NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

College recruiting is consistently getting younger.  It is now to the point where a coach can feel that he will be behind in recruiting of he isn’t actively tracking 8th grade recruits.

“Well, we’ve been talking about this a lot. I’ve been talking about this with coaches. Recruiting’s getting so much younger. You’re going to find freshmen throughout the state, throughout the country that have got their list. Some of them already have it narrowed down. We can’t even be sending them letters outside of questionnaires.”

“Would I want to offer an eighth grader? It would have to be an extremely, extremely special case. Would we know where the eighth graders are? Absolutely. Because if you don’t, you’re behind. If you’re not actively recruiting people are freshmen, meaning being visible at their practices and games, getting them on campus for unofficial visits; we learned, I don’t think the count is done, but since we took the job last April, when you look at all the unofficial visits, when you look at the tickets used for games, we were at 286. And I don’t think the count’s over yet. And that doesn’t even count what we would hope to have this weekend because we can meet with people the day before or the day after in the sense that there’s a lot of different rules we have to follow depending on where people play.”

“But again, it’s the visibility that you have to have. If you’re not there, they know it. And that’s one reason we still feel like we’re behind in the 2010 class. Because we had to spend so much time a year ago in getting a team on the floor and then recruiting the present day seniors, or rising seniors at that point to be here. Well, our opponents had already done all of that. They were just putting the finishing touches on that. And so that puts up behind a little bit. But again, the visibility is so important and that’s, again, when you can expose your university and your program in different ways, it’s a huge part in what’s going to happen for you in building that. And frankly, Indiana lost some of that. And we’ve gotta work extremely hard to get it back.”

If you are serious about playing in college its time to get serious about the recruiting process.  If you aren’t actively taking steps to reach out to coaches you could get left behind.

The NCAA has made their official ruling on Twitter.  Shockingly (at least to me) they have determined that the social media service can be used to directly message recruits.  In my opinion this

“We view that option on Twitter the same as we view normal e-mails,” Cameron Schuh, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations for the NCAA, told ESPN. “It’s just you can’t post those (direct messages) on your main page.”

“We view Twitter as a blog. As long as coaches are on there talking about what they’re doing with their day and how their practice went or things like that • not getting into specific terms, that’s fine. They can’t talk about a person they’re recruiting, or they can’t use it to talk about their whereabouts on a recruiting trip.”

The fact that Twitter can hook directly to any cell phone makes this a realistic alternative to coaches that miss the ability to text message recruits. There is no doubt in my mind that coaches will be rushing to this new medium to contact recruits in a new “cool” way.  Good recruiters will be able to seperate themselves by direct messaging recruits useful tidbits in real time and positively enhancing their programs image on their public tweets.

If you are a recruit I would recommend joining Twitter and making sure your Tweets are athletically focused.  Its especially ideal because the recruit can choose who’s messages they allow.  they need to follow a coach to allow a direct message and give specific permission for that coaches direct messages to link up to their phone.

I predict Twitter’s explosive growth rate will soon be taking off with coaches and recruits alike.  The only question will be who jumps on the bandwagon first and who uses it most effectively.

Follow NCSA on  Twitter at http://twitter.com/ncsa

Twitter Messaging on a Phone

Today the NCAA hired  Michigan coach John Beilein as the newly created  position as chairman of the new men’s basketball ethics coalition.  The panel hopes to clarify the rules and the intention of the rules so coaches can’t inadvertently break them. Coach Beilein descibed what he hoped to accomplish.

“There’s a spirit to the rules we all need to follow. We don’t want to be, as coaches, trying to find our way around the rules,” Beilein told The Associated Press. “There’s a spirit we have to live by.”

“We have a great game and an awful lot of coaches who always do things the right way,” Beilein said. “Whenever someone does something wrong, it gives us all a black eye. There are gray areas in terms of recruiting, scheduling and summer camps, and we want to get rid of those gray areas.”

My point to recruits is that if the coaches can’t figure out the rules, how can you?  The recruiting porcess is long, complicated and never the same.  Are you sure that you’ll be able to naviagte every obstacle in your way?  NCSA helps thousands of student athletes reach their recruiting potential by understanding the rules and know ing how to play the game.

Tara VanDerveer is one of the most respected and successful woman’s basketball recruiters and coaches of all-time.  She has won two National Championships and coached the 1996 Olympic team.  She is one of seven coaches to win more than 700 games.  Needless to say, she know what she is talking about when it comes to basketball recruiting.  Scout.com asked her how much stock Stanford put into the ratings that are blasted across the Internet.

