NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

A very interesting blog post in today’s New York Times backs up multiple studies that suggest the positive effect that athletics have on the lives of student-athletes.  Two economist’s have been conducting studies using pre-Title IX women’s athletes as the control group to show how the introduction of sports led to improvement across a myriad of factors.

A large body of research shows that sports are associated with all sorts of benefits, like lower teenage pregnancy rates, better grades and higher self-esteem. But until now, no one has determined whether those improvements are a direct result of athletic participation. It may be that the type of girl who is attracted to sports already has the social, personal and physical qualities — like ambition, strength and supportive parents — that will help her succeed in life.

Using a complex analysis, Dr. Stevenson showed that increasing girls’ sports participation had a direct effect on women’s education and employment. She found that the changes set in motion by Title IX explained about 20 percent of the increase in women’s education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women.

“It’s not just that the people who are going to do well in life play sports, but that sports help people do better in life,” she said, adding, “While I only show this for girls, it’s reasonable to believe it’s true for boys as well.”

For college football recruits it is the heart of combine season.  Many student-athletes are hoping to record blazing speed times and huge strength numbers that will complement their already prepared highlight film.  Ideally, this combination will push their interest from college coaches into formal scholarship offers.  Unfortunately, for many juniors they are already well behind the curve.

Just weeks after signing a top 5 recruiting class, The University of Texas has already received 13 verbal commitments.  This means they have more than 20/30 scholarship offers out to the top recruits on their board.  For junior recruits this means they have already missed the boat.  Unless they blow the doors off the competition, their window of opportunity at Texas has closed.

So while recruiting opportunities for Juniors and Seniors begin to close it becomes more wide open than ever for recruits that are focused on starting early.  Two things are very clear;  You can’t start early enough and the time to start the recruiting process is now.

Check out our Partners Section to Find the right combine for you!

Former Quarterback Terry Hanratty is the only Notre Dame player to finish in the top 10 of the Heisman balloting three straight years. He went on to become Terry Bradshaw’s backup for the Super Bowl powerhouse Steelers. This is a man that understands the Sports experience. He is also someone who is right in the middle of a child being recruited, like so many of us.

From his second marriage, Hanratty has two children, including 16 year old Conor, who is being recruited. I picked up a copy of Blue and Gold Illustrated and read an interesting story by outstanding writer Lou Somogyi on Terry Hanratty’s perspective of the recruiting process of his son.

His son Conor, even though he won’t turn 17 until late summer, is already 6-5 and 300 pounds. When I speak, I say the D1 thing may come because of God given things like the size Conor has been blessed with. D1 is a realistic level for him to play at in College.

In the article, it is revealed that young Conor, an 11th grader, has already been given a written scholarship offer by Notre Dame for the 2011 class. Although his Dad went to ND, they are still looking at many other possibilities.

In two months they will take a West Coast visit to Stanford and Cal. They have already visited Wisconsin and Iowa, as well as Duke, Virginia and Boston College.

Of course, with Dad Hanratty having played for Notre Dame, it would mean a lot for his son to play there, but this what the elder Hanratty says about it:

“I want Conor to make the best decision for his future. I’ve told Conor, ‘Notre Dame was the greatest decision in the world for me, but you’re not me, this is a different era and a different coach.’ The main goal is to lok at the best academic/athletic schools, meet with the faculty, and I’ve told him it’s going to hit you when you know which is the right school.”

In the article, Hanratty talked about the differences in recruiting back when he was being recruited in 1965 compared to today’s accelerated pace of recruiting.

“The tenacity of recruiting because of the early offers now given to high school players today,” said Hanratty. “My son started getting seriously recruited after his sophomore year, and I thought it was crazy. But things today are also more by the book with restrictions on how many calls they can make, etc. Back then, schools from all over the country were offering me cars, houses, money, my best friend would get a scholarship with me to go to the school . . . . it was like the ol’ Wild West.”

Whether his son goes to Notre Dame or somewhere else, he wants him to be a true student-athlete, something we should all insist for our children in recruiting. He recoiled when thinking about some of the pitiful grad rates of some D1 Football programs.

“The grad rates at some of the schools are abominable and the NCAA really needs to step in and have some impact here. These kids cannot be used like that. A very small percentage can get to the pros and the rest are done – and if they’re without a degree in today’s economic climate, then they’re really done.”

The elder Hanratty is proud of true student-athletes like 2009 Heisman runner up Toby Gerhart of Stanford. “He took 21 credit hours last semester, which is amazing,” Hanratty said.

