NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

 Creating mismatches is what good X and O coaching is all about.  At NCSA we try to help potential recruits to create their own mismatches.  What is a mismatch in recruiting?  It’s an athlete with options.  The more offers from different schools the more likely that scholarship dollars will increase and the athlete will find the right school fit.  Why?  Because schools don’t want to lose out to their rivals.

I am always stunned when I talk to athletes that draw a 2 state buffer around their hometown and refuse to consider any further schools.  Talk about decreasing your options!

Only a few years ago coaches usually took the majority of their recruits from inside their state borders.  That has drastically changed.  Right now the Wisconsin Badger 2009 recruiting class has only 4 in state commits as opposed to 12 out-of-staters.

If coaches are willing to look further out, then recruits should take advantage and do the same.  By using technology like NCSA’s Scouting Report athletes can easily promote themselves across the country.  If you want to maximize your options, I suggest getting started today.

After watching the priceless JoePa clip you may realize that it might be a good idea to investigate your college decision a little further.  I often preach getting started early to maximize your options, but you also get know a program much better by starting early.  Think about it like buying a car.  Do you want to buy from the shady used car salesman or the family friend you have know for years?

 By starting the recruiting process early you get a chance to build solid relationship rather than just getting “the pitch.”  This decison will affect the rest of your life, so it might be worth your time to get going early.

Among the many reasons to enter the college sports recruiting process earning an athletic scholarship to pay for college is always at the top of the list. Playing in college offsets the burden of paying for college. After all, who wants to be paying for college 10 years after they graduate because of student loans? In May 2007, testimony before US congress revealed that a quarter of all students graduate with too much debt to pay back on a starting teachers salary. That is way too high.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be knowledgeable in the ways of Financial Aid?

I earned my MBA from one of the top business schools in the country and traded sophisticated financial instruments for over 20 years. I thought I could figure this financial aid thing out. I couldn’t. I needed help. I’m very glad I invested in professional advice that helped maximize the grants and scholarships my daughter received. One of the great things about NCSA is that their advice on how to maximize scholarship dollars actually works. And it continues to work. Except for the less than 1% of college athletes who have “full rides” (tuition, books, room & board, fees, transportation), most families must negotiate their financial aid package on an annual basis. Paying for that expert advice helped – a lot! As she enters her junior year, my daughter has received over $135,000 in financial aid. Not one penny of that is a student loan. It’s all grants that don’t have to be paid back. Do you think I’m happy with the professional advice I received? My return on that investment was over 6700.00 per cent!

Do you think the college athletic recruiting process should provide you with the highest number of opportunities? Do you think understanding college athletics recruiting can reveal the perfect college fit for you? How do you go about increasing your opportunities? What system should you employ to make sure you are selecting the right opportunity for you?

College coaches begin by initially contacting 1,000 or 2,000 or even 10,000 (depending on the sport) student athletes by sending them camp brochures, emails, questionnaires, etc. Those same college coaches are clearly not recruiting all of those student-athletes. Why do they start with such a large pool? They are following the advice of Marketing 101: the more kids who they find out about, the better chance they’ll find the really quality student-athlete who will help their program. If that’s a good strategy for college coaches, shouldn’t a student-athlete use the same strategy? Doing so will increase your number of opportunities.

A savvy student-athlete will learn as early as freshman year that they need to develop trust-based relationships with college coaches. This can only happen through communication. Since the NCAA restricts the amount and timing of contacts initiated by college coaches, the student-athlete must be proactive. Unfortunately, the 14 or 15 year old student-athlete doesn’t have the life experiences or the maturity to begin building relationships with adults. The good news is they can be trained in that skill set. It’s like interviewing for a job. 

College recruiting boils down to trust-based relationships between college coaches and student-athletes. What college coach is going to make a significant investment in a student-athlete unless they know a lot more about that student-athlete than her/his performance on the playing field?

If you agree with playing the numbers game and building trust-based relationships with college coaches, have you thought about how you would do that? If you’re a student-athlete reading this, do you think your parents can do this for you? If so, you better forget about playing sports in college. Do you think your coach can do this for you? Again, if so, you better forget about finding the perfect college fit for you. You are the one that needs to take charge. You can only do that if you develop the skill set to do so. Who will teach you that?

Finally, if you do all of the above correctly, how do you determine the right fit? There are many different factors including: academic quality of the school, size of school, location of school, financial aid package, level of competition, opportunity to play early, getting along with the coaching staff and players, receiving tutoring help (if necessary), etc. There is a way to logically sort out all of those factors. If you need help, go here.

Last weekend NCSA held our annual National University drawing all of our scouts, coaches and several big names in sports to Chicago to discuss the current state of recruiting and how we will continue to shape its future.  I had the chance to discuss recruiting with several big names including one of the original pioneers on the professional side of recruiting, Tom Lemming.  Tom has known NCSA since its beginning.