There are several groups that rate high school prospects, such as HoopGurlz, Blue Star, and ASGR, or give out awards, such as the Parade or the McDonald’s All-American selections. Do you follow those ratings? How much stock should fans put in these rankings and awards?

We just get names. So many of the things you look for in a recruit are not measurable. So much of it is the kid’s maturity, the person’s ability to deal with being away from being home, which I guess is maturity too. We look at the names and then we do our own evaluations. We don’t really pay much attention to it. I mean Val Whiting was third team something-or-other and led our team to two championships. The kids this year, Ros (Gold-Onwude), Jill (Harmon), and Morgan (Clyburn) laugh about the fact that none of them were McDonald’s. We don’t really put any stock in that stuff to be honest with you.

Yet another coach who uses lists to identify prospects but evaluates players on their own.  How do you get on a list?  One way is to enroll with NCSA and enter our Recruit-Match Database.

Yahoo sports broke yet another story this week involving potential NCAA sanctions and a high profile NCAA program.  USC, already reeling from previous allegations, was hit with the allegations that their coach Tim Floyd made payments directly to Rodney Guillory.  Guillory has already been accused by Yahoo of providing multiple improper gifts to star guard O.J. Mayo.   The feds and the NCAA already have multiple investigations going and this will add more fuel to the USC needs to receive the dreaded lack of institutional control penalty.

Deadspin writer Tommy Craggs had a very unique take on the allegations that I wanted to share:

Yahoo has built a brand out of catching young athletes with their hand out, something that always makes for compelling reading but now seems more than a little misguided. If you find yourself writing story after story about NCAA rule after NCAA rule being broken, shouldn’t there come a point where you question the wisdom and validity of those rules in the first place?

I suppose Yahoo’s reformer spirit is commendable, but this really does get the issue exactly wrong. The “problem” isn’t everywhere. It’s in one place. The NCAA charter. Where’s that series?

I think the NCAA does a tremendous job given its resources, but Craggs has a valid point.  Why don’t we hold the NCAA to the same standard we hold schools?  If a school is expected to monitor its athletes to the point where no violations occur, should the NCAA be expected to  monitor its own members to the same degree?

Is this realistic?  What do you think?

This is the second of a 4 part series. Part 1 is here.

There are 3 areas that every parent will have to invest in to make sure you put your child in the best position to be recruited. On the athletic side, you are going to have to spend anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per year from about 6th grade forward on travel, hotels, team fees, training, and equipment. If you’re not doing this, those other 4 student-athletes looking for the same scholarship your child is looking for is. On the academic side, you’ll want to make sure your child is earning all A’s and B’s in school. The more A’s the better! If they need help to develop the study habits to make that happen, then there could be an investment in tutors, learning centers, etc. Have you priced those lately? Then, to ensure that their test scores reflect their grades, an investment in test preparation will help. Finally there is the recruiting itself. In the vast majority of sports, the college coaches’ recruiting budget is pitifully small. They WILL NOT discover your child. College coaches don’t have a scouting budget like the NY Yankees, which is in the millions of dollars per year. You have to devote time and funds to marketing your child. If you spend $6,000 to $30,000 in athletic development and $5,000 in academic development so that your child can be athletically skilled and academically qualified enough to be recruited and your child doesn’t get recruited, what is the payoff for that investment? Also, if your child doesn’t get a chance to play, will she/he come back to you in 10 years and wonder if they could have played if only they knew how to maximize their recruiting opportunities? So where do you allocate your funds for marketing and how is the most cost effective way of doing this?

Marketing your student athlete is an important skill that 99% of parents I speak with don’t know how to do. If you never attended college or haven’t searched for a job in the age of the internet, you probably don’t know all of the ins and outs of the athletic scholarship acquisition process. Even if you are college educated or an expert at finding a job using the internet, you still are unaware of how college coaches determine who they recruit and how you can make your child part of that coach’s recruiting list. Your child has to take an active role in this process. It’s their life! They must be empowered with the skill set to market themselves to college coaches. Since your child’s college decision will impact her/him for the rest of their lives, don’t you think that it’s important that they have those skills?

