NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Yesterday I wrote about the widening competitive gap between schools in the Power-Six conferences and the rest of the NCAA.  Costs continue to escalate and many schools are finding it quite difficult to tap new revenue sources.  College Football Talk floated an interesting idea that has the blog-o-sphere buzzing.

This is starting to feel a lot like the Major League Baseball of the early nineties, where teams like the Yankees had such an incredible economic advantage that small market teams had no chance to win. If the NCAA wants to truly promote student athletes and athletics, it might want to start thinking about outside-the-box solutions like revenue sharing.

Rivals.com also weighed in with a great opinion on the subject.

I don’t want to advocate a revenue-sharing/salary cap model — realistically, as a hypothetical idea, it is an infinitely longer shot than, say, playoffs — but as part of the debate over the inequality gap, it’s an idea whose time has come.

The topic is extremely new, but in my opinion not too far fetched.  Conferences already share revenue.  BCS schools share revenue.  The NCAA shares revenue.  Why not a Division as a whole?  One thing is certain, this topic will continue to be discussed as the financial gap widens.

So Mom and Dad, you have visions of your youngster playing sports in college. You got them involved in youth sports when they were 5, 6, or 7 years of age. You noticed that they were a little bit or a lot better than their peers. You noticed that they always wanted to go to practice, had fun in games, in some cases, they hated to lose. At some point in time you started wondering if playing college sports could be a way to help pay for college. If you came to this conclusion your child’s junior year in high school, you already know how late you are in preparing them adequately. However, if you come to this conclusion when they are 6th or 7th graders, then you are wondering what you need to do to prepare your child for playing college sports. Depending on the sport, how does a parent find the best competition for their child so they can develop their athletic skills? How much money is all of this preparation going to cost? How competitive is it and how can I get a return on that investment?

In the following series of articles, I’ll address the following questions: In part one, how competitive is it to play a sport in college? And, what do parents need to do to give their child the biggest competitive advantage over their peers? In part 2: how much of an investment needs to be made in time and scarce resources? What activities should you invest in? In Part 3: a history of the recruiting help industry.  In Part 4: if you decide you need help, what are the best resources for that help?

The numbers are daunting! If you’re a boys high school basketball player in the US, you have a 4% chance of playing in college. Now statistics lie, so let’s dig into this one a little. Last year, there were 552,935 HS basketball players. There are 1733 college basketball programs at all levels – Junior College, NAIA, NCAA D1, D2, & D3. With an average of 12 kids on a roster, you can do the math. (Find out your sport’s numbers here.)  Now obviously not all 552,935 basketball players are going to be good enough to play in college, have the competitive desire to play in college, or have the grades and test scores to be accepted into a college. So the reality is for the one college roster spot that boy’s basketball player is seeking, he’ll be competing with 5 other kids from somewhere else in the world. He’ll have about a 17% chance to play. Depending on the sport, that percentage could be as high as 25% chance. So what will give your child the competitive advantage to be one of those roughly 20% of kids who want to play in college AND actually get to play AND get college funded?

A child must be competing at the highest level possible and sometimes that’s not at the high school. Every sport has outside of the high school programs where the student-athlete can compete. Football has camps, combines, 7 on 7, etc, where elite athletes compete with each other. Girls and boys basketball have “AAU”, basketball camps, like NCSA partner 5-star, etc. Soccer, baseball, softball, lacrosse, volleyball, field hockey, ice hockey, water polo have elite club or travel teams. Golf, tennis, swimming, track and field, cross country, and wrestling have elite tournaments or competitions that student-athletes earn their way to compete in. Some student-athletes don’t play their sport at their high school because of a variety of reasons. Some parents are shocked to learn that these kids who don’t play at their high school are getting recruited and, in some cases, getting drafted by professional sports teams. All of these club, travel, and camp activities that are outside of the high school cost money. So let’s get rid of the myth that you, the parent, don’t have to spend any money to get your child recruited. Even the most elite athletes have personal trainers to give them an edge over the other elite athletes they are competing with. So what should your budget be to get your child recruited? What is the best way to invest your money?  

Part 2, part 3, and part 4 has those answers – stay tuned!

