NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

NCSA’s Recruit-Match Database houses thousands of student-athletes hoping to be awarded an athletic scholarship. Each student-athlete has a unique Scouting Report featuring their verified information.  The fact that their academic and athletic information is verified by NCSA Recruiting Coaches and our partner combines makes this information worth its weight in gold to college coaches.

One member of the news media who understand the critical importance of verified information is ESPN’s Bruce Feldman.  Feldman spent a year period following the intricracies of athletic recruiting researching his best selling book Meat Market.  He sat down with the Baltimore Sun to discuss the recruiting process.

It was really incredible because so often you read about the recruiting process and you only got to see a fraction of the truth. I mean you look at the online recruiting profiles of these kids and they are touted to be 6-2 and weigh 230 pounds, run a 4.6 forty and have a 2.8 GPA. But in most cases that’s not the reality the staffs deal with. Maybe that kid comes to their camp and measures 5-11 ½ and weighs 215. He gets timed running a 4.98 and then when his transcript shows up he really has a 1.9 GPA. Then you’re not even sure if you can take him even if you think he’s a good enough prospect.

I was really amazed at how much misinformation is out there when it comes to recruiting. Players spin. Parents spin. The coaches spin. I guess that probably feels a little like what you get with agents and front-office types. Ultimately, I do think there are a lot of similarities with recruiting and the draft because it’s all about the evaluation and trying to make something that can be such a crapshoot a science. And, for all of the combines and vertical jumps and 40-times, the truth is if a guy is stiff or soft or not sharp enough to learn your scheme, he’ll get you beat and that’s usually where the busts in recruiting come from because many of these four- and five-star guys are anointed because of how they perform in shorts and t-shirts at some combine, not necessarily in how they do in the games.

The spinning process is exactly why coaches turn to NCSA as a trusted 3rd party source to find the critical information they need to make tough decisions on athletic scholarships.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 10:49 am and is filed under Athletic Scholarships, College Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.