NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

This week two high school football coaches reacted to what they deemed unfair treatment of their former star players by bashing the college coach they felt was responsible.  They both have stated they would try their best to steer any future recruit away from their schools.

Miami QB Robert Marve’s high school coach has come out publicly against the Miami coaching staff for its handling of his future transfer.  Marve was suspended twice this season and told that he would enter next season as the number two quarterback.  To no one’s surprise he decided to transfer.  However, the Miami staff stated they would not release Marve if he attended an ACC, SEC or any school in Florida.  Later, they amened their stance to allow some SEC schools.  But the damage had already been done and coach Weiner stated, “‘A player of mine won’t play for Randy Shannon.”

Steve Spurrier earned himself the scorn of Tucker High Coach Franklin Stephens by pulling the offer of his star linebacker.  He stated, “Coach Spurrier accepted blame for the situation … (but he) is not going to do anything to fix the situation, therefore South Carolina will not be recruiting any more Tucker players.”

There is basically no practical way to enforce a ban other than refusing to cooperate with the college coach, but the real question is if this type of behavior will benefit future players.  Obviously good high school coaches do their best to steer players to situations they feel are ideal.  However, by shutting off an option will they ultimately hurt future recruits?  Do they have an ethical obligation to let the player decide? What do you think?

 Making phone calls to college coaches is an extremely important part of recruiting.  Recruits need to able to effectively reach out to coaches to initiate contact and to follow up effectively.  In order to be adequately prepared for a call with a coach, there are a couple things you must do.  

1. Most importantly, you need to make sure that you are enthusiastic when talking to coaches! 

2. Before you have your first live call with a coach, you need to have a couple practice runs.

- Role play with a teammate, friend, or parent and go over the questions you are planning to ask as well as the questions coaches usually ask.

- Practice leaving voicemails for coaches on your cell phone or house phone. 

- Listen to your voicemails and see how you do! 

3. Make sure you have a list of questions to ask the coach written down.  Also be sure to have a pen and paper ready.

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The NCAA has been asking several attendees at the 2009 NCAA convention, “What is the biggest issue facing collegiate athletics?”

These may be the issues facing administrators, but we want to know what issues are facing student athletes and families.  Comment Away!

 Obviously the internet has completely altered the college athletic recruiting process.  You may recall Nick Saban using video conferencing to communicate with potential recruits.  Now, the academic recruiting process is taking another page from athletic recruiting and using the internet for interviewing students.

Wake Forest University has begun to conduct their admissions interviews over the web. The AP reports on the new initiative:

The online interview was part of a push that started in May at the university. Admissions director Martha Allman said she eventually wants to give each applicant – more than 9,000 of them each year – a more individualized review before inviting them to Winston-Salem as part of the school’s 1,200-student freshmen class.

Although a new process at the undergraduate level, webcam technology has been used for years by at least a dozen graduate programs – including Pennsylvania State University, the University of Georgia and Arizona State University – to interview prospective students.

David Hawkins, public policy director for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he expects the trend to grow.

“Looking ahead, colleges will try to pursue the kind of technology that will create a personal approach to the admission process,” said Hawkins, noting he was not aware of any school other than Wake Forest offering webcam interviews to undergraduate applicants.

Its clear the web will continue to alter college campuses across America.  The only question is will you use it to your advantage?

There are a lot of reasons athletes end up playing collegiate sports at the Division III level.  Not being competitive is not one of them.  The New York Times profiled the men’s and women’s basketball teams at N.Y.U. who until this week were the only undefeated teams from the same school in all of college basketball.

But the goals are the same at N.Y.U. as they are at North Carolina, Connecticut or Pittsburgh. It’s all about winning, something N.Y.U. can claim to be better at than any college in the nation.

N.Y.U.’s standing as the only college in the nation to have two undefeated teams began Tuesday when the Amherst men’s team lost. Amherst’s women’s team remains undefeated. Now, the undefeated status has become a rallying cry for the two N.Y.U. teams, which are close off the court.

Unlike universities at the Division I level, the two N.Y.U. teams often play in the same place on the same day. That means taking bus trips together, sharing the same hotels and watching each other’s games. A level of camaraderie exists between the two teams that doesn’t happen at larger programs.

“Off the court, we hang out and we’re pretty close with them,” the junior forward Keith Jensen said. “Sharing the success has made this an even better experience.”

 The current economy is affecting families across the country.  Many businesses across America have been reining in costs to combat lost revenue.  The business of college sports is no different.  Athletic departments are being forced to trim costs in any way possible therefore recruiting budgets are taking a hit.  However, since a coach’s job is still tied to their winning percentage rather than cut back, coaches are getting creative.  Today’s New York Times outlined how some schools are changing their ways:

At Amherst College, coaches have been asked to be more selective when sending out a bulk of recruiting letters and encouraged to send e-mail messages to recruits instead of worrying about telephone bills.

Amherst, a Division III college in Massachusetts, is mobilizing its alumni in an effort to have select graduates monitor their local newspapers and academic honor roll announcements to identify potential recruits. The college’s athletic director, Suzanne R. Coffey, said the alumni recruiters might meet on conference calls with coaches to discuss their findings.

“Before the financial crisis occurred, we were talking about ways to identify prospects outside our normal channels,” Coffey said. “Then in the past couple of months, we said this is the type of thing that will make even more sense with financial constraints even more prevalent.”

