NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Many times when I talk to football that are nearing the end of the recruiting process I get told that while they haven’t received an offer yet, they are assured by the coach that they remain high on their list.  Word to the wise:  IF YOU HAVEN”T RECEIVED AN OFFER YOU AREN”T HIGH ON THE LIST! That is because coaches  almost always offer more player than they have scholarship slots.  They know they won’t be able to get all of their targets and thus have to cast a wide net.  NCSA resident recruiting genius Randy Taylor explains his method to offering players.

It would vary depending on position needs and talent available at the position. At QB for example, you should sign at least one per year. I’d offer no fewer than five each year. I’d say a 5 to 1 ratio minimum is appropriate. If you sign 25 in a class you’d offer about 125 prospects minimum. Some schools offer every prospect they see that can play at their level knowing that the weeding out will take care of itself. They may not be at the highest level of D1 and

Randy Taylor at Minnesota

believe that they have to offer everyone to be able to remain in the running after the top tier schools get theirs. Some staffs believe they want to be the first offer to make an impact so start early, like as sophomores and freshmen.

The shrinking takes care of itself. Some will commit to other schools. When a prospect commits to you, then you determine how secure you feel with this commitment to decide how to handle other offers. If you feel secure you can cut some of the offers loose by telling them you’ve received a commitment and the spot is filled. If you feel secure but love the other player(s) at the position and they’re too good to pass on you keep recruiting them. If you’re insecure about the commitment you continue to recruit the other prospects at the position until you become secure in the commit. It never ceased to amaze me how it usually worked itself out. The bigger problem was not having enough prospects to sign in the end. Having too many was a good thing. You then pressure some of the prospects on the board to commit or you’d move on and the offer was pulled from the table.

There’s a philosophy at many schools that you “sign them all.” Meaning it doesn’t matter if you go over the limit of scholarships you have to give as that’s better than the alternative of not signing enough. The staff has to then try to get some of the signees to “Gray Shirt” meaning to sit the first semester and attend classes part time to not start your “clock” of 5 years to play 4 until the next semester when they can count the scholarship toward the next class. Or, let the young person know that he/she should find somewhere else to play, very bad PR move but done by some. Or, hope the person doesn’t qualify and the NLI becomes void. The academic issue is often a reason to over sign to have insurance on losing some to academics. The rule relating to over signing doesn’t come into play until the first practice of the next fall or the first day of class depending on sport.

Randy’s explanation shows just how far behind any prospect is who doesn’t have an offer yet.  That raises the question, “Why would they keep telling  a prospect that he remains high on their list, but not offer a scholarship?

So, a coach can get a “free” player aka a walk-on.  My advice to potential recruits is that you don’t have an offer understand that many of your peers already do and get moving!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Choosing the Right Fit, 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.