NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Taking Unofficial and Official Visits to college campuses in an essential ingredient in the college athletic recruiting game.  These visits allow for a student-athlete to get better feel for a program allow a coach to evaluate a player’s character first hand.  Usually recruits only take a handful of visits beofre settling on a school, however that approach could potentially limit your options.  The reason?  Many recruits don’t take visits to schools the perceive as a lower quality.

New Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen told ESPN about the importance of showing off his school first hand to recruits.

When we get kids on campus, most of the reports are when they leave campus something along the lines of, ‘I can’t believe it was that nice,’ or ‘I didn’t know it would be that nice.’ It’s not just our athletic facilities. But walk through campus on a school day. Go downtown. It’s a great community and just a really nice place to live and a great family atmosphere that revolves around the university. That’s what makes it a neat place. The issue we fight is getting kids here. Once they come, they’re amazed.

The recruiting lesson is simple.  Don’t cross schools off your list until you understand exactly what that school is all about.  Many recruits don’t realize that there is no limit on the amount of unofficial visits.  Taking extra visits just to be sure is one strategy athletes should take advantage of.

The first day of school is right around the corner; did you use your summer wisely? In addition to family vacations and relaxing, as a future collegiate athlete your summers should also include camps, tournaments, researching schools, contacting coaches and going on visits. If your summer didn’t look like this, you will need to make up for it this fall.

Coaches will be back on a regular schedule in their office so you should have an easier time reaching them than you did over the summer. However, you need to remember that they will be in season so they will be extremely busy. You will need to be more persistent with coaches, more than any other time of the year. Don’t give up on a school if you don’t hear back from a coach right away. If it’s been a couple of weeks, send the coach a friendly reminder email and ask your questions again. It would also be a good idea to try calling them, but keep in mind their practice times.

The fall is also a good time to take visits. School will be back in session so you can see campus at its liveliest time. You will hopefully have an opportunity to tour the campus and sit in on a class so you know what to expect in the coming years. It’s also a good opportunity for you to go watch a game to see the level of play and how the team is coached. This is one of the best times of the year for visits, so do your best to take advantage of these upcoming months.

In addition to taking campus visits you will also need to increase your outgoing contacts to coaches. You should be contacting coaches to let them know of your interest and of your desire to visit campus. Even if you aren’t sure you have enough interest in a school to visit, you still want to contact coaches to get to know them and their school. It’s time to get disciplined again, not only with your school work, but with your recruiting as well.

This week I was talking to Brandywine (MI) Athletic Director Vance Stratton. They are going to bring me in next month to educate their families and athletes about the Five Things You Must Do and the Five Things You Must Know about College Athletics Recruiting.

The A.D. and I got to talking about Recruiting. He had some insights that can help others. He said:

“Charlie, it has been my experience that a major mistake parents make is that some of these parents think their child is a whole lot better than what they are as far as playing College. My son Zach earned 19 varsity letters in high school (baseball, wrestling, golf, football and track!) and reached honorable mention All State in football and was a State Champion on two Relay teams at Cassopolis (MI) H.S. That’s great, but we were realistic in evaluating where he could play in College Football and found that he projected to be small Division One at best. We got letters from Big Ten schools and took him for unofficial visits and Junior Days and got to see games. That was fun, but in the end he ended up at Grand Valley State, Division 2, and that was EXACTLY where he should go, and he had a great experience. He was part of their first National Championship team. This is a kid who had over 4500 yards rushing in high school.”

Folks, this family nailed it when it came to being evaluated. There is a reason that “Get Evaluated” is the #1 thing in “The Five Things You Must Do To Play College Football.” This A.D. continued to share wisdom:

“Charlie, there is life beyond athletics for the great majority. Go for your Major and for the School. Go somewhere that if you get hurt you will still be happy on that campus. Use athletics as a means to get an education. My son Zach is now in the Air Force. He has always loved being part of a team and the camaraderie that comes with it. In High School, yeah, maybe if he had specialized in one sport he possibly could have done a little more with his sport in college, but you know what, he played so many sports because he LOVED to compete for HIS School and his community in high school. When the golf team needed one more player, he was there. He loved all sports.”

Blair Tushaus pulls the trigger and verbally commits to BYU! The 6’3’’ 275lb offensive lineman from Notre Dame Prep (AZ) decided it was time to end the process. Blair has offers from the likes of, Arizona St, Nevada, San Diego St, UNLV and others. Tushaus also does very well in the classroom, carrying a 3.7 GPA.