On Wednesday the NCAA handed out their stiffest APR penalties to date.  While many educators cheered others looked at the data and saw a growing divide between the haves and have not.  The two main parts components to calculating a schools APR report is to make sure your players graduate and make sure they don’t transfer.  This means that when a new coach comes to a program and cleans house he could very well be hit with scholarship reductions when he needs them most.  This situation recently played out at Indiana when Tom Crean dismissed most of the previous year’s team and watched one player leave early for the NBA.  IU was rewarded for taking a hard line on academics with a reduction in scholarships this week (they anticipated the penalty and took the hit last year).

Its also becoming clear that schools with the resources to devote to extra educational attention to athletes are in a position to capitalize.  Of the 85 team penalized in football and men’s basketball only 11 came from outside of the Big-Six  power conferences.  NCAA president Myles Brand agreed that the cost of compliance could be cumbersome.

“The truth of the matter is that if you’re going to compete at high-level in college athletics, then you have to provide what they need in terms of equipment and recruiting and that’s not inexpensive,” Brand said during a conference call with reporters. “You also have to provide what the student-athletes need to graduate.”

Some might disagree, but as I wrote earlier today, these APR rules aren’t going anywhere.  That means coaches will be recruiting athletes they trust will graduate.

NCSA caught up with rising soccer star Alejandro Almodovar to talk about his high school career and the opportunity to compete at the next level. 

 
NCSA: How do you show a college coach that you are really interested in their program?

Almodovar: In order to show a college coach that I am really interested I had to take several steps. The first step I would take is to email a coach and tell him that I was very interested in their university and soccer program. I would ask them permission to send them a schedule of an upcoming tournament and to send them a video so that they can take a look at what I can do. Second, I would call the coach so he could see that I am interested in his individual university and the email I sent him was not just a universal email that I sent to many schools.

NCSA: What are you doing to “take charge” of your recruiting process?

Almodovar: To take charge of my recruiting process I have been keeping in contact with the coaches who have been interested in me. Once I knew which schools were interested in me I narrowed down the schools to three so I could really spend time focusing on those schools and speak to the individual coaches about what their programs can offer me and what I could offer to their program.

NCSA: How do you handle nerves when communicating with college coaches?

Almodovar: At first, when I began my recruiting process, I always seemed nervous when talking to coaches. After a while, I realized that playing soccer at the Division 1 level was what I really was passionate about and was something I really wanted to do, so eventually my nerves just went away as I got used to talking to coaches and realizing what I wanted.

 
NCSA: How do you deal with disappointment in the recruiting process? Can you give an example?

Almodovar: At one point throughout my recruiting process, I became very interested in playing for St. John’s University and Notre Dame University. I had emailed both coaches only to get a response from both of them that they are not looking for goalkeepers and that I should look at other programs. I was extremely disappointed. I did not give up because I knew I was going to be able to find the right university for myself. I picked myself up and continued my recruiting process.

 
NCSA: What are your goals for this club/high school season? How is the season going?

Almodovar: My High School season at Chaminade College Prep is already over and unfortunately because we had a very young team, our team had a very unsuccessful season. My last year of club with Fusion F.C. has been great. The team just finished Dallas Cup where we lost in the quarter finals 3-2 due to a penalty kick in extra time. We have nationals cup coming up and I hope to win the tournament with my team since it will be our last tournament where we will all be playing together.

NCSA: Overall, how has the recruiting process been for you so far? Has NCSA made a big impact for you?

Almodovar: The recruiting process overall was a pretty interesting journey. It was definitely not easy. I had several ups and downs. If I learned one thing throughout the recruiting process was to never give up. NCSA was definitely a huge impact for me. They introduced me to excellent Universities I seem to look over. When they sent out my video and profile to several Division 1 programs, I was contacted my several coaches who were interested in me. Without NCSA I probably would have never become in contact with American University, the school I will be attending. I am very happy that NCSA was able to help me find the right college for me.

Attention all underclassmen: Summer camps are right around the corner! This is the best opportunity to perform in front of college coaches and generate interest at the next level. Due to several NCAA rules that prohibit college coaches from evaluating student-athletes, summer camps have been a hotbed for college recruiting nationwide. Did you know that other schools may attend one summer camp? That’s right! This could be a prime opportunity for you to compete in front of a large crowd of coaches which can increase your odds of getting recruited! I have added some quick tips that can help you perform at your best this camp season:

1. Be well rested!
Don’t drive long hours and then stumble into camp. Try to get there the night before. Walk around the facility if possible and get acquainted with your surroundings. Get a good nights rest, proper meals, and most important be hydrated!