He is on the mark. Never has there been a greater need for a college degree than today’s world. College athletics are not only a way to get a degree, but they also enable young people to develop the “inner fire” that is important to succeed in today’s world – to have that burning desire to compete, to be a total team player in a company, to be solution-minded, and to be a leader. More than ever companies are specifically looking to hire true college student-athletes because of the DNA they bring to their company culture.

Conor Hanratty is looking to to a student-athlete at a top academic school. When he graduates from college in either 2015 or 2016 his resume will go to the top of the pile over most normal college students. He understands that he is making a 40 or 50 year decision, in that being a true college student-athlete at a top academic school, whether it is Boston College, Stanford, Vanderbilt, DePauw, Millsaps or what have you, will have a major impact on the next 40 to 50 years of his life!

Headlines were made last week when USC received the verbal commitment from 13 year old quarterback David Sills.  Yes, you read that right 13 YEARS OLD!  The first question that everyone logically raises is, “How could this happen?” One word; relationships.

This scholarship offer was made because USC Coach and Lane Kiffin has a long relationship with Sill’s private quarterback coach, Steve Clarkson.  ESPN interviewed Sills’ father to get the back story about this shocking turn of events.

Sills’ recruitment had little to do with his father and everything to do with Clarkson and his relationship with Kiffin. Clarkson was the one who called Kiffin and told him about Sills.

“Steve called me and I didn’t even take the call because I was at a job site,” said Sills’ father, who is a commercial developer and contractor. “So I called him back and he said, ‘You’re never going to believe it.’ He was talking to Lane about some junior quarterbacks and potential recruits who were juniors and he said, ‘Look, I gave you Matt Leinart, I gave you Matt Barkley, you trust me and we’ve known each other for a long time and if you really want to look at a kid you need to look at this kid from Delaware.’ So Lane looked at the video, called Steve back and said, ‘I’ll offer that kid a scholarship right now.’ Steve told us that he couldn’t call us so we had to call him and gave us his number.”

Sills sat down with his parents and discussed the offer before calling Kiffin. But it didn’t long for them to decide that USC was the right school. It wasn’t a surprise considering Clarkson, who has USC memorabilia throughout his office, had taken Sills to USC games, introduced him to Pete Carroll after watching spring practices and brought in Leinart and Barkley to work with him.

“He has more of a relationship with USC for all these weird reasons than any other school. If any other school had asked him to do this I would have told him to say no,” Sills’ father said. “He decided if he was a senior he’d pick USC, if he was a junior he’d pick USC, if he was a sophomore he’d pick USC, if he was a freshman he’d pick USC. So why not just pick USC now? You think about a recruiting process taking two years and this recruiting process took three hours.”

Clarkson has earned the trust of Lane Kiffin and he trusted the evaluation enough to make an unprecedented move.  While the timing is earlier than others, the manner in which the scholarship offer was made is extremely similar to what will play out across the country to hundreds of freshman and sophomores.  The coach was alerted to a prospect by a trusted 3rd party’s evaluation.  The coach watched enough tape to confirm that evaluation and used the 3rd party to get in contact with the family in accordance with NCAA rules.  The coach made an offer and there was a verbal commitment.  Nothing illegal.  Nothing official.  But barring an unexpected turn of events David Sills will be a Divsion I football player on full scholarship.

Recruiting is ALL about Relationships.  The key is starting early and forming the right relationships.

*WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO STEAL THE WEB-WIDGET ABOVE.  YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT…PLEASE STEAL IT AND SHARE WITH OTHERS.*

Check out the new FREE recruiting widget above!  Click on the tabs and links to see what kind of information we have included.  This widget will be updated automatically with new content so you don’t have to search for it or visit multiple websites.

A few questions you might be asking:

What the heck is a web-widget?

Glad you asked.  A web widget is a mini-web application you can put in your web page, blog or social profile that can quickly and easily provide your visitors with, user specific information, extra functionality, and even a bit of fun and games.

How can I use a web-widget?

The short answer is:  anyway you want!  However, we realize it might be a new concept to some people so here are a few ideas we thought might help:
- Post it on your Facebook or Myspce page and share it with all your friends with the click of a button.
- Embed the widget on your personal website or blog to serve up more content
- Talk to your high school or club coach about including the widget on the team website.  Most websites lack quality recruiting information and this is an easy way to share that.

How exactly do I put this on my Facebook page or website?

-  Click the Gray “Get Widget” box directly under the above box.
-  Either Copy the HTML Code necessary for your website or Click the Icon for where you want to post the Widget.
-  Finally, paste the code on the desired site and publish it!

