Subscribe to the NCSA BlogWhat Are your Recruiting Factors?
February 16th, 2009 - byThis week Forbes released a list of the top college sports towns. My beloved Indiana Hoosiers finished a respectable 10th in the rankings based on Forbes formula based on a variety of factors.
To create our list of the best college towns, we started with the top 50 finishers in the Director’s Cup, an award issued through the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to schools based on their performance in every sport. Football and basketball are important, but for the sports fan, part of the college-town experience is access to top teams in track, water polo, soccer, baseball, tennis and other non-marquee sports.
From there, we looked at quality of life measures, since wins and losses aren’t everything. Using Coldwell Banker’s Home Price Comparison Index, we looked at the price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,200-square-foot home in each market and compared it to the median income.
Next, we mixed in statistics on public-school quality and crime from NeighborhoodScout, drawn from No Child Left Behind data and the FBI. Durham, N.C., home to Duke, may be more affordable than nearby Chapel Hill, home to UNC-Chapel Hill, but Chapel Hill’s superior school system and lower crime rate push it past Durham on our list.
The reason I want to highlight the rankings here it to make the point that Forbes developed a formula based on an extensive list of factors. Student-athlete’s and families going through the recruiting process need to base their decisions based on a similar wide range of issues. That is one more reason why its so important for families to start the recruiting process early. By extensively researching all your options and getting to know a college and athletic program student-athletes greatly increase their chances of finding the right fit.
