| MAY 2007 VARSITYEDGE.COM NEWSLETTER
I have been reading a lot of different articles on recruiting lately and one of the underlying theme’s seems to be how overwhelming the recruiting process is from a paperwork standpoint and how many rules and regulations there are that deter families from succeeding. Yes, it’s true, there is some paperwork and there are some rules and regulations, but the paperwork and regulations are neither overwhelming nor time consuming, and they will hardly decide if or where you continue your athletic career at the college level. So let’s talk about the overwhelming paperwork and rules a bit more.
PAPERWORK: There is pretty much one piece of paper you need to worry about and that’s the Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse. If you don’t know already, the Clearinghouse is an independent entity that certifies all high school athletes that have aspirations to play at the NCAA D1 or NCAA D2 level. They do not oversee NCAA D3 schools nor do they oversee any Junior colleges or NAIA colleges, so if you aspire to play at that level, your done with the paperwork as there is none for eligibility. The clearinghouse has a core-course requirement that you must meet in high school, currently 14 classes and soon to be 16 core classes for 2008 graduates. The clearinghouse also uses a sliding scale that compares your SAT/ACT scores and GPA to determine eligibility. You register once at the end of your junior year (regardless of your grades or test scores at the time), then you submit your final transcript upon graduation. Registration can be done in one of two ways, online through the clearinghouse web site, or through paper forms that your counselor SHOULD have. If you have questions about whether the core courses you have taken or will take in high school will be accepted for eligibility, you can research and print out a list of all accepted courses your high school offers from the clearinghouse web site. So, from a paperwork standpoint, we are basically talking about one piece of paper that your counselor can help you with if need be.
RULES AND REGULATIONS: The NCAA rulebook is roughly 500 pages long but the rules that apply to you when you take eligibility out of the question can probably be boiled down to one page. And, most rules apply to the coaches doing the recruiting and not the recruit being recruited. So what are the key rules you might have to worry about? OFFICIAL VISITS. Official visits are visits paid for by a college. They cannot exceed 48 hours and at the D1 and D2 level, you can only have 5 official visits total regardless of the number of sports you play. At the D3 level you can have as many official visits as you like, but no more than one per school. Since most D3 schools are smaller and don’t offer athletic scholarships or generate a lot of revenue from athletics, it is less common to have an official paid visit offered from a D3 school. You can have as many unofficial visits as you like so pack up the car and go visit 50 schools as many times as you like if need be! CONTACTS: To say that the NCAA has some confusing contact and evaluation rules would be an understatement, but again, most rules are designed for coaches and not for recruits. Lets get the easy part out of the way. NCAA Division 3 coaches can call you at any time they want in high school as often as they want, as there are no restrictions. Why? Because most D3 colleges are not competing for a 20 million dollar bowl game and they don’t abuse the no contact rules policy that’s been created for them, so it’s rare for a D3 coach to start calling a prospect their freshman year 20 times a day, like a D1 coach might if given the chance. Ditto for the NAIA and Junior Colleges, there are no restrictions on phone calls, but again, you don’t have the abuse that you might at the D1 level. Ok, now lets get more easy stuff out of the way. You can call a college coach at any time, in any grades, as many times as you want to, as often as you want to with no restrictions.
For the basic rules as to when D1 and D2 coaches can contact you, please see page 29 of this document.
ARTICLES
The widening college-loan scandal is highlighting the need to look beyond schools' recommended lenders. But for students and their parents, the process might be harder than they expect. Most students who take out loans use one of the companies on their school's so-called preferred lender list because it's the path of least resistance. However, as allegations mount that some lenders have been offering incentives to secure placement on those lists, students and their parents are concerned that schools may not be presenting choices that are necessarily in their best interests. Read Full Article
The skies were a gloomy gray and mist was falling as Clark College finished up a softball practice last week. The mood of the nine players and two coaches was anything but dark. There was laughter and lighthearted banter as players took turns at the plate. Coach Kasey Powers' two dogs were chained to the backstop, playing with a deflated soccer ball. Pitching coach Sara Ross boldly predicted the Penguins would win today against Southwestern Oregon."Honestly, it's the closest I've ever been to teammates because of what we're going through," sophomore catcher Kelsey Scanlan said. Read Full Article
Jordan Marks is excited to begin building the LSU at Alexandria baseball program.
Some of his future teammates, however, simply want to get a chance to play college baseball.
Marks, an infielder for Menard, was one of nine players to accept scholarship offers from LSUA, coach Dan Purvis announced Sunday. The nine are the basis for the Generals' first baseball team, which will begin play next year. Read Full Article
With spring football practice beginning today and final exams looming, it's a good day for a vocabulary lesson. Commitment: an agreement or pledge to do something in the future, especially to assume a financial obligation at a future date. Over the next few weeks, that one little word is going to mean a lot for some of Broward County's top high school football players. Read Full Article
ODDS N ENDS
In the April newsletter I said the NCAA was meeting to vote on a possible text message ban and I said the ban had no chance. Well I was wrong. The NCAA voted to ban all text messaging from coaches to recruits beginning August 1st. This was a giant loophole in the contact rules established by the NCAA but one that had grown out of control with coaches sending hundreds of text messages to kids at all times throughout the day every day as text messages were not regulated or regarded as a contact. Many families saw astronomical rises in their cell phone bills and couldn’t keep up. Others saw it as an intrusion as athletes were receiving texts from coaches at any time throughout the day even while they were in class. The NCAA dropped the ball on this long ago. Had they established some regulations when texting began, we wouldn’t have this mess but you have coaches sending 30 texts every day to Johny basketball player thinking it will impress him and something was bound to give. And after a whole bunch of families start telling the NCAA they have a $800 cell phone bill, and wake up every morning with 100 new text messages, and have coaches texting them while they are taking a math test, the NCAA started listening. Now, there is an easy way around this, everyone can go out and get blackberry’s and coaches can email students right to their portable device. Hey, email is email!
Good news for all prep basketball stars. The University of Kentucky is adding $300,000 to their recruiting budget and is exploring the possibility of buying a private plane so coaches can get around easier. I was shocked they didn’t have a plane already?
How global is recruiting? Northeastern University (Boston, MA) recently announced their field hockey recruiting class. Among the girls signed, two are from Canada, two from New Jersey, one from California, and one from Germany. And a lone gal from Massachusetts! Vassar College located in Ny announced their signings for girls soccer. One from Illinois, two from Texas, and three from California.
NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL COLLEGES
The NCAA has placed the West Virginia men’s soccer team on probation. Among the restrictions, are two-years probation, no recruiting of international prospects for two years, limit on official visits.
University of the Incarnate Word announced it will sponsor football beginning in fall 2009.
Southern Utah will add women’s golf as a varsity sport beginning in the fall of 2008 | | PAST ISSUES
April/May 2008
March 2008
Jan/Feb - Short break!------------------------------- January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
Sept/Oct 2007
Nov/Dec 2007
Archive
The Making of a Student-Athlete: Succeeding in the College Selection and Recruiting Process for High School Athletes, Parents and Coaches. ORDER TODAY
|