If you’re reading this, you know that NCSA has devoted a lot of time and effort to educate student-athletes and their parents on this marketing. We call this the recruiting process and our goal is for each qualified student-athlete to achieve their maximum recruiting potential. Everyone reading this thinks they can do this on their own. Especially after they read the five things you need to know and the five things you must do. And some parents have been successful doing things themselves. However, understand the effort those parents made. They’ve devoted literally 40 to 50 hours a month to researching colleges, putting together marketing packages, contacting lots of college coaches, following-up, and fighting encouraging their children to do things they need to do, such as calling college coaches on the phone. They’ve had to put up with teen-age kids who aren’t skilled in talking to college coaches and have no desire to do so because they don’t know what to do. Does your teen-ager do everything you ask without question? Do you have 500 hours over the next calendar year to devote to this process? How much of that time will you spend spinning your wheels and targeting the wrong college coaches? How much of that time is spent driving to camps where a child has no chance of being recruited? How frustrating is all of this and does a child give up their dream if no college coaches respond to your marketing efforts?

From a financial standpoint, you will be spending money for marketing. If you aren’t spending money – you’ll be spending time. How much is your time worth? As you know from the five things you need to do, you’ll need to do the following: 1) Get a objective evaluation so that you target the right college programs; 2) Post an online resume that college coaches will look at; 3) Create a winning highlight or skills video; 4) Get in contact with at least 100 college coaches at the right places; and 5) consider all options in a thorough way so your child makes the right decision. The first can be done by comparing your child’s metrics with those of collegiate student-athletes at the various levels.  (See the recruiting guidelines for your sport.)   The next 2 can be done in a variety of ways and you can do it for as little as free – which will net zero results, to hiring professional website and video vendors which can run up to $1000. Contacting college coaches is more problematic. Since college coaches are inundated with emails and letters from a variety of sources, they only rely on trusted sources. How many emails does the typical college football coach get from a mom, dad, or kid that says, “hey, I’m 200 pounds and run a 4.4 forty yard dash…”? What do you think the college coach does with that email? (Hint: if you answered anything else but, “he hit the delete button,” you got the wrong answer.) College coaches rely on trusted sources and verified information. That’s the biggest roadblock to parents doing it themselves. They don’t have the relationships with the college coaching community to generate the kind of response from college coaches needed to maximize opportunities.

Finally, how do you empower your child with the skill set to make a life-changing decision? Most parents do a great job of raising their kids. All parents love their kids and want their kids to be the best and have the best. However, most parents can’t empower their children with the skill set to speak with college coaches. When speaking with college coaches, student-athletes need to ask the right questions in the right way so they don’t get their name crossed off of that college coach’s recruiting list. What parent knows those questions? Do you know the questions college coaches ask student-athletes to see if they should cross your child’s name off of the list? And, if you the parent think you can talk to college coaches for your child, you can’t! I’ve seen more talented student-athletes NOT get recruited because of the parent than I care to list right here. All parents have a deep emotional attachment to this outcome. However, some parents don’t know how to channel their emotions into a positive influence on their children. Would guidance from an expert be of value? Would the peace of mind of knowing you’re doing the right things and your child is getting coached the right way in this process help tone down the emotions when discussing this in your household? So where do you get that help? 

Stay tuned for Part 3 and Part 4.

Cynics might say that Greg Paulus is transferring to Syracuse to play one season of football just because his four year basketball career ended in disappointment.  After arriving on campus as one of the top basketball and football recruits in the country, Paulus chose to concentrate on basketball.  He started for the Duke team as a freshman, but after showing initial promise of a pro career he was coming off the bench as a senior.  When the Duke season ended it was

Greg Paulus

clear that Paulus was no longer an NBA prospect.

He seemed destined for a career playing in Europe or moving on from sports altogether when he shocked the sports world by working out for the Green Bay Packers.  The workout led to fliratation with both Michigan and the Duke football team.  After a month or so of examining his options Paulus announced today that he will be attending Syracuse.

However, the interesting tidbit that I took from his announcement wasn’t the plan to play football, but how he plans to use the opportunity to further his education.  He plans on applying to Syracuse’s highly regarded Newhouse School of Communications.

“I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play college basketball,” Paulus said. “And I am very lucky to have another opportunity to do something else in college I love. I’m really excited about having a chance to further my education and play college football.”

In my opinion its fantastic that he is taking what could be seen as a dissapointment and turning it into another opportunity not only in sport but in life.

But, unlike Paulus most athletes that want to get recruited only have one chance to transfer their athletic ability into the opportunity to receive funding for college.  Getting a second chance or a do-over is unheard of.  Messing up even one exchange with a coach or attending the wrong camp could mean losing a scholarship opportunity.  Greg was one of lucky elite athletes in the country who got to choose between sports and major universities, but for the other 99% the options aren’t as plentiful.  That’s exactly why many athletes choose to join the NCSA team and simplify the recruiting process.