Still can’t figure it out?  Don’t feel bad, it took Coach Taylor four tries to put it on his Facebook page!  Simply call NCSA Social Media Director, Brian Davidson, at 888-333-6846 ext 7451 and he will be happy to walk you through it!

Read this entire article from Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about a doctor who incurred $250,000 in student loans and now owes $555,000.  Some of the “money” quotes are:

“Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn’t look at the fine print,”

“Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can’t make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.”

If you’re a decent HS athlete with great grades, you can avoid student-loans and play your sport in college.  You can also get a good portion of your school funded, reducing those burdensome student loans which can hang over you for decades.  If you’re a parent, plan for college expenses now.  Even if your oldest child is in 7th or 8th grade – start taking action now!  To find out more about how you can do that, go here.

NCSA really helped me to get recruited. Without them I would have never been noticed and I would be paying for college next year. Now I dont have to pay anything because I was offered a full ride. The best part of the whole process was seeing what schools were interested in my talent.

What to do when your dream senior year turns into a nightmare?

I had been playing quarterback for 5 years. I trained year round and was totally dedicated to my game. My senior year finally came, this would be my year and all the hard work would pay off. I was elected Team Captain and our team had really pulled together on and off the field.

We had a scrimmage game and we lost. The next practice my Coach let me know that he was changing our complete offense and putting in our star running back as quarterback. I was crushed. Now my confidence was shaken to the core, I would not have the opportunity to compete for my postion and was still captain. I tried every other position the coach would give me (I think I did everything but kick the ball).

Right after the dreaded first game, someone told me about NCSA and their recruiting program. I did the follow up call but was totally skeptical on how anyone could help me. My parents and I did a conference call, we were totally honest with the consultant and he was totally honest with us. He didn’t try to sell us a program that we didn’t need. He immediately started asking me questions about what I wanted and offered suggestions on how to take the necessary steps to get them. We ended up signing up for the lower level of the program and moved cautiously forward.

I immediately began to build my profile but the challange was going to be getting film. I talked to my NCSA counselor and we began participating in conference calls on contacting coaches, making unofficial visits, researching coaches and learning about D3 Schools.

There were programs on financial aid, college match programs and probably the best overall resource for colleges that we had been exposed to.

In November, I won my position back and we won my first game, in overtime, by running in one TD and throwing for two. However, I also learned that my sister, Meryl, who battled a life long illness was hospitalized for pneumonia and was in critical condition. She died 3 days later. There was a reality for me that football was a game in life.

But, my promise to her, was that I would go for my dreams and live life with passion. I finally nagged my coach until he got me the game film.

We rushed it to NCSA and they edited it for me. They posted it and I had also introduced it to other coaches in emails.

To my surprise, coaches started contacting me. I was getting calls and emails from colleges. They were not D1 or D2 schools, but they were schools with my major and football. I knew how to set up visits, write follow up emails and log in my communication contacts on the NCSA website. I had participated in their educational programs on how to ask questions, learn about both the educational and football aspects of the college and then set up visits.

I ended up visiting a college that I had never heard of before – Bridgewater College in Virginia. This was a match on the site, I had an instant connection with the coach that had contacted me, and it seemed to have everything I was looking for. We attended a group meeting, and I was not nervous as I had the experience of what NCSA had taught me. It was the perfect match, I felt right at home with their people and philosophies. I had learned how to meet with finanical aid and set up for merit based scholarships. I was offered a $18,250 yearly scholarship.

I am thrilled to say that my college choice was made clear. I will be a Bridgewater College Eagle, I will be competing for the quarterback position, dedicated to their program, studying athletic training – pre Physcial therapy and enjoying all that this special college has to offer. A college that I would not have known about if it were not for my relationship with NCSA. Thank you.

Zac Fagan

I would highly recommend NCSA.  Tools such as the coach calls are very beneficial. I hopped on a call one night with the Elmhurst coach just to hear about the recruiting process and what college coaches look for and little did I know I found the school I ended up at.  The way ncsa makes your report and your profile really gives you a platform for colleges to see you and start contacting you.  I had many coaches regularly calling and emailing me along with sending mail.  If you have the desire to play at the next level and put in the work NCSA will elevate you and get you looked at. I had numerous NAIA and D2 athletic offers however I decided to go to Elmhurst based on the great education, the beautiful facilities, and the classy , personable people. I would say you have to get out and visit at least three of your top schools that you are considering so you can find a good fit for where you belong.  NCSA has done great things for me. I’m leaving the great state of Texas and going to play in Elmhurst, IL.

Trevor Spaulding – 2010 kicker