NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

We get a lot of comments on this blog about star ratings, Rivals.com, and recruiting analysts like NCSA’s good friend Tom Lemming.  Recruits and families need to understand that these reports are largely reactionary.  In other words a recruit is given a five star rating by Rivals after Urban Meyer offers him a scholarship.  Players are not discovered by college coaches because Rivals gives him Five Stars. 

Don’t just take my word for it. Check out Bruce Feldman’s amazing book, Meat Market, which details the workings of major college football recruiting.  Feldman outlines how the best college coaches use a news source like Rivals to follow a top recruit’s actions. 

To be clear the usual path for “discovery”:

1)  A college coach is alerted to a potential prospect through a variety of credible sources and personal relationships with talent evaluators (like NCSA).

2) A college coach evaluates the player to make a scholarship decision.

3) A scholarship offer is made.

4) Rivals begins reporting on a recruits movement, recent games, visits and any information that could possibly affect their decision.

5) College coaches follow this information closely to try to gain an insight into a recruit’s thinking

Rivals does an incredible job of tracking the top recruits across the country.  Fans (like me) happily hand over subscription fees to follow their favorite teams.  However, families shouldn’t confuse them with the real gatekeepers of scholarships: college coaches.  Coaches do the evaluating. Rivals does the reporting.

One final source to illustrate my point.  Take a look at ESPN’s All Nobody Recruiting List.  Ever hear of Jay Cutler?  Jay didn’t end up at Vandy because Rivals gave him three stars instead of five.  Cutler ended up at Vandy because he wasn’t as developed as his peers when coming out of high school.

If you really want to play college football, you need to get seen and evaluated by college coaches.  The best way to do that is to contact coaches directly or use a service like NCSA to make sure college coaches see your best.

New Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin was recently reprimanded by the SEC conference for falsely accusing Florida coach Urban Meyer of cheating.  You can watch Lane’s accusation which took place at a breakfast celebrating UT’s recruiting class below.

It turns out Kiffin should have consulted a rule book before taking Meyer to task for calling a recruit while taking an official visit to UT.  Aside from making Kiffin look foolish, what should this latest incident tell recruits and families who are going through the recruiting process?

Its confusing!

Kiffin is a DI college football coach…and he doesn’t know the rules!  The NCAA rules and regulations can make even the savviest observer dizzy given all intricacies.  It’s no wonder that families are left in the dark about many of the ins and outs.  Unfortunately, breaking any one of these rules and regulations can threaten a student-athlete’s eligibility.  For families navigating the process, make sure you have someone on your side who knows the rules…your athletic future is at stake!

After an amazing Signing Day we would like to pause and look back at the first half of the recruiting year.  Yesterday we were able to interview a number of our newest commitments and you will find their videos below.  Each athlete brings a unique and exciting perspective to the recruiting process.

To date we have an NCSA mid-year record 462 confirmed college commitments.  The best part of looking at that number is knowing that it’s just the tip of the iceberg.  So many senior athletes still have months to go before they will make their final commitments.  If you still have a dream of playing college sports I encourage you to find out if you have what it takes and get evaluated NOW!