NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Michael Nestler a 2010 graduate out of West Palm Beach, FL is this month’s Football Impact Football Student-Athlete.  Michael has made a commitment not only on the field but in the classroom as well.  A 3.4 GPA student, who is enrolled in 2 AP classes, and has taken 4 honors classes, scored a 27 on his ACT.  Michael is also an All-Area Football player named by the Palm Beach Post and Sun Sentinel.

Michael has taken advantage of NCSA, by participating in 5 coaching sessions to discuss his recruiting strategy.  Not to mention the 5 times he has had his information sent out and matched with appropriate coaches, providing him with the exposure needed.  

Michael has been on visits to Georgetown, Villanova, and Delaware.  He is maintaining good contact with these and many other coaches throughout the process.  We congratulate Michael for being selected Impact Football Student Athlete this month, and wish him the best in his final season!

Even as the US economy continues to struggle coaching salaries in Division I football continue to accelerate.  USA Today is running a special series on college coaching salaries and the reasons for their escalation.  In 2006 their were 52 coaches making more than $1 million dollars and 10 making more than $2 million.  In 2009 those numbers have already grown to 93 over $1 million with a staggering 37 making over $2 million.

During that time assistant coaching salaries have also exploded.  At least 66 assistants now make more than $300,000 led by Tennessee’s Monte Kiffin making $1.2 million.  USA Today compiled a salary database that allows you to see their actual contracts.

However, we may have finally reached a tipping point.

The spending “doesn’t surprise me. It shocks me,” says Hodding Carter, a former assistant Secretary of State for public affairs under Jimmy Carter who’s now on the faculty at North Carolina and a member of the Knight Commission.

He points to the economy’s ravages on education. “Here was a God-given opportunity in the forum of a true disaster,” he says, “to step up to the issue and finally say, ‘Look, I don’t care where the money is coming from. It is unseemly for one institution on (a) campus to be acting as though these were happy days forever while everybody else is getting it in the chops.’

“It’s just too bad. It calls into question the commitment of much of the institutional leadership in higher education.”

Arizona’s board of regents has launched a review of all of the system’s intercollegiate athletics programs and whether the students, schools and the state see enough benefit to justify current levels of spending. Former U.S. senator Dennis DeConcini, who is on the board’s capital committee, will lead the effort.

“I don’t have an agenda,” DeConcini says. He cast the lone dissenting vote on a raise that boosted football coach Mike Stoops’ guaranteed pay to almost $1.3 million this season, though he says he has fewer problems with the flagship university’s ambitious building plans.

“Reading it, much of it is justified,” he says of the proposal. “On the other hand, it’s a terrible time to be announcing $400 million in expenditures … in the middle of a recession and raising tuition and furloughs and everything else.”

espite the higher salaries, athletics overall has not escaped the paring knife.

The Texas-based Division I-A Athletic Directors Association says a third of the schools responding to a survey this year had cut athletics staff in the last five years and about one in six had chopped at least one sport. This year, at least 15 schools have said they would eliminate a total of 32 teams.

In football and other sports, teams are being told to take fewer players on the road. Leagues are rethinking schedules and travel, downsizing postseason tournament fields and questioning the number of videographers and other once-unheard-of specialists who populate schools’ athletic programs. Staff overgrowth is increasingly cited as a fiscal issue.

Salaries, however, take the single biggest bite out of athletics operating budgets in the top-tier Bowl Subdivision — a median 33.3%, according to the NCAA’s most recent analysis (spending on new or improved facilities and other capital projects is accounted for separately). Coaches’ compensation accounts for more than half that, and little whittling is going on there.

The argument is the same from Florida to Ohio State to Texas: that money paid to good coaches is a good investment, and that their success equates to higher ticket sales and more marketing and sponsorship opportunities and that football’s profits keep smaller sports afloat.

What do our readers think?

NCSA was proud to hear that Proviso West’s Kyle Prater was officially named to this year’s US Army All-American Bowl.

“Kyle is a talented athlete whose exemplary displays of leadership and teamwork have made him a standout at Proviso West High School,” said Col. Derik Crotts, Deputy Chief of Staff, G7, U.S. Army Accessions Command. “The qualities necessary to succeed on the football field, strength, dedication, leadership and teamwork, are the same qualities mirrored in Army Strong Soldiers. We are proud to honor all of our U.S. Army All-American Bowl players and congratulate them on their selection.”

For 10 years, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl has been the nation’s premier high school football game, serving as the preeminent launching pad for America’s future college and NFL stars. Adrian Peterson, Reggie Bush, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, and Terrelle Pryor all made their national debuts as U.S. Army All-Americans. Last year the U.S. Army All-American Bowl drew more than 32,000 fans to the game at the Alamodome along with being the most watched sporting event on television over the weekend, besides the NFL Playoffs. Last spring, eight alumni of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.