2. Perform at your best!
Understand you are being evaluated from to the time you set on foot on campus until the time you leave. From the time you start stretching until you break the final huddle, college coaches are watching your every move. My advice is giving 100% on every drill! Sprint from station to station and show these coaches you are serious about playing at the next level.

3. Reps, Reps,Reps!                                                                                                      

Getting to camp is a critical event in your recruiting efforts!

One of the biggest problems I see at camp is student-athletes not getting enough reps. Word to the wise: Take every rep as an opportunity to perform! The more reps the more opportunities you have to get evaluated. Have fun out there and understand this is your time to shine!

4. Build Relationships
Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to coaches after camp. Student-athletes who get out of their comfort zone tend to make a great first impression with a college coach. Shake hands and thank him for the opportunity. Have a copy of game and highlight film if available and be sure to follow up with the coach after the event. It can make a world of difference by just doing to the small things.

5. Be well rested (not a typo)!
That’s right student-athletes, I can’t stress enough how important it is to get proper rest in between camps. I see it time and time again when a student-athlete goes from one to camp to another without proper rest. You never know what school may be the most interested. Poor performance from lack of rest can seriously hinder your opportunities of getting recruited. Proper rest, big meals, and fluids are highly recommended!

Summer camps are where college coaches may find student-athletes who have the potential of being the right fit. Take these quick tips with you to camp and generate some serious buzz about yourself!

Athletic recruiting is based on communication. Student-Athletes are trying to communicate to college coaches that they have the ability to play at their program.  College Coaches are trying to commicate to various reliable sources to determine if the interested athlete does indeed have the potential to play in college.  Once that initial hurdle has been cleared the communication steps a level. Letters turn to emails which turn to phone calls and eventually in person contact.

Indiana Coach Tom Crean has faced various recruiting restrictions over the past year and is itching to finally talk to some recruits face to face.

“Phones get old,” Crean said. “E-mails get old. You have to get that face-to-face contact. We’re looking forward to that.”

That is why NCSA encourages athletes to start the recruiting process as early as possible.  Once a recruit has established interest thay can start taking meaningful unofficial visits as early as freshman year!  We also work dilligently help our athletes prepare to ensure that once that face to meeting takes place they are succesful.

Tennessee Basketball Coach, Bruce Pearl made waves yesterday with some controversial comments regarding the NCAA Academic Progress Report.  The APR punishes programs that don’t achieve certain academic results, but Pearl believes the fear of losing scholarships causes coaches to leave some perspective student-athletes behind.

“We don’t have enough time to sit here and talk to you about the APR,” said Pearl during a Big Orange Caravan stop Monday in Greeneville. “I think that it’s very well intentioned. I think there’s a lot of very positive things about it. But what it does very clearly is it discourages us from having diversity on our roster. It discourages us from taking students that are at risk.”

“Fortunately for this country, there’s a great deal of diversity and there are people from all different backgrounds and folks that have all different kinds of opportunities. Some are very well prepared coming out of high school. Some aren’t as well prepared.”

Not surprisingly NCAA President Myles Brand defended the APR.

“There’s room in the system to take risks, but only if you provide academic support for those prospects,” Brand said. “It’s not so much who you admit, but how much you are committed to those student-athletes’ academic performance while they are enrolled.”

My point to critics of the APR would be;  Shouldn’t all student-athletes be admitted to college based on some level of academic qualification?  Should a college really be accepting athletes they don’t believe can handle the classroom work?  Would a college hand out a scholarship to an exceptional music student with poor grades?  More importantly, shouldn’t a college want to reward prospective student-athletes with good grades?

Regardless of the answers to these opinion questions, the fact remains that the APR rules are in place and aren’t going anywhere.  Prospective high school recruits can seperate themselves from their peers with great grades and set a coach’s mind at ease that he won’t one day lose a scholarship due to a low APR.

After much speculation it finally happened.  A student athlete decided to call out the NCAA and sue them using selling products with his likeness.  Now the question is how far will things go?

Former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller is suing EA Sports for the use of student-athletes’ intellectual property.  Basically he is suing for using his jersey adn likeness in the popular EA College Football video game.

The suit also accuses the NCAA and EA of conspiring and deliberately violating NCAA’s Bylaw 12.5, which, “specifically prohibits the commercial licensing of an NCAA athlete’s ‘name, picture or likeness.’” This conspiracy obviously then led to millions upon millions of dollars of revenue for EA and the NCAA.