“Chris Krause (NCSA Founder) was in my magazine as a high school senior and I’ve known him his whole professional life as one of the most sincere people I’ve ever met. He really goes against the adage nice guys finish last.  As far as football the company has has become the first stop for coaches and should be for prospects.”

 He saw the biggest change in the speed of the recruiting process.

“The process has been hurried up so much where colleges are actually recruiting juniors ahead of time when they are sophomores and freshman.  It’s something that really changed with Penn St in 94 but last year it hit the whole nation.”

“The Internet gets the word out quicker.  It also allowed for many more analysts and false information, but quicker information.”

If he had a son currently going through the process he would advise him based on this new reality.

“I would get involved and I would get his coach involved.  I would start promoting him after his sophomore year.  Take him to select camps but use any facility I can to make them aware of his existence and abilities.  I find there a lot players that wait too long.”

Finally he hit on how grades are playing more and more of a role.

“The change from 14 to 16 core courses means you need to start as a freshman.  Grades will continue to play more and more of a role in deciding how scholarships are handed out.”

Athletics can be an avenue to academic success. I detailed this trend in an earlier post, but today Rivals.com featured how one program is using its academic prestige and some new policies to get top notch recruits in the door.

Coach Jim Harbough has led a turnaround at Stanford by identifying and signing talented players that also get it done in the classroom. This wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of the Stanford admissions department. Below are some great quotes from Levine Toilolo and Shayne Skov, two committed athletes, describing the transformation:

“I was glad they offered me that quickly,” said Toilolo, who was offered during September of his junior year. “I guess Shayne was the first to be offered for our class and to commit, but they were able to offer me at the beginning of my junior year – right around the same time Florida and others did – and that made a big difference. I wanted to decide early if I could, and I’m not even accepted through admissions yet. But I was able to commit because I had the offer.”

Still, a written offer from Stanford is not like a written offer from other programs.

“You still have to get through admissions,” Toilolo said. “That’s why a lot of the guys we are recruiting haven’t committed yet. They want to complete the application process and get admitted before they commit. It’s a big disadvantage for Stanford, I would guess, but I hear it’s better than it was in the past.”

Toilolo goes to the same high school as former USC star Reggie Bush. In fact, his older brother played with Bush. He and Skov have heard the rumors about Bush’s interest in Stanford.

“He wanted to go to Stanford I hear, but he fell just short of admissions. At least that’s how the story goes,” Skov said. “Can you imagine what a difference he would have made to that program? That shows you how hard it is to recruit top players to Stanford because of the admissions situation. But Coach Harbaugh doesn’t make it feel intimidating at all.”

The academic restrictions remain an obstacle. Skov and Toilolo said that in addition to the normal application required at every school, Stanford football recruits have to write four essays. Three are around 600 words, and the other is longer.

“I was recruited by a lot of schools and some good academic schools, but that extra stipulation was never mentioned,” Skov said. “Maybe other schools have it, maybe they don’t. But I know we have to do it to get into Stanford.

“But if academics are important to you, why not? Where else can I play Southern Cal on a Saturday and then study with a Nobel Prize winner on a Monday?”

The lesson the two recruits describe is simple; They separated themselves from their peers by taking things seriously in the classroom. If you are a recruit with dreams of playing at a prestigious university you MUST get things done in the class room. The bottom line is that the better your grades the more scholarship opportunities that will be available.

 Rankings.  They are everywhere.  Top 25 Teams. Top 100 Players. Top 20 Music Videos.  You get the idea.  As a society we are obsessed with putting a ranking on everything.  I want to remind potential recruits that rankings don’t necessarily mean everything.  No matter how thorough the search or evaluation process there will always be holes in any ranking system. 

Recruits should also remember that these types of rankings are mostly for fans.  Consider ESPNU’s Top 150 High School Football Players.  All the players on this list already have Division I Scholarship offers.  In fact, many times the only reason they appear on this list is because they have already received offers. 

Recruits can’t get caught up worrying if their name is on a list.  They have to take the process into their own hands and pro-actively seek out the right school.  As Scouts Inc. readily admits below, their process is still far from perfect.  Don’t be dependant on a ranking to secure your future!

As we entered into the selection process of the 2009 ESPNU 150, our fourth class as a group here at Scouts Inc., we quickly realized we had mixed feelings on just about every player who was considered. That was likely a result of our seeing more prospects than ever before at this point in the year, both in person and on tape. We have never been even close to the 2,000-player mark at this point before, but we are quickly approaching that milestone. Our increased exposure to players has given us much more information to consider — especially when you take a player’s weaknesses into account. All players have weaknesses, regardless of who they are, especially at this age. In other words, it’s easy to turn on some highlight film on the Internet and get excited about a guy. The more important factor, from a scouting perspective, is how that player looks when he’s not on a highlight tape.