Jeremy Tyler has been described as a basketball player in many ways.  He is used to being described as a young phenom, the next big thing, even the best prospect in 100 years.  Last year he made the groundbreaking decision to leave high school early to play professionally in Israel.

However, lately the words describing Jeremy have turned negative.  For the first time in his life, he is facing adversity and the early returns are not promising.  The New York Times checked in Jeremy and his rocky start in Israel.

He just isn’t used to being described in a negative way.  The young phenom who made the decision to skip his final year of year of high school to play professionally in Israel.

His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team. In extensive interviews with Tyler, his teammates, coaches, his father and advisers, the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is. So enamored with his vast potential, Tyler has not developed the work ethic necessary to tap it.

“The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career,” Haifa Coach Avi Ashkenazi said. “If he thinks he’s going to be in the N.B.A. because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be.”

Obviously this story’s ending has yet to be written, but things don’t sound promising.  There is a reason that professionals in all types of careers attend college.  Even genius college drop-outs like Bill Gates finished high school.  We could finally be seeing some push back on the rush to get to the pros.  Here’s to hoping that student-athletes around the country see the position Jeremy Tyler has put himself into, and remember the importance of academics.

Recruiting involves a lot of uncertainty.  Recruiting can be very difficult.  Many times the recruiting process can be downright cruel.  However, just because something is hard it doesn’t mean that someone should shy away from it.  Recruits meet every athletic challenge head on, so why wouldn’t they do the same with recruiting?

One things is for certain; The best college coaches attack recruiting with a passion.  ESPN at down with Monte Kiffin who joined his son, Lane, at Tennessee to turn things around.  They both know that it starts with recruiting.

“I’ve got news for those coaches recruiting against us, and I’m not going to say who they are, that are telling kids who want to come play for us that I’m going to retire. I ain’t retiring. Haven’t even thought about it. We’ve got too good a thing going here. I’m fired up. Every day I come to work, I get a little more fired up.”

And with good reason.

His Tennessee defense is playing lights-out. The Vols haven’t given up an offensive touchdown in eight quarters, a span of 133 minutes since an opposing offense has reached their end zone.

For that matter, they’ve only allowed one trip inside their 20-yard line in the past two games.

And here’s the best part as they prepare for South Carolina’s visit Saturday night at Neyland Stadium: This is just the beginning.

Kiffin, the gray stubble on his face telltale evidence of the long nights spent in the film room, nods glowingly when asked how much more he’ll be able to do as the talent improves and players have a whole year in his system.

“I think we’re going to be pretty darned good, especially with the way it looks like recruiting is going right now,” he said.

His son, Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, is even more confident.

“I have to hold myself back sometimes because I look down the road and get so excited about how great we’re going to be as we get people in that fit our system and we develop more depth and recruit more depth,” Lane said. “It’s going to be real exciting to see this team when you look at what’s going on now with our defense — some of the injuries, not a lot of depth and playing with some players that we love, but aren’t necessarily system-fit players.

“I can’t wait.”

If he sounds like he’s recruiting, he is.

Monte jokes that Lane and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron are never not recruiting.

“I look at him on Friday night before our game with Alabama last week, and he’s got a phone to his ear,” Monte said. “Some of the kids were calling him.

“I’m just having fun sitting back and watching it all, because this recruiting in the SEC is dog-eat-dog. Lane’s not going to back down, either, and he’s not going to quit on guys. That’s not going to happen. He never quits thinking about recruiting. It’s 24 hours.”

And so is Monte.

Student-athletes hoping to play in college can’t sit back.  They need to take the same attitude as the UT (and pretty much every staff in the country) and realize this is a crazy time in their lives.  They will never have this opportunity again.  It’s now or never!

So much in the college search process on the research side, is put into academic research. Do they offer my major, would I be admitted, etc. But, for athletes a far overlooked part of the process is seeing if you would be fit in the program athletically. Before considering a program take a look at the team rosters.

What should I look at?

1. Graduation years for players at your position, i.e. is a coach recruiting your position this year (you wouldn’t apply to a job that wasn’t being offered would you?)

2. Height/Weight, (How do you size up with players at your position)

3. Location (where are the current players coming from, this will give you insight on if a school recruits your state, or out of state in general)

4. Take a look at some of the player bios, do you fit what they accomplished in high school?

This morning I was talking with a father of an athlete being recruited by several Division I football schools.  The athlete is undecided, but has several scholarship offers on the table.  However, he is still pursuing more schools in the hopes of receiving more scholarship options.

