NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Evaluating a potential recruit’s recruiting potential is extremely difficult.  Due to the process moving earlier each year, coaches have to make difficult decisions without the luxury of sitting back and seeing a player will develop.  A huge part of that process is how a player will develop academically.  The Columbus Dispatch took a look at how Ohio State tries to gauge a recruits academic ability.

When Ohio State recruit Carlos Hyde failed to qualify academically for this fall, it was a surprise.

“All indications were that he was going to make it,” said Bill Kurelic, a recruiting analyst for Bucknuts.com and ESPN.com.

What’s equally surprising, though, is that it doesn’t happen more often. Hyde was just the fifth OSU recruit to fall short in coach Jim Tressel’s nine recruiting classes — out of 178 signees.

Evaluating high school players is a complex process. It’s tough enough to watch game video, or see a player perform drills at a camp, and try to project whether he is talented enough to be worth a precious scholarship.

But evaluating whether he can meet academic standards is an even thornier process.

“It’s very different when you have to look into the hearts and minds of these kids,” said Allen Wallace, national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. “There’s a certain amount of guesswork involved. It’s subjective.”

Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman said the key in determining a recruit’s academic potential is to talk to as many people as possible who know him — parents, teachers, coaches and counselors.

Recruiters ask about the player’s character; how motivated is he to work to make the grade?

These days, the job is even tougher, Bollman said, because the trend is toward recruiting players at a younger age.

“You don’t have near the perspective that you had 10 years ago,” he said. “You’re recruiting juniors who haven’t even taken a (college-entrance) test yet.”

Student-athletes should take their academic reputation very seriously.  Taking extra steps like taking the PSAT early in high school or participating in extra curricular activities can go a long way to proving that the student-athlete takes academics very seriously.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 9:54 am and is filed under Academics, Athletic Scholarships. 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.