After watching Blair’s film, he uses his hands very well, leveraging himself underneath the defender. He is definitely a drive blocker, finishing his blocks by driving the defender to the ground. Blair moves his feet well by getting to the second level and blowing up the linebacker off his feet. He plays center, but I could also see him moving to guard at the next level. His intensity on the field his something you can’t teach. I think this is a great pick up by the Cougars and a great fit for Blair! NCSA wants to congratulate Blair Tushaus on a great academic and athletic fit!

Yesterday, there was an interesting post on the New York Times Quad Blog describing the high price paid by players who receive TOO MUCH recruiting attention.

My recruitment was going according to Coach Wootten’s master plan, with all the calls going through the basketball office, until I was invited to the Adidas ABCD basketball camp. There, my address and home phone number were sold in a packet detailing the players’ information for $75.

That weekend my parents were out of town, but when they got back the tape on our old answering machine was full. Over 40 college coaches had called, leaving messages. Next to our answering machine, my mother stacked a series of note cards. Each one had the name of a college coach, the university, a phone number and the time he called. My mother informed me that I was to call each of them back in turn.

The worst part about these phone calls was that most of them didn’t indicate that the school had any serious interest. They were calls from low assistants filling out profiles so they had files on a wide number of recruits.

It wasn’t hard to spend hours on the phone with different schools answering benign questions.

One of the calls I remember best was from U.N.C.-Wilmington. The man on the other end was clearly tired after a long day of phone calls, and had a questionnaire in front of him.

“What’s your height?”

“What’s your weight?”

When he came to SAT scores, my answer made him pause. He apparently didn’t hear 1,570 all that often as a college recruiter.

“So you’re getting recruited by a lot of Ivy League schools,” he answered.

Another pause.

“Here at U.N.C.-Wilmington our Marine Biology program is ranked top 25 in the country,” he offered.

He promised to call again to check in. Of course, he never did. But when shoe companies are selling your home phone number, and assistants are trying to be friends with your mom, having one less coach on the phone isn’t always a bad thing.

The author may have a point about it being difficult to answer a lot of phone calls, but think about the opposite.  What happens if the phone never rings?  Players need to worry first and foremost about getting a coach’s attention early in the recruiting cycle.

Once student-athletes  have been identified, they can responsibly go about the recruiting process.  Part of that process is managing your contacts and communicating with them in the least stressful way possible.  Having the proper guidance to navigate your contacts is a big part of finding the right fit, while not losing your mind in the process.

The author has a point that the recruiting process is stressful, but its important to remember why its so stressful.  You will never have another chance to get recruited!

Q:  How can I tell if the coach is actually interested?

A:  To help with this question, we went to the complete guidebook for maximizing athletic scholarship potential – Athletes Wanted.  The answer to this question will always vary based on the age of the prospect, the sport, the division level and the individual program, amongst other factors in the process.  However, here are the top indicators of a coach’s level of interest, in declining order:

1.  Full scholarship offer in writing
2. Full scholarship offer made verbally
3. Partial scholarship offer in writing
4. Partial scholarship offer made verbally
5. Offer of an official visit
6. Phone calls from the head coach on the first day of the contact period, which varies by sport
7. Hand-written weekly letter from the head coach or assistant coach (the former indicates higher interest)
8. Athletic application with fee waiver
9. Letter from the head coach or assistant coach with an invitation to call or email (the former indicates higher interest)
10. Offer of an unofficial visit or game day visit
11. Request for game, highlight, or skills video
12. Invitation for pro-rated one-day summer camp visit
13. Questionnaire and letter inviting the student-athlete to correspond or call

Where are you at in the process? 

To learn more the recruiting process, be sure to check out the rest of Athletes Wanted. 

To start taking proactive steps towards improving your recruiting situation, click here.

It’s that time of year when football camps and combines are coming to an end, and high school football is just around the corner. Which means that more and more student athletes are verbally committing or planning out official visits. One of the latest NCSA student athletes to do so is Marquette University High School Defensive Back Michael Trotter.

Michael has recently committed to the University of Wisconsin over other offers such as, Indiana, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, and others. After watching Michael’s film he is just a straight nasty ball hawk out in the secondary. He’s a hard hitter who always tends to finish his tackles. Trotter seems to have great vision out there on the field, watching him be the first player to get to the ball carrier. Michael has great speed as he can get sideline to sideline with vicious tackles. He seems to play the run very well, following through his tackles. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be a great fit for coach Bielema in Madison.

