote 0
Wade, it might be just that simple. Because if a kid verbals to a school, in order to secure a guaranteed place (not a bad plan in my book), and then gets a 'better offer' (remember that girl you asked to the prom?), they renege. That would solidify, and allow coaches to concentrate on the ones they wanted, not spending time on the ones 'in the bag'.

However, for a school to pull a schollie is a good way to get them 'blacklisted' among HS coaches, and the kids themselves. Unless there is a screw-up by the kid (grades, fights, drugs, suspensions, etc) then the school pretty much has to continue the offer, or they're going to be known as s _ _ _ among the recruits. Even if the kid blows an ACL, it's kinda expected that the school will follow through on the schollie......I think Eastern Michigan has screwed themselves with anyone that's any good....

Question is what about 'conditional' offers? If the school says, "We're taking three tailbacks, there are five offers out there, first two are in." does that qualify as 'pulling' a scholarship offer?

I think the street has to go both ways, if you verbal, you go. That spells an early signing period. Continuing to take trips, to some schools is a sign of not being loyal, but to some it says 'I'm not certain, yet' and it's better to lose that person (and save about $200,000 on the cost of the education), than to have them there, unhappy, and xfer out later. I'm pretty sure that I did not have the maturity to make such a monumentous decision at 18 (even if I would have had the opportunity) that affected my life for a loooooong time. How about 'Re-dos"? I'll bet a nickel that many schools offered a kid, had them accept, and then a better kid expresses interest. Unless the coaches can get a kid to decommit, how do they gracefully rescind the offer without looking like jerks (see EMU above)......don't know, but had some time, so thought would expound a bit. good topic


:gobucks3::gobucks4::banger: :scum4:
 
Upvote 0
That's BS. If the player didn't do something illegal or have his grades fall dramatically, you shouldn't be allowed to do that. Just shows the professionalism of EMU I guess.

They should of recruited better or something if they didn't want this kid or wanted the other one.

Hopefully the kid gets an offer from BG or Kent, both are better football schools then EMU anyhow, so it could be a blessing in disguise.
 
Upvote 0
Tresselbeliever;1330797; said:
For the lawyers on BP, at what point is a kid no longer considered a minor? And if these kids aren't considered minors, wouldn't this be a breach of contract by the coaches? Please educate me.
Click to expand...

Where is the contract? Even the initial article in this thread says Pike made a "non-binding oral commitment" to the university, but the school is expected to honor their offer like a contract? EMU is certainly morally in the wrong here, but like calibuck said they will take their punishment in the court of public opinion. And if the recruit is actually good enough he'll get another offer to play somewhere in the next few months.
 
Upvote 0
BayBuck;1330837; said:
Where is the contract? Even the initial article in this thread says Pike made a "non-binding oral commitment" to the university, but the school is expected to honor their offer like a contract? EMU is certainly morally in the wrong here, but like calibuck said they will take their punishment in the court of public opinion. And if the recruit is actually good enough he'll get another offer to play somewhere in the next few months.
Click to expand...

Not sure on the legality. But, there are two issues.

1) Their are such things as oral contracts and agreements. They are much harder to prove in the court of law but if their are witnesses then oral "contracts" can be accepted.

2) I am sure EMU sent him a written offer as further proof of intent. I am sure the offer has some type of wording that would allow for this to legally happen, but it is unethical.

I know I didin't answer the question and I'm sure their isn't a way to prove this in a court of law. But intent, and a written offer due bear as some evidence.
 
Upvote 0
BayBuck;1330837; said:
Where is the contract? Even the initial article in this thread says Pike made a "non-binding oral commitment" to the university, but the school is expected to honor their offer like a contract? EMU is certainly morally in the wrong here, but like calibuck said they will take their punishment in the court of public opinion. And if the recruit is actually good enough he'll get another offer to play somewhere in the next few months.
Click to expand...

Do you consider the letter of intent a contract? If the LOI is a contract, then the question becomes whether Pike offered any additional consideration in exchange for his right to exercise the underlying contract on national signing day. On that basis, Pike can then argue that he spent more time in the weight room and at the libraries than he normally would have, which are conditions upon which the offer was made. In other words, Pike's forgone income can be considered as additional consideration for a contract on top of the original contract. Again, not a lawyer so please correct me if something doesn't look right.
 
Upvote 0
Tresselbeliever;1330797; said:
For the lawyers on BP, at what point is a kid no longer considered a minor? And if these kids aren't considered minors, wouldn't this be a breach of contract by the coaches? Please educate me.
Click to expand...

18 is the age of majority, but of course you can be unable to enter into binding contracts for reasons aside from age (for instance, mental incapacity).

To answer your other question in the simplest way possible, an agreement is only enforceable in a court where there has been an offer that has been accepted, and the agreement involves both parties giving something of value. In this case, there are a couple problems for the student athlete. One is that he couldn't have reasonably believed that he was accepting a binding offer because, on its face, the "offer" said it was non-binding. Second, and for that very reason, the university wasn't giving anything of value, since it expressly reserved the right to withdraw the offer at any time, without reason, prior to the period when the athlete could actually sign a letter of intent. That's a butchered version of an appropriate answer, but you get the idea.
 
Upvote 0
XBUCKEYEX;1330847; said:
Not sure on the legality. But, there are two issues.

1) Their are such things as oral contracts and agreements. They are much harder to prove in the court of law but if their are witnesses then oral "contracts" can be accepted.

2) I am sure EMU sent him a written offer as further proof of intent. I am sure the offer has some type of wording that would allow for this to legally happen, but it is unethical.

I know I didin't answer the question and I'm sure their isn't a way to prove this in a court of law. But intent, and a written offer due bear as some evidence.
Click to expand...

An athletic scholarship offer is conditional upon the recruit signing an official letter-of-intent (or making a tuition deposit at the lower division level) during the appropriate signing period. The offer is simply not a contract, nor is the verbal commitment. It may suck when a team/coach rescinds their offer, but they will probably get what's coming to them eventually, without getting the courts involved.
 
Upvote 0
Tresselbeliever;1330854; said:
Do you consider the letter of intent a contract? If the LOI is a contract, then the question becomes whether Pike offered any additional consideration in exchange for his right to exercise the underlying contract on national signing day. On that basis, Pike can then argue that he spent more time in the weight room and at the libraries than he normally would have, which are conditions upon which the offer was made. In other words, Pike's forgone income can be considered as additional consideration for a contract on top of the original contract. Again, not a lawyer so please correct me if something doesn't look right.
Click to expand...

Now you're talking about about an equitable theory--essentially a quasi-contract. But again, the problem is that he would have to prove he reasonably relied upon the university's representations that they would provide him with a scholarship. The "offer" expressly said they could rescind it at any time, so it would be unreasonable for him to rely on those representations as you're interpreting them.
 
Upvote 0
sepia5;1330863; said:
Now you're talking about about an equitable theory--essentially a quasi-contract. But again, the problem is that he would have to prove he reasonably relied upon the university's representations that they would provide him with a scholarship. The "offer" expressly said they could rescind it at any time, so it would be unreasonable for him to rely on those representations as you're interpreting them.
Click to expand...

Good stuff, thanks for the reply. My final question is, if the offer of an athletic scholarship were given equal treatment as an employment offer, would there be any different? In other words, are employers allowed to have this kind of leverage in the labor market?
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top