Navigating the NCAA recruitment process – Part 1

Key topic

We have already explored some general information regarding the NCAA recruiting criteria and the initial steps of the process. Today and for the next lesson we will return to the NCAA and specifically, focus on the recruitment process. Athletes going into the recruitment process should have all the necessary information to handle the requirements of the NCAA regulations, as well as the things not evident to those with no prior experience in this process. This lesson explains how athletes should approach the recruitment process, with a clear focus on the things they can control, and with the right mindset to achieve their goals.

Learning objectives

• Understand your role in the recruitment process
• Plan ways to incorporate all academic requirements in your academics
• Develop proper habits to follow the NCAA rules and avoid violations
• Create conditions that will maximize your potential and opportunity to become an NCAA student athlete.

It’s time for you to become the team MVP

Hopefully by the time we are delivering this lesson, you will have developed into the model combination of a student-athlete, ready to pursue the dual career and dream of being a student and an athlete at the collegiate level. It has undoubtedly been a very long ride, with sacrifices made from you and your entire family, but this is actually the final stretch in the process.

You probably have been, repeatedly, advised to be very discrete in your role as a student- athlete, modest and connected, starting years ago when as a kid you only wanted to go out and play sports to have fun. Well, now is the time to partially change, at least for a little while and become more self-aware and a bit more selfish. Now is the time to step up and be the MVP, by showing off what you can do in class and on the playing field, in an effort to secure a roster spot in a college team.

Being the MVP is rationally defined as that person who makes the difference: The person whose performance and attitude adds value to the team and facilitates the betterment of those around; a leader, a person who is recognized and well respected for many things other than just the game-performance. You need to be that person. You need to help yourself achieve one of the biggest goals you will have in life.

In Division-I there are 173,500 student- athletes in 346 schools; 51% of these student- athletes receive some kind of financial aid/support from the NCAA due to their involvement in sports; 81% of student-athletes do graduate with a degree. This is what it’s all about. Remember these numbers when you are starting out. These student athletes represent only 6% of the national high school student-athlete body, who tried to accomplish that feat. Remind yourself and brace yourself, as this is a two-way street.

It is fundamentally important and vital, for you and your family to recognize that the ultimate decision, regarding your prospective college career, lies outside the home and in the hands of others; college coaches and recruiters will make the final choice and have the final say on offering a roster spot. You will have a say in the process, in the sense that you will have to make the final decision of which college to attend, whether or not you will actually pursue college sports and what major to pick. These are all your decisions, entirely yours only, but the chance will have to be given to you by a college coach.

Regardless of achieving high academic and sporting standards, it is a possibility, a rather good one unfortunately, that the decision you can’t control will not go your way, in other words there is a good possibility that you will not be offered a college scholarship or a roster spot; not because you are not good enough, rather because the spots are limited and the competition is very intense. So, focus on being the MVP, do everything you need to do and control the things you can control and stop worrying about the things that are outside of your control.

The recruitment process

Recruiting happens when a college employee or representative invites a high school student- athlete to play sports for their college. Recruiting can occur in many ways, such as face-to- face contact, phone calls or text messaging, through mailed or emailed material or through social media. The NCAA, in support of parents and perspective student athletes’ well-being, promotes a fair recruiting environment, which was instigated to limit the intrusions into the lives of student-athletes and their families. NCAA member schools limit recruiting to certain periods during the year. Recruiting calendars promote the well-being of college-bound student-athletes and ensure fairness among schools by defining certain periods during the year in which recruiting may or may not occur in a particular sport.

As you will read further down, you have to concentrate on very specific and simple tasks. These, in brief, are:

1. 1Register with the NCAA Portal for Prospective Student Athletes (PSA)
2. Register with the Academic Eligibility Center
3. Take the right courses in high school and college entry tests and get good grades
4. Refine and perfect the sporting skills to reach the level required for collegiate sports
5. Maintain the status of amateur athlete at all times
6. Follow the rules and guidelines of the entire process

College coaches follow some very specific procedures for their recruitment process. Getting familiar with these steps can help aspiring recruits understand the stage of the recruiting process they are in and what still needs to occur going forward. These steps include:

1. Gather a list of prospective athletes
2. Send out recruiting letters, questionnaires, and camp invites
3. Conduct evaluations
4. Extend verbal offers and scholarships
5. Sign athletes

Let’s take a detailed look at the various steps of the recruiting process:

Exposure comes from your high school coach. College coaches tend to acquire prospect information from high school coaches, based on individual relationships that are built over time. It is, however, acceptable and rather suggested to send every college of your choice, a personal letter and game DVD yourself. You can find contact information on college websites.