NCSA’s director of Recruiting 360 Randy Taylor is beginning his annual rankings process to highlight the Top 200 Football Players in America.  He is starting the process on the defensive side of the ball highlighting the 2010 classes top defensive end prospects.  How can you get on Randy’s final list?  Get evaluated by an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator and Scout.  All top NCSA prospects will be considered for Randy’s final Top 200 Rankings!

Name Ht/Wt School State
Craig Sanders 6-4/230 Ariton AL
LaDarius Owens 6-2/220 Jess Lanier AL
Hroniss Grasu 6-3/245 Crespi CA
Eddie Plantaric 6-5/245 Del Campo CA
Sione Tupouata 6-4/250 Fremont CA
Justin Utupo 6-2/245 Lakewood CA
Davon Wallace 6-2/220 Narbonne CA
Ronald Powell 6-4/250 Rancho Verde CA
Javarie Johnson 6-3/208 Dunbar DC
Theodore Jackson 6-2/220 Armwood FL
Darious Cummings 6-2/256 Astronaut FL
Lynden Trail 6-7/220 Booker T. Washington FL
Corey Lemonier 6-4/223 Hialeah FL
Delvin Jones 6-6/230 Miami Palmetto FL
B.J. Butler 6-2/225 Osceola FL
Jalen Fields 6-5/240 Dalton GA
Garrison Smith 6-4/250 Douglass GA
Nerion Ball 6-4/210 Jackson GA
T.J. Stripling 6-6/210 Southwest Dekalb GA
J.C. Copeland 6-1/245 Troup County GA
Anthony Williams 6-4/235 Union Grove GA
Brandon Burrows 6-3/235 Walton GA
Henry Anderson 6-6/245 Woodward Academy GA
Kona Schwenke 6-5/215 Kahuku HI
Matt Hoch 6-3/230 Harlan Community IA
Warren Herring 6-3/220 Belville East IL
Chance Carter 6-4/235 Loyola Academy IL
Blake Lueders 6-5/240 Zionsville IN
Timothy Patterson 6-4/205 Central KY
Wendell Beckwith Jr 6-3/210 Clinton LA
Walker Ashburn 6-3/240 John Curtis Christian LA
Jordan Allen 6-6/248 West Monroe LA
Ego Ferguson 6-4/260 St. John’s Catholic Prep MD
J.R. Ferguson 6-3/270 St. John’s Catholic Prep MD
William Gholston 6-7/237 Southeastern MI
C.J. Olaniyan 6-5/230 Warren Mott MI
Kenneth McClendon 6-2/265 DeSmet Jesuit MO
Bryon Bennett 6-2/250 Madison Central MS
Carlton Martin 6-2/258 Madison Central MS
Travis Dixon 6-3/225 Ocean Springs MS
Carlos Thompson 6-5/220 Simmons School MS
Kaleb Eulls 6-4/245 Yazoo County MS
Fre’Shad Hunter 6-4/255 Cary NC
Gabe King 6-5/245 Page NC
Kareem Martin 6-6/230 Roanoke Rapids NC
Alfy Hill 6-4/245 West Brunswick NC
Bryan Murphy 6-2/125 Don Bosco Prep NJ
Steele Divitto 6-3/215 Don Bosco Prep NJ
T.J. Clemmings 6-6/260 Patterson Catholic NJ
Dominique Easley 6-3/258 Curtis NY
J.T. Moore 6-4/220 Boardman OH
Derrick Bryant 6-4/230 Brookhaven OH
O’Neal Brown 6-6/210 Harding OH
Darryl Baldwin 6-5/245 Solon OH
Jibreel Black 6-2/260 Wyoming OH
Sonny Puletasi 6-3/215 Lawton OK
Owamagbe Odighizuwa 6-3/234 David Douglas OR
Kyle Baublitz 6-4/254 Central York PA
Dakota Royer 6-3/222 Manheim Central PA
Brandon Willis 6-4/250 Byrnes SC
Corey Miller 6-4/227 Byrnes SC
Kendrick Frazier 6-2/240 Denmark-Olar SC
Dexter Morant 6-6/230 Manning SC
Jacques Smith 6-3/225 Ooltewah TN
Joseph Okafor 6-7/231 Bellaire TX
Jackson Richards 6-4.5/240 Carroll TX
Holmes Onwukaife 6-2/215 Cedar Park TX
Reggie Wilson 6-4/240 Haltom TX
Clarence Lee 6-3/210 Jefferson TX
Jackson Jeffcoat 6-5/230 Plano West TX
Damontre Moore 6-5/220 Rowelett TX
Kirk Poston 6-2/230 Saint Pius X TX
Ivan Robinson 6-5/260 South Beauregard TX
Greg Daniels 6-4/242 St. Pius X TX
Kedrick Dial 6-5/215 Sulphur Springs TX
David Durham 6-2/220 Westlake TX
Joe Kruger 6-8/229 Timpanogos UT
Bronson Kaufusi 6-6/220 Timpview UT
Zack McCray 6-4/228 Brookville VA
Keevon Newsome 6-3/235 Churchland VA
Aramide Olyanian 6-2/195 Woodberry Forest VA
Darius Waters 6-2/215 Lakes WA