It’s a pretty far reaching law suit, including all of EA’s NCAA-sponsored titles, and the plaintiff is seeking some serious compensation. Legal fee repayment (obviously), punitive, actual and statutory damages, disgorgement of all profits earned by EA from their NCAA games (ouch!) as well as the destruction of all copies of NCAA games (“to the extent permitted by law”) that have not been sold.

Since the video game features the exact numbers, skin tones, general playing style and allows gamers to upload actual names the suit would seem to have some serious legs.  Darren Rovell of CNBC thinks so:

I’ve seen many lawsuits brought about by student athletes in my day and this is probably the best case I have ever seen constructed. I think Keller was smart to go after the video game business instead of the jersey business because I think he can make a better case with the former even though Nike and adidas call up football programs so that they can only produce jerseys with the numbers the stars are wearing each year.

However, could this lawsuit open up a broader conversation about athlete compensation? Will this be the blow the knocks out the giant.  Could an era where college athletes are actually paid be around the horizon?  What do you think?

National Collegiate Scouting Association softball athlete Megan Rizzi  (Mont Vernon, NH) had a tremendous freshman year at Catholic University of America.  She was recently named Rookie of the Year for the Landmark Conference.  Megan was the team leader in several hitting categories while anchoring the defense at the shortstop position.

Sam Schleisman, Baseball, Colorado School of Mines
Jeff Kean, Baseball, College of Idaho
Tony Asta, Baseball, Dordt College
John Bourque, Baseball, Millsaps College
Hunter Skelton, Football, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Zack McCabe, Football, St. Anselm College
Jonathan Louissaint, Football, Concordia (NE) University
Otis Peterson, Football, University of Louisiana – Monroe
Robbie McNatt, Football, Austin Peay State University
Timothy Marshall, Football, University of Dubuque
Chioke Burnett, Football, Rochester Community & Technical College
Martin Goines, Football, Thomas More College
Kevin Pikunas, Football, Carthage College
Jacob Lane, Football, Lackawanna College
Cody Donaldson, Football, Colorado State University
Conor Hough, Football, University of Tennessee — Chattanooga
Stan Bobowski, Football, University of San Diego
Mike McFarland, Football, William Jewell College
Jake Lammers, Football, Idaho State University
Raymond Cottman, Football, Glendale (AZ) Community College
Gary Nielsen, Football, Dana College
Matt Heller, Football, Franklin College
Harold Miller, Football, University of Northern Colorado
Colin Monnier, Football, University of Dayton
Keith Zalman, Football, Jacksonville University
Benji Oyinloye, Football, Coe College
Victor Dikaitis, Football, University of Minnesota — Crookston
Jamar Cason, Football, University of Louisiana – Monroe
Paul Bagala, Football, Dakota State University
Mike Manka, Football, Lake Forest College
Jordan Donnell, Football, Northwestern Oklahoma State University
Chase Herbert, Football, Southern Utah University
Brian Wilneff, Football, University of Iowa
Ben Jones, Football, Butler University
Jacob Kelly, Football, Franklin and Marshall College
Tyler Nelson, Football, Abilene Christian University
Scott Van Buren, Football, Campbell University
Sam Stuart, Football, Lafayette College
Tim Hoffman, Football, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Logan Rowe, Football, Colorado School of Mines
Andrew Weishar, Football, Illinois Wesleyan University
Gabriel Bermudez, Football, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Kevin Butcher, Football, West Texas A&M University
Luke Anderson, Football, Augustana College (IL)
Jacob Driver, Football, San Diego State University
Zachary Taylor, Football, Arizona State University
Mike Ghormley, Football, Carnegie Mellon University
Rich Iannelli, Football, Lycoming College
Tyler Hendrickson, Football, Hiram College
Caleb Martin, Football, University of Nebraska — Omaha
Cortney Frison, Football, Mount Union College
