NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

As the recruiting class of 2009 gets ready to begin their senior season I’m starting to get the question of “When should I commit?” more and more often. Most recruits will enter into a period of confusion as to when they should decide between their present options and commit, or to continue to try and find a school that will be a better fit for them in the long run.

The recruiting process is tricky; most families don’t have a strong grasp as to what the timeline is truly like for recruits. The first thing you must understand is that each division operates off a slightly different timeline. It’s important that you find out what division level you are capable of playing at first and foremost. Once you have determined what division levels you should be targeting it’s time to find out more about when most recruits at that particular level decide to commit.

An easy guide to knowing when each division level looks to gain verbal commitments from their recruits is posted below.

D1

Most division 1-A schools begin to offer players at some point in their junior year, with the early offers beginning at the start of their junior year in September and the bulk of offers coming during the spring and summer. If you currently have interest from division schools, it’s important you ask direct questions about how many other recruits they have offered at your position and when they plan on making a decision on you. Typically if you don’t gain an offer by the end of September during your senior season, it’s not likely one will be coming. Schools at this level love to get decisions from their players as early as possible. Unless you’re one of the top recruits in the country at your position, I would recommend coming to a decision either before your senior year starts or shortly there after.

D1-AA

Division 1-AA schools have an accelerated timeline as well. They typically start offering players a little bit later than 1-A schools, most of their early offers will come during the spring of a players junior year, with the bulk coming during the summer and early fall. Most schools at this level hope to finish out their class or be close to it by the close of the senior season.

D2/NAIA

D2 and NAIA programs offer players a little bit of breathing room in terms of making a decision. Most schools will not extend official offers until after a player’s senior season, although expressed interest in offering is typically made early on in the senior year. Most players will have plenty of time to make winter visits before coming to a decision on where to play.

D3

When deciding to commit to a D3 school I recommend you take your time. With no athletic scholarship money available at this level, recruits will need to wait on finical aid packages are set in order to see what the cost of attendance will be. Most aid packages will not be given out until after the first of the year during a player senior season. This obviously gives players plenty of time to figure out which option is the best fit for them.

I would love to get some feedback from all the recruits out there on how close they are to making a decision and if they have any helpful advice for other recruits, if so please comment below.

Are you a student-athlete who is on a mission to play college sports? Are you a student-athlete who has played your sport for years? Imagine your first sport season after high school and you’re not playing. What would that feel like?

Most student athletes and their families are unaware of how early college recruiting begins. Or the reasons it begins so early. The problem is that 93% of high school students who go on to college are applying through the academic door. They begin researching colleges late in their junior year or early in their senior year. They listen to the high school guidance counselor who advises them to apply to several schools. They place these schools into 3 categories: 1) Reach schools (if I’m lucky, I’ll get in.) 2) Stretch schools (I’m pretty sure I’d get accepted to half of these I apply to.) and 3) safe schools (I’ll get in no matter what.) Make sure you have all of your applications in before Christmas break.

Unfortunately, student-athletes and their families think that college athletic recruiting operates along the same time-line. It doesn’t!  If you wish to apply through the athletic door, you need to understand the different calendars and timelines.

Different sports have different recruiting calendars and time-lines. However, all sports have the following in common:

1. College coaches would love to find out about you early. In some sports that’s as early as 7^th and 8^th grade, other sports it’s by 10^th grade. Waiting until the beginning of junior year begins to reduce your opportunities.
2. A college student athlete has a certain athletic profile. For example, in baseball, a student athlete needs to have a certain 60-yard dash time, a certain overhand throwing velocity, a certain bat-speed, etc. For very competitive schools, those metrics need to be achieved by the end of junior year. If not, many college coaches will refuse to evaluate a student-athlete. It takes time to develop physically and student-athletes need to train to that level early to ensure they reach that level on time.
3. College coaches only give scholarship money to student-athletes they know, like, and trust. Those trust-based relationships take time to build. Because of the recruiting restrictions placed on college coaches, it’s important that a student-athlete begin to build those relationships as a freshman. Most don’t know how to go about that.

If you’re serious about being a college student-athlete, you need to implement that game plan that will get you there. Knowing what to do is as important as doing it. If you don’t know what to do, you should contact an expert for an evaluation. You can do that at NCSA.

 Relationship Building and Recruiting are two skills that go hand in hand in college athletics.  Coaches are always striving to build their recruiting networks and develop solid contacts at high schools, camps and most importantly with student athletes.  The time tables involved in that cycle have been getting earlier and earlier in recent years.  InsideCarolina.com sat down with second year Coach Butch Davis to discuss the challenges he is facing while rebuilding the University of North Carolina Program.