For the first time, we feel we can honestly say that the race for the nation’s top player is one that could go back and forth for months; the top three players in the ESPNU 150 are all worthy, and so are a few who are right on their heels. In our opinion, much like college football these days, this class offers more parity and comparable prospects than many of the classes before it. The top 25-30 prospects all have a legitimate case for being ranked higher than they are, and many are interchangeable. Conversely, on the back end of the 150, for each of the prospects ranked from 101-150 in this first edition, there are another 50 or 60 prospects right on the cusp who are deserving and could find themselves jumping in and out of the rankings leading up to signing day.

The evaluation process is constantly evolving. So excellent, unknown players will certainly pop up between now and February — like WR DJ Grant in 2008 and 2007 class surprise DE Carlos Dunlap, both of whom were not even evaluated until the fall.

 Following up from our story a few days ago, another story has popped up on the blog-o-sphere about a highly visible college athlete partaking in behavior that my land him in hot water.  Notre Dame Quarterback Jimmy Clausen, last season’s number one football recruit, was featured on The Big Lead participating at a college party called the “Beer Olympics.” 

10 years ago these photos would have been harmless.  Nobody would have been surprised to hear that college student athletes may drink beer.  Today, athletes can’t afford to take that risk.  Clausen will probably be let off the hook after an “apology,” but high school recruits can’t afford to take such chances. 

You have no idea when a photo of you might pop up on Facebook, Myspace, Takkle or any other site and hurt your recruiting potential.  It is just too easy to get caught for any recruit to risk their future scholarship by engaging in any risky or illegal behavior.

 The internet has changed the recruiting process in a lot of ways.  Some of the changes have been overwhelmingly positive.  The emergence of the internet has made it possible for recruits all over the country to get their information to college coaches.  But for some recruits this could be a bad thing. 

The story Oklahoma University Wide Receiver Josh Jarboe should warn recruits that the internet can also spread information they might not want a college coach to see.  Jarboe, who was already under suspension, was officially kicked off the team for appearing in a 74 second rap on YouTube that included reference to shooting people and guns. 

Recruits need to be aware that information placed on Takkle, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or any other place on the internet could easily find its way to a coach.  They need to make sure that the information they receive describes them in the best possible manner.

 Physical dimensions play a big part in recruiting.  Let’s face it, they play a big part in predicting success at the next level.  However, your physical stats always take a big seat to a more important question:  Can you play?  More and more football players are learning that coaches can get over the fact that they don’t fit the physical mold if you can convince them you belong.

A recent article on Rivals.com detailed how a number of quarterbacks at major schools have shredded the notion that you need to be a certain height to play the position. 

“There have been a ton of (successful) six-footers … Jim McMahon, Fran Tarkenton, Doug Flutie,” said Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, who ironically entrusts his offense to 6-foot-3 Graham Harrell. “I met (Flutie) and he is short.

“They say you need a 6-4 guy to stand 10 yards back to see over a guy that’s 6-7. That’s foolishness. You pass in lanes.”

In truth, the fallacy that height is required for quarterback success should have gone out the window for good when 5-foot-9 Doug Flutie won the 1984 Heisman Trophy. Since then three players who were 6-feet or shorter – Syracuse’s Don McPherson, BYU’s Ty Detmer and Georgia Tech’s Joe Hamilton – were consensus first team All-Americans.

Yet, there appears an enduring belief that a quarterback needs to be a 6-foot-3 Adonis. In fact, only 10 percent (12 of 120) of the projected starting quarterbacks of Division I football programs are 6 feet or shorter.

Three are in the Big 12 – which has evolved into the most wide-open, pass-happy conference in college football. Half of its teams ranked among the nation’s top 30 in passing offense a year ago.

One of those teams is Missouri, which is led by 6-footer Chase Daniel, a Heisman Trophy finalist who threw for more than 4,000 yards a year ago.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel never balked about going with Daniel because he’d previously had success with shorter quarterbacks as an assistant coach at Washington in the early ’90s.

“I coached Mark Brunell at Washington and he was 6-1 at most,” Pinkel said. “Once he hit an offensive lineman with the ball and coach (Don) James said, ‘Tell Brunell if he can’t throw over the offensive line he’s not going to play quarterback.”

Brunell twice led Washington in passing and has had a long NFL career in which he was named to the Pro Bowl three times.

“Size is not as big a factor,” said Kansas coach Mark Mangino, who starts 5-11 Todd Reesing at quarterback. “You need a smart guy with a quick release and leadership abilities. How tall a guy is is down on the list of priorities.”

The fact that coaches are as open minded as ever means that recruits need to be contacting even more schools than ever.  You never know where you are going to find the coach who believes in your ability.