Jeremy Mayweather, Football, Truman State University
Josh Thiel, Football, University of St. Francis
Danny Spond, Football, University of Colorado — Boulder
Elijah Yaw, Men’s Basketball, Centralia College
Chris Ogilby, Men’s Basketball, Case Western Reserve University
Tom McDonough, Men’s Basketball, Polytechnic University
David McDaniel III, Men’s Basketball, Montclair State University
Gerald Colas Jr., Men’s Basketball, Alfred University
Remontae Brown, Men’s Basketball, Martin Methodist College
Ryan Callozzo, Men’s Basketball, University of Wisconsin — Parkside
Oliver Hughes, Men’s Basketball, Willamette University
Nate Perry, Men’s Basketball, Coastal Carolina University
Nicholas Heller, Men’s Golf, Illinois Wesleyan University
Hayden Adams, Men’s Golf, LeTourneau University
Andrew Myers, Men’s Golf, Siena Heights University
Cameron Kurtz, Men’s Lacrosse, Catholic University of America
Alex Ochs, Men’s Lacrosse, San Diego State University
Blake Crossman, Men’s Lacrosse, Assumption College
Sean Goynes, Men’s Lacrosse, Birmingham Southern College
Daniel Wasserman, Men’s Lacrosse, Ohio Wesleyan University
TJ Behling, Men’s Soccer, Adrian College
Matthew Soyka, Men’s Soccer, St. Thomas University
Steven Fama, Men’s Soccer, Methodist University
Jent Botterman, Men’s Soccer, DePauw University
Emil Cliggott-Perlt, Men’s Soccer, Tufts University
Daniel Cardenas, Men’s Soccer, College of the Canyons
Glenroy Chapman, Jr., Men’s Soccer, La Salle University
Kevin Magalhaes, Men’s Soccer, Endicott College
Tony Swierczewski, Men’s Soccer, Monmouth College
Joel Cowen, Men’s Soccer, Willamette University
Nicholas Grigoriev, Men’s Soccer, University of California – Davis
Nicholas Thompson, Men’s Swimming, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jose Ledesma, Men’s Swimming, Lake Forest College
Ross Phelps, Men’s Tennis, Georgetown College
Kevin Macek, Men’s Track, Augustana College (IL)
Stephen Bowe, Men’s Track, Howard University
Emily Bichler, Softball, DePauw University
Emily Mouyard, Softball, McKendree College
Elizabeth Schrandt, Softball, Polytechnic University
Hayley Weagant, Women’s Basketball, Manchester College
Dori Gills, Women’s Basketball, Augustana College (IL)
Rebecca Mayo, Women’s Basketball, Lakeland College
Aislinn Wenzel, Women’s Basketball, San Bernardino Valley CC
Rachael Walker, Women’s Basketball, Adrian College
Melissa Graham, Women’s Basketball, SUNY – Geneseo
Mareva Bone, Women’s Basketball, Oglethorpe University
Kaitlin Donahoe, Women’s Basketball, Bowdoin College
Eleanor Garcia, Women’s Basketball, Sauk Valley CC
Andrea Mastro, Women’s Golf, Robert Morris College
Tonya Jo Gruel-Wright, Women’s Golf, Capital University
Kathy Shei, Women’s Ice Hockey, Colby College
Sarah Ashe, Women’s Soccer, Cal Poly — San Luis Obispo
Sydnee Ford, Women’s Soccer, Georgetown College
Sarah Levitt, Women’s Soccer, Lesley University
Samantha Stiles, Women’s Soccer, San Francisco State University
Taylor Yurick, Women’s Soccer, Lake Erie College
Kaila Cameli, Women’s Soccer, Phoenix College
Jessie Leap, Women’s Soccer, Temple University
Mandi Hochheimer, Women’s Soccer, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Victoria Culliver, Women’s Swimming, Delta State University
Saraina Hedgepeth, Women’s Track, Florida International University
Katie Wahls, Women’s Track, Bucknell University
Sharlene Chisolm, Women’s Track, Loyola College in Maryland
Taneshia Harmon, Women’s Track, Huston-Tillotson College
Kristi Higgins, Women’s Volleyball, Cornell College
Natalie Salter, Women’s Volleyball, Pitt Community College
Kathryn Bates, Women’s Volleyball, Hendrix College
Kinley Johnson, Women’s Volleyball, Jefferson College
Savanna Braziel, Women’s Volleyball, Western Texas College
Roberta Kelley, Women’s Volleyball, Pacific University
Crystal Painter, Women’s Volleyball, University of Redlands
Caylee Kuchenbecker, Women’s Volleyball, University of Wisconsin — Parkside
Cori Cooper, Women’s Volleyball, Lake Forest College
Meagan Mansfield, Women’s Volleyball, Rhodes College
Courtney Fenwick, Women’s Volleyball, University of Mobile
Dillon Kern, Wrestling, Central Michigan University