You mentioned on Signing Day that you still felt like you were a little bit behind in terms of building relationships…

“I didn’t realize how badly — we were probably two years behind the day I took the job compared to everybody else in the country. Recruiting has changed so much and it’s changed even more just in the last year. With kids pushing to try and get commitments from 2010 kids, we hadn’t even gotten the ’08 kids into school yet, and we’re already half-through the ’09 class and already talking to 2010 kids.

“When I took the job so many kids – you pick up the phone and call the high school coach and you’d like for the kid to visit – and he goes ‘well, coach, Carolina’s ok, but I’ve gone to Phil Fulmer’s camp the last three years’ or ‘I’ve gone to a camp since I was in the ninth grade.’ So, we were trying to recruit kids and it’s like trying to talk to somebody that’s engaged and going to get married next month, to somehow break up and that doesn’t happen very often, you know?

“But, the longer we’ve been here now we’re getting 500-600 kids every summer into camp. We’re starting to build relationships and now we’re starting on an even playing field with a lot of the coaching staffs, for the kids in the ninth and 10th and 11th grade. Now, they don’t have those committed loyalties because of where they’ve been going.  Now, hopefully recruiting starts to swing a little bit.

Coach Davis explained exactly why it so important for recruits to start developing relationships early. Since slots are being snatched up by athletes earlier than ever before its up to recruits to jumpstart the process and start contacting coaches pro-actively.

 Why do high school student athletes want to play collegiate athletics?  I speak with so many student athletes who express that commitment on a daily basis and often times I wonder if they truly realize the advantages of being a collegiate athlete. Outside of love for their sport which is the best reason to want to continue to play at the next level, I believe that if student athletes realized the ancillary benefits of partaking in collegiate athletics, their desire to maximize the recruiting process would increase significantly. 

I have often contemplated writing a list of all the rewards that accompany playing collegiate athletics to pass along to prospective student athletes, but quickly realized that it might take hours if not days.  Secondary advantages such as an immediate community of possible friends on a new college campus all the way to an instant alumni network for career opportunities after college fall into this extensive list that student athletes should think about.  I believe it will inherently create more value on the goal at hand and thus a greater attention to the steps required to achieve that goal.   

Student athletes should realize that a love for their sport should serve as their main motivation for working hard in the classroom, on the field, and throughout the recruiting process.  However, they should also understand the ramifications of taking part in collegiate athletics and how that might change their entire life.  Knowing what’s at stake, every student athletes should make sure to maximize this process.  What are some other advantages that college athletes receive?  I think that is a topic well worth a discussion…

Anyone serious about college athletics knows the term “redshirt“. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, this is when a program allows you to enroll in the University and practice with the team, but sit out from actual competition for the academic year without losing a year of eligibility.

A less familiar term to many, both general sports fans and athletes going through the recruiting process, is “grayshirt“. What happens in this scenario is when an athlete delays enrollment into the university without losing a year of eligibility. In this case, the athlete isn’t allowed to practice or can’t receive their scholarship and is often put into effect when a coach has too many scholarship athletes.

Case in point, Tyler Bass. The University of Maryland, which had given Bass a scholarship, offered him the opportunity to grayshirt because they had more than the allotted 85 scholarships for Div. I-A football.

Unfortunately for both parties, Bass wanted to enroll in the fall, and Maryland released him from his scholarship.

Thus demonstrates the importance of asking questions when you talk to college coaches before signing a NLI! Find out if you’ll have to redshirt or grayshirt.

Or even if there is a possibility of greenshirting — enrolling in what would normally be your senior spring semester in high school to practice with the team. Obviously, you and your parents need to plan ahead for this situation to work, and this option usually is reserved for those student-athletes who are expected to play their freshman year.  

There are a lot of shirts out there. Make sure you’re wearing the color and style — if any – that looks best on you.

The college recruiting experience has many twists and turns.  There are many factors that play into recruiting for a student-athlete but one they have control over is doing the research.  Every student-athlete’s process is completely unique and different.  Doing research on the colleges and the process should be one of the top priorities!

Not only is the Stanford University one of the top academics schools in the country but it is also one of the best athletic programs (Stanford has won 14 consecutive Directors’ Cup).  The Stanford baseball program is a regulaly in the College World Series and is a two time National Champion. 

The Baseball Assistant Coach Dean Stotz at Stanford talks about the importance of research and choosing a college; “I have been doing this a long time, and if I may be so bold, I would like to help you simplify the process of selecting what college you will attend. First of all, please have respect for the magnitude of this college decision. You will live with this decision THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! This is not a “four year” decision, but a “FORTY YEAR DECISION”. There are no “mulligans”, no “do-overs”. Consider the task as if you are doing the most important research paper of your young life. The title of your research paper is: Where will I attend college? Now, how do you do well on a research paper?–RESEARCH!!!

