Articles

Please note: Iif a particular article does not open, it is because the website/publication that wrote the article has removed/archived it from their servers. Some media outlets keep articles up for years, others keep them up only a few weeks...

Article on recruiting budgets. GO

Article on honesty in the recruiting process. GO

Article on AAU and Camp participation and the role it can play in the recruiting process. GO

Article about AAU basketball organizations soliciting donations from college basketball coaches, which give coaches “more” access to top recruits. This was a bit of an eye opener for me and probably will be for many others as well. GO

Article on likely letters and early notification at the Ivy Level. GO

Article on text messaging and recruiting. GO

ODDS N ENDS
While the NCAA has many restrictive rules that often prohibit coach and potential recruit really connecting, you have to appreciate the Division 2 tryout policy that lets colleges that compete at that level to hold basically open combines on their campus.

Coming to a computer near you. I have recently read a few stories of college coaches recruiting players in foreign countries via web cam. Sports such as hockey, basketball, and tennis are sports that have a high number of recruits coming to the states to perform. Nearly half of all D1 tennis players are foreign born.

According to the NCAA, it is impermissible for a recruiting service to offer a money-back guarantee

Courses completed after high school graduation. Courses taken after a student’s eighth semester (fourth year) of high school will not satisfy Division I initial-eligibility requirements. In contrast, for Division II, all core courses completed after high school, but before initial full-time enrollment in college, may meet NCAA requirements.

NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL COLLEGES
Simmons College of Kentucky, a junior college, is starting over with its men's basketball program after a 76-year absence.

Iowa's men's swimming program will lose a scholarship for three years and the athletic department was placed on probation for two years as a result of major violations found in the swimming program, the NCAA Committee of Infractions ruled Thursday.

The University of Cincinnati is elevating its women’s lacrosse club team to varsity status in 2007-08 and eliminating women’s rowing after the 2006-07 season.

Adrian College and Concordia University will be offering new men’s varsity hockey programs in 2008. They will be part of the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association.

Mansfield University of Pennsylvania announced November 16 that it will drop football, a sport it has sponsored since 1891, because of budget shortfalls.

Calvin College will expand its physical education and athletics facilities in the biggest building project in school history. The project includes a new arena, an indoor track and tennis center, an aquatics center and a student health center, as well as a significant renovation of the current Calvin Fieldhouse creating a new health and recreation center.

READER QUESTIONS
I have your book and the way I understand your book and many of your articles, college coaches aren't supposed to be contacting high school junior football players during the fall of their junior year. But all over the news, I hear of juniors (class of 2008) with several offers from college coaches. Can you explain this?

You are partly correct, college coaches are not allowed to contact recruits by phone until May 1st of their junior year (for football) for Division 1 schools. However, there are no NCAA rules that restrict when a high school player can contact a college coach, you could even call a coach your freshman year in high school provided you initiate the contact and you can call as often as you like. Once you initiate contact, a coach can offer you anything he wants and in this day and age when college coaches are paid millions of dollars, coaches will extent offers to younger players for basically one reason, to impress upon them. A verbal offer is worth about as much as stock in Enron in this day and age, so I wouldn’t lend too much to this....
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Thanks for your Newsletter. It is very helpful as are some of the books I have purchased. I was wondering if you could answer this question. What is the timing for college football coaches issuing offers at all divisions? I was told that they come out in December and the signing period is in early February. If my son doesn’t get an offer in December, does that mean he will not be recruited for the year? Do they continue to recruit well into the spring or are they finished by the time they issue the offer letters in December?

I’m having difficulty getting a straight answer and so any insight that you can provide will be helpful and appreciated.

There isn't one answer I can give and every coach is different. Obviously, coaches are trying to lock up players verbally as soon as they can. That could mean December and that could mean when they are sophomores in high school!

In this day and age, verbal offers mean very little and are not legally binding.

One of the challenges of football recruiting is that the coaches really have no idea who is going to be coming to their school come signing time. They have about 21 scholarships a year at the D1 level to extend. What usually happens is they extend a certain number of offers to recruits they are interested in, then they stand by the fax machine in February with their fingers crossed and hope such and such players sign with them. If they get 12 or 15 signings, they then have to go regroup and go back to a second pool of recruits that they may have been interested in but didn't extend offers to yet.

Since a coach only has a limited number of scholarships, they can't offers scholarships to 40 kids because in theory all 40 kids could want to come there, so they have to be somewhat choosey in their method come early signing time so there is a significant chance the coaching staff may have only extended 10 or 15 scholarship offers, knowing they will not sign all of those players.

Not all players sign in February as some choose to wait and see what happens and to answer your question, yes coaches will continue to recruit to fill out their roster into the spring.

Obviously you have to communicate with coaches extremely well and try to interpret the information and feedback they are giving your son throughout the process and as you get down to other levels, schools and divisions, the timeline can vary. Obviously the big D1 schools are the most aggressive and the on'e pushing the recruiting.

EXCEPRT
This is an excerpt from an article I read several months ago about recruiting at a D2 College.

"Recruitment is a cooperative effort with Admissions and a highly attractive part of the college," explains Athletic Director ***********. The collaborative effort involves a liaison program, where certain sports are paired with designated Admissions officers.

One aspect of the liaison program is the administration of scholarships. Basketball is the only sport at ********** where players can receive athletic scholarships, so Admissions must work to reward students playing other sports with academic and merit-based grants based on personal need. This process works because it is in the best interest of the college to recruit athletes that double as excellent students. The basketball scholarships are sometimes halved to reward more players, and if a freshman does not receive a scholarship he/she still has the opportunity to earn one in later years. After all, no coach wants to lose a valuable player.

Another aspect of the liaison method allows the coach to hand applications to Admissions or, conversely, allows Admissions to bring certain athletic students to the attention of the coaches. However, the majority of recruits are not found through applications. Coaches begin recruiting athletes during their sophomore year of high school, attending clinics, games and tournaments to find the best student-athletes. After the initial interest in recruiting a player, however, much of the process then falls onto the individual player.

The Making of a Student-Athlete: Succeeding in the College Selection and Recruiting Process for High School Athletes, Parents and Coaches. ORDER TODAY