The Associated Press also put out a story on cost cutting efforts by schools and the NCAA:

The San Jose State football coach says he’ll avoid hotels when possible on recruiting trips. The athletics director at George Washington is wondering whether it’s time to turn out the gym lights earlier each night to save on electricity and heating bills.

Like the rest of the country, college sports is in economic meltdown mode, and not even a grand locale for the NCAA’s annual convention – along the Potomac River just south of Washington, D.C. – can mask the belt-tightening that is under way.

“It’s going to affect travel,” George Washington AD Jack Kvancz said. “It’s going to affect lodging. It’s going to affect all those things that you would obviously think it’s going to effect. You’re going to see schedules affected.”

With coaches cutting back on travel, phone calls, and letters it is more important than ever for recruits to take matters into their own hands and give coaches a vehicle to evaluate their talent.  It will be vital for athletes to use tools like NCSA’s Verified Scouting Report to give coach’s a cheap yet extremely effective tool to evaluate their athletic and academic credentials. 

It will also put more responsibility on families to follow up aggressively.  If you haven’t gotten a phone call from a coach it is up to the athlete to make sure they call directly.  Even if they don’t get an immediate call back athletes will not to continue to stay on the offensive to make sure coaches get a chance to evaluate their Scouting Report.

In a challenging economy athletes have an opportunity to have their education paid in full, but it’s up to them to give coaches the chance to cheaply evaluate their talent.

Wouldn’t it be great if our kids could play this great game for free? Most parents love watching their children skate, enjoy seeing them mature as leaders in the locker room, and don’t even mind the cross country drives to rinks with arctic temperatures. When it comes time to buy new goalie pads or pay travel hockey dues, however, we start to wonder why our children couldn’t have pursued a sport like track, where all you need is a pair of tennis shoes! Despite the high cost associated with our favorite sport, there are ways to turn your child’s passion into profit when it comes time for college.The first step is to educate your family about college hockey. There are 58 Division I men’s ice hockey programs and 35 for women. Although fully funded teams offer 18 full scholarships, not all teams are fully funded and with 35,955 (men) and 7,350 (women) high school aged players competing for the same college roster spots, a Division I scholarship is hard to come by. Many people believe the myth that Division III colleges and universities do not offer scholarships. The fact is that although Division III institutions can not offer athletic scholarships they can and do offer academic and merit based scholarships as well as need based financial aid. Student-athletes who excel during high school have an advantage when it comes to the recruiting process because they will be eligible for academic and merit awards, and prospects that combine size, strength and speed with good grades and test scores are hot commodities for college coaches.

In order to receive a scholarship you must understand the process, know the rules and set appropriate expectations. For example, college coaches rarely “discover” prospects. You need to make yourself known by using credible sources to get your name in front of as many college coaches as possible. You will also need to compete at the highest levels. In today’s competitive world of college recruiting the average college freshman has played at least one year of juniors hockey. It is rare that a high school player jumps straight into the college arena so you should begin to map out your future as early as freshman year of high school. By taking ownership of your hockey career early on you will set yourself apart from your peers and give yourself the best possible chance of receiving a scholarship.

Tim Tebow’s passion for the college game is on par with anyone in the country.  His decision to pass up the millions waiting in the pros is inspiring to athletes at every level.

I love this story because so many parents I talk to think that playing college sports is different than getting an education.  Getting a college degree and playing college sports are NOT mutually exclusive activities.  In fact, one enhances the other.  As related in the article, Myron Rolle will delay entry into the NFL in order to become a Rhodes Scholar.  Mr. Rolle completed his 4 year degree playing in a big time college program in  2 1/2 years.  WOW!  The most important aspect is that he will graduate without having to pay back any student loans.  His education was fully funded.  Do you value education?  Do you want to play in college?  Find out about college scholarships and see what college programs you qualify for. 

It isn’t often that a high school coach bans a Division I football coach from his campus.  Especially when that coach’s name is Steve Spurrier.  But, that is just the case in Atlanta where Tucker High  Coach Franklin Stephens told reporters that Steve Spurrier is no longer welcome.  The rift began when South Carolina told Tucker High LB Jonathan Davis that it was pulling his scholarship offer.

“The bottom line … what South Carolina did to Jonathan was wrong,” Stephens told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “Coach Spurrier accepted blame for the situation … [but he] is not going to do anything to fix the situation, therefore South Carolina will not be recruiting any more Tucker players.”

Initially this looks like a case of poor recruiting ethics, but beneath the surface things look a little murky.  Rumors are floating about poor grades, and a rogue, since departed, assistant coach who may have offered Davis without the consent from the staff.

Davis has spoken about moving on and realistically it is his only choice.

“No sir, I don’t feel that way about anybody at South Carolina. Actually, I’m thankful they [South Carolina] called me when they did and broke it off … I know it’s late in recruiting, but by letting me know then, it still gives us a little time to find another school. What would’ve been very disappointing would’ve been to sign with South Carolina, get up there next year, and then not get a chance to play because none of the [remaining] coaches wanted me there in the first place. So it’s better we ended things this way. I still have time.”

He is making the best of poor position, but I can’t help but wonder if things would have turned out better if he had some better guidance throughout the recruiting process.  Could he have seen this curve ball coming?  That is anyone’s guess, but I hope that this story will cause recruits to pause and really think about making a commitment.  Without a solid relationship to a coaching staff that commitment might just be an empty promise.