There are three broad areas of risk in your college decision. You must decide what type of “academic challenge”, what type of “baseball challenge”, and what type of what I call “social challenge” you wish to take on.  In Coach Marquess’s and my 31 years we have not graduated 9 people who attended Stanford for four years.” What do you think?  Please post a comment on this topic!!

So you think you are being recruited because you received a questionnaire?Did you know that the Mississippi State baseball program sends out an average of 1,500 prospect questionnaires each year?

It is becoming more and more common to graduate a semester early to attend college. Student-athletes are not only getting a head start on school but on the playing field. You are starting to hear this in football but baseball? Trevor Bauer of Newhall High School in California has decided to forgo his final spring semester of high school to attend UCLA. This means he will not be playing baseball his senior season of high school but playing for a potential top 25 team (UCLA was 08 Pre-Season #1 by Baseball America).

Every year on the center stage of collegiate sports, we hear the story, often told by television announcers, of the touching tale of the courageous walk on.  Visions of Rudy instantly come to the forefront as the journey of the underdog warrior starts to unfold.  “He was never recruited out of high school by any of the major programs . . .” says the announcer during his crescendo to the game breaking play.  “He has waited his whole life for this moment, battling disappointment after rejection.”  It is heartwarming.  Life is fair again. That could have been me.

There are few stories that compare in nature.  There are fewer that compare in occurrence.  The closest relative to Rudy would be the 71 year old retired truck driver who on his last few dollars cashed in on millions playing the random pick’m game at the local gas station.  The only difference is, that story happens more frequently!

For the serious competitor, walking on to a collegiate athletic team can be compared to earning a medical degree and then working as a custodian.  You both work in a hospital but unlike all of your classmates, you’re not actually doing what you trained so hard to do for so long.  Most collegiate athletes have played their sport since before they could remember, years and years, always starting, usually better and often in the spotlight.  To cash in a lifetime of hard work and natural talent for a dream that was forged from within a child’s perspective seems foolish.

Take football for example.  There are over 800 colleges that offer football as a varsity sport.  Most sports fans in this country can name up to fifty.  In baseball there are over 1000 colleges that offer the sport.  How many can you name?  There are numerous opportunities to explore if the desire to actually play exceeds common ignorance and childhood fantasies.

Walk-ons, just like custodians in hospitals, have vastly different experiences than the scholarship players.  First, the ceremonial National Letter of Intent signing day – that does not happen.  Next, the preferential class scheduling – no.  The second, third, or fourth pair of coaches’ eyes watching you to make sure that you’re taken care of – not so much.  You are a necessary tool to help the real players practice, rarely taken serious, rarely awarded a scholarship and sparingly shown respect.  Rudy was a great film but I hope it is not your story.  Below is a short video of how USC treats its potential walk ons.  There are a few questionable language choices in this clip so do not watch if you will be offended.  USC Walk On Clip

In summary, if you work your entire life to achieve the goal of becoming a college athlete, find a place where you are wanted.  Find a school where you will play and make an impact.  Go somewhere that will set you up to have a great experience while you earn your degree, an environment that will help provide you with teammates for life.  Step outside of your comfort zone and learn all you can of what is out there.  You just might find something that is priceless.

 Xavier Ramos should have been on top of the world this week.  He called the University of Oregon to accept their offer for a full scholarship.  Unfortunately, his high spirits were immediately destroyed when the Oregon staff informed him on Monday that another recruit had accepted an offer and that his scholarship would no longer be available.

Ramos’ head coach, Todd Thieron, lashed out at the recruiting practices of the Oregon staff.  He went as far to say that “Oregon is not welcome here.”   

Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti responded to the harsh criticism in a statement released Monday.

“We acknowledge this is an unfortunate aspect of recruiting and always feel bad for any feelings that are hurt,” Bellotti said. “Another young man committed to us earlier at the same position and we didn’t feel we could accept both of them. There were breakdowns in communication resulting in the situation not handled as we would have preferred.

“We always feel it is best to notify all parties involved of our intentions early, while they still have options to pursue other opportunities, rather than wait until February when their options are limited.”

The entire situation was tough for both sides.  The Ramos family felt completely misled, while the Oregon staff felt the need to be honest with the recruit as soon as possible.  However, this type of situation will happen more and more often as recruits are offered scholarships earlier in the recruiting process.

Other recruits can learn that an offer is never really an offer until you sign on the dotted line.  Athletes can’t afford to feel 95% sure that they have an offer on the table.  You need to keep as many schools involved in the process until you know for sure where you will be attending.