I think the world of Athletic Directors at high schools. I have been working closely with A.D.’s across the country since 1985. How they coordinate all the sports, transportation, and officials impresses the heck out of me. They hire coaches, work with parents, and constantly try to upgrade facilities and budget for equipment. Their dedication to young people is to be admired. They play vital roles in the success of high school sports. There is a saying that when people have dedicated years of relentless service to an organization and to others, they leave their blood in the bricks. That is true of Athletic Directors.

I’ve found that A.D.’s have experience with their athletes being recruited and come to know a good bit about recruiting. I have found they are passionate about making sure families know about the NCAA Eligibility Center. It drives them goofy when legitimate D-1 or D-2 prospects horse around and don’t stay in sync with the Eligibility Center process as juniors. All in all, though, A.D.’s would be the first to tell you they are not experts on recruiting and sometimes can be off the mark. I recently had one Athletic Director tell me for the past twenty years he had advised kids that if they wanted to play College Sports they should sit down with their High School Coach after their sport was done in their senior year and map out a plan.

Yikes!

Another well meaning A.D. has always told his athletes that “if you are good enough the Colleges will find you.”

Yikes again!

Parents often think it is “the job” of the A.D. and the Coach to get their kid a college athletic scholarship, so it is the responsibility of the A.D. to make sure parents and kids are educated on recruiting, especially since it has changed so much in the last three or four years.

I sat in on a session at a state Athletic Director’s conference. The speaker, an A.D., highly suggested to all of the A.D.’s that they bring in a recruiting expert to speak to parents. He suggested that one good time was in August at Parent Meetings.

I agree. A.D.’s are often looking for ways to get maximum attendance of parents. They worry that some parents won’t come out because they feel it will be the same information from last year. A presentation of “College Recruiting Simplified” is a sure fire way to help attract parents because they are often starved for information on how to maximize their child’s ability to play at the college level.

Last week I predicted that coaches would soon be stretching their use of Twitter to contact recruits directly.  I assumed the NCAA would then be forced to look at the issue and make a ruling.  Turns out they already have.  College coaches aren’t allowed to publicly direct messages to recruits on Twitter using @ tags.  Tom Crean tweet a few weeks ago reinforces this rule.

“I appreciate how many people are following me on this. Please remember that I cannot read or respond to replies. NCAA rules.”

However, far more interestingly the NCAA has given the ok to using the Twitter direct message feature.  ESPN’s Ryan Corazza confirmed this ruling with the NCAA.

I called the NCAA yesterday to get the skinny, and here’s what I found: Crean is right. Any type of chatter back and forth via @replies that can be viewed in the public domain is not allowed. However, direct messaging on Twitter — which can only be viewed by the two people involved in the communicating — is permissible. (Same goes for Facebook. A coach can use the messaging function, which is similar to an e-mail, but he can’t write on Facebook walls.) This falls in accordance with the current electronic transmission guidelines that are already in place.

“We view that option on Twitter the same as we view normal e-mails,” said Cameron Schuh, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations for the NCAA. “It’s just you can’t post those (direct messages) on your main page.”

“We view Twitter as a blog,” Schuh continued. “As long as coaches are on there talking about what they’re doing with their day and how their practice went or things like that … not getting into specific terms, that’s fine. They can’t talk about a person they’re recruiting, or they can’t use it to talk about their whereabouts on a recruiting trip.”

This ruling is absolutely amazing to me because it allows college coaches to use Twitter, and to a lesser degree Facebook, as their new tool to text message recruits.  It was only a few years ago that the NCAA had to outlaw texting since it was do out of control (see Sampson, Kelvin).  But, since Twitter easily is integrated into any phone that allows text messaging a coach can effectively use the tool to contact his top recruits.  The biggest difference is that recruits can choose whether to accept the messages or not.

This is a huge advantage for technical savvy coaches and I expect to hear recruits text message alerts buzzing soon.

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