During this process he has visited several schools, both officially and unofficially.  His father made an extremely interesting remark about his latest visit.

“The coaching staff tells him there are two receivers ahead of him, who have scholarship offers.  They don’t think both will accept their offers and my son is next on the list.”

He then followed up his comment with the extremely important, “But, we all know what that means.”

The father understands the process and knows they need to keep all of their options open.  Its no coincidence that they are on the NCSA program and understand how to read between the lines.  When the process is complete, his son will be able to realistically assess his options and make the best decision.  They wont be taken for a ride by a coach because they already understand his recruiting language.

One of the huge benefits of using a trusted third party like NCSA is the guidance that we provide our families.  Recruits can learn and understand the recruiting language used by college coaches.  Most importantly, they know how to react to what they hear and make the best decision.

I recently had an opportunity to ask Steven Fisher, of San Marcos High School in California, a few questions about his experience at the Team One Futures Game which was recently played on October 23^rd in Peoria, Arizona. Here is the quick interview:

It is quite the honor to be invited to play in the Team One Futures Game. How did you receive the invitation?

I was noticed for the Futures Game at a Team One event located at Orange Coast College. From there I was invited to play in a Team One All American preseason event where I was a standout among others from across the nation. The Team One preseason event was a compilation of all the best kids from this 36 team, preseason event. Again, all the kids from the pre-season event were seen somewhere in the nation and were the best from whatever state they came from. From there the best kids from the pre-season event were selected for the Team One Futures Game.

It sounds like a lot of fun; can you describe your time at the Futures Game?

The Futures Game was tons of fun, not only did I have the chance to show my talents in front of many college recruiters, I also got to play against the best kids in the nation that are my grade. We started the night off by going through a major league style workout. First we stretched, took batting practice, took grounders and prepared for the game. We played in the Peoria Stadium Complex where many great major leaguers have played.

Did you learn anything while you attended the event?

Oh yes, one thing that I learned while I was there was that baseball is such a fun and simple game and can be seen in so many ways. We were around coaches from around the nation and they knew so many little things about the game. Just being around those coaches rubbed off and created a relaxing atmosphere and brought the fun in the game out. Even though this was the biggest event I had been to the coaches seemed to really lighten the mood and bring the best out of us, keeping the game loose and competitive. I really enjoyed myself.

What kind of exposure did you receive while playing there?

There were more than 30 college recruiters sitting in the stands with radar guns pointed directly at home plate all writing. It was pretty neat.

Since you have gained experience playing in a big game with a lot of scouts, what advice can you give to other student-athletes if they ever have an opportunity like that?

Take a step back and look at the big picture. The game of baseball is very simple and hasn’t changed much since it was created. When you step into the batter’s box and see your name on the score board, go ahead take in the moment, it’s pretty awesome, but make sure you step out of the batter’s box and clear your head before the at bat begins. Go out there with confidence, but remember to play your game and not try to impress the scouts.

Tell us about what you’ve learned since being with NCSA. 

Since I have been with NCSA I have learned many valuable tips from the coaches and advisors there, but most importantly I’ve learned from the coaching calls where I had a coach or player or somebody talk to me or the group about their lifetime experiences and what they would do if they had a second chance. Now, as I am getting older, I am starting to understand that you only get one chance at life. This is definitely one thing that drives me to continuously get better and to chase my dreams full speed ahead. NCSA is definitely a place that can help me if I have questions about college, future, or daily life.

Letter from Coach, Sample #1

“Dear Susan:

I am pleased to learn of your interest in our athletic program. Your accomplishments in your sport and in the high school classroom are quite impressive. We look forward to continuing a correspondence this year and evaluating you at various competitions. Please return the enclosed profile sheet as soon as possible and include a copy of your schedule so that we can arrange to see you compete.

Thank you,

Coach Anderson”

What this letter means, and how a student-athlete should respond:
A coach who sends a letter like this is responding to a letter from the student-athlete. Something in the letter caught the coach’s attention, and effort is being made to evaluate the student. The athlete should complete the profile form, send her schedule, and keep in touch. This represents an opportunity to call the coach, and the athlete might as well take advantage of it, especially if this is a top school.

Notice that the coach did not invite the student-athlete to call with questions. If an athlete receives such a letter, the student-athlete should follow up with the coach upon receiving the letter if she has an interest in the program. If the coach is not receptive to the student’s call, the coach is probably not interested in the student-athlete.

This sample letter and advice were taken from Athletes Wanted – The Game Plan for Maximizing Athletic Scholarship Potential.  If you liked this information, I encourage you to check out the complete book here.

If you are a serious recruit who has yet to receive letters from college coaches, you might be falling behind.  In order to take the right steps, click here.