Michael Trotter is 6’0’’ 205lbs. Not only does he excel out there on the field, but also does very well in the classroom. Michael is currently carrying a 3.7GPA. It seems that Michael has found the right academic and athletic fit!

With  Federal Spending increasing dramatically and tax revenue dramatically declining our friends at the CBO have spent the last few weeks proposing various tax increases to help stop the increasing federal debt.  Not suprsiingly this generally means massive tax increases.  One of the proposed increases has the potential to severely hurt college athletics.  From the CBO Report

Certain corporate payments to colleges, universities, or other nonprofit organizations in exchange for naming rights for sporting events or facilities are deemed “qualified sponsorship payments.” Such payments are considered nontaxable income to the institutions that receive the revenue. Income from activities that are not substantially related to the tax-exempt purpose of an organization—for example, the sale of advertising—is usually taxed as unrelated business income, even if that income supports the institution’s tax-exempt purpose. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has estimated that corporate sponsorships, including qualified sponsorship payments, generated $275 million in revenues for its member athletic departments in 2004 and 2005.

This option would classify as advertising revenue any money given by a corporation to a college or university in exchange for naming rights to postsecondary athletic events and facilities, thus making those institutions liable for taxes on that revenue as unrelated business income. The option would raise $7 million in revenues in 2010 and $86 million over the period from 2010 to 2014.

An advantage of this option is that it would treat similar sponsorship payments the same way. Payments for naming rights that are contingent on such conditions as attendance, broadcast ratings, or limits on competing products are not considered qualified sponsorship payments and thus, under current law, may be considered taxable income. Payments made in exchange for advertising that includes other types of information about a sponsor in addition to its name, including qualitative assessments of a sponsor’s products, pricing information, or endorsements, are taxable under the unrelated business income tax. In contrast, qualified sponsorship payments, which provide similar advertising value to the sponsor, are not currently taxable. This option also would decrease the ability of nonprofits to compete tax-free with for-profit organizations that also receive advertising revenue. Corporations that purchase naming rights to college football bowl games, for example, effectively pay less for advertising than they would to purchase similar services from a for-profit organization, such as a professional football team whose income from the advertising would be taxable at the corporate rate. If that is the case, a considerable portion of the subsidy the tax code provides to amateur athletics could be passed on to purchasers of advertising.

A disadvantage of this option is that it would decrease the federal subsidy for postsecondary athletic programs, which traditionally have been considered part of the tax-exempt educational purpose of their institutions. The option also could lead to cuts in institutions’ programs that are financed by revenues obtained from corporate sponsors. Finally, although this option would eliminate the disparity in tax treatment of different types of sponsorship payments, it would not eliminate the difference in the treatment of those payments and other conceptually similar types of revenue, such as royalty income, that is received by colleges and universities.

I had the opportunity to address the entire coaching staff of one of the nation’s top NAIA athletic programs on Monday. I spoke about Recruiting. Afterwords, one of their coaches pulled me aside and said this:

“Charlie, if a kid does not have video, I will not even look at their profile. Let them know how important it is to have a plan for video. Even with NCSA profiles, which I love to get as a Coach, if NCSA sends 15 profiles to me of softball players, and 3 of them say “working on video,” I don’t even open those three videos. I enthusiastically open the12 with video.”

The school years is starting. HAVE A PLAN for video. So many parents shuttle their kids all over and they sit in the stands and watch and support. That is great, but SPEND SOME OF THAT TIME VIDEOTAPING. You do not have to hire a video taping company to tape your kids. You can do it. You are not competing with Spielberg. In most cases you are doing a simple pan. There is plenty of information here to guide you through.

My 11th grade son has his first cross country meet in about a week. As a parent, I will have the video camera ready and I will tape him. And that’s cross country, which is not as vital to have video as many of the other sports (although it’s good because College cross country coaches like to see video of a runner to study form and potential for growth and such…).

Since January I have probably talked with 4000 parents and student athletes and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard:

“Well, we do need to video tape. Yeah, we need to get on that, for sure…”

“We are waiting to hear back from the coach about getting video.”

You cannot get recruited without video! Several years ago, you could work around it. Not today. It’s like the dating sites. If a fellow looks on there and see’s a nice lady but no picture he’s like, “On to the next profile!”

You have got to understand the power of video tape. A well done highlights tape and then complete game or skills tape CAN LITERALLY CHANGE YOUR CHILD’S LIFE. Video done right, College Coaches could be on your kid like white on rice.