Role of the High School Coach: Every high school coach is expected to supply audiovisual game material, usually by the winter of junior year and again in the middle to the end of the senior year, for most Division I schools. Along with this material, correct and accurate evaluations of athletic and academic performance supported by adequate documentation, are expected from them. Every college coach wants a truthful relationship with the high school coach. College coaches use a number of sources to cross-check every potential prospect. Inflated numbers, or non-accurate evaluations can hurt athletes themselves.

Attending State recruiting fairs, if available, should also be fulfilled by either the high school head coach or a member of the high school staff, as some colleges take note to recruit at these fairs as a priority. With that being said, you should have an open and honest communication with your coach, but remember you are still a member of a team that needs you focused and just one of many other members, who also need the coach to help them out.

Attending College Camps: This is where most college scholarships are awarded. Attend and perform at the different college camps in-front of college coaches. Student athletes need to perform in front of the college coaches since college coaches want first hand information they can trust. Performing on a college campus and against other prospects can reinforce a prospect’s evaluation.  All camp dates are posted on college websites. If you can financially afford it, make sure you go for it. If money is an issue, start saving money as soon as  possible.

Audiovisual Material from Games (Game Tapes): College coaches evaluate student athletes based on real game tape footage. Make sure the college coaches have game tapes at the appropriate time, as already discussed. If they feel that you are a real prospect, they will connect with your coach and also with you and your parents, within the NCAA limitations and restrictions. The higher the division desired by you to compete in, the earlier the tapes are needed. It’s not uncommon, for example, for athletes to receive offers based on sophomore-year game tapes using “free” services, but make sure the services are NCAA-approved.

Camps, Combines, Showcases and other recruiting events:

Attending these types of events can be a crucial step in the recruiting process, but it is important to know how to make them worth your while because they can be fairly costly and time consuming. The types of events you can attend vary by sport, but the below are the main categories:

Camps– During middle and early high school, camps are focused on the fundamentals and building skills under the instruction of the high school coach. As the student-athletes progress, they can attend college camps, which provides them with the chance to play in front of college coaches who may be interested in recruiting them. Some of these camps can only be attended by invitation.

Combines – These events are geared towards testing the student-athlete’s athleticism. They tend to involve specific conditioning drills that assess strength, speed and overall skills. Unlike Camps, Combines (and showcases- see below), do not typically require an invitation and are mostly attended by parties that can help student-athletes get exposure and not necessarily coaches.

Showcases – These usually include both sport-specific drills and actual competition.

Tournaments – Usually organized by third parties, tournaments give college coaches the chance to observe top recruits compete against each other.

AAU model events: If your sport allows for the participation on an AAU team, you should choose the team carefully and wisely, based on the fact that coaches in high school and the AAU team should have similar approaches in all fundamental issues (performance, attitude and otherwise). You should also be aware of the fact that, even though these events may offer intense competition and some skill improvement, the athletes’ performance in high school competition is what ultimately determines scholarship offers.

Moreover, you should understand that in fulfilling the dream of a collegiate athletic career you must:

•  Know and follow the NCAA and NAIA Academic Eligibility rules as early as ninth grade year begins, as well as academic eligibility requirements which kick in very early.
• The overall GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA) is the most important number in the recruiting process. The higher the GPA, especially above a 3.0, the more athletic opportunities a student athlete may have available. The most important high school report card is the first semester of the student athletes’ ninth grade. In other words, make sure to make the same effort in class as you do in practice.
• College athletic scholarships are limited and in high demand, often based on the subjective evaluation of coaching staff, whereas academic scholarships are available everywhere. Student-athletes need to work hard to earn either and also maintain either scholarship, but admittedly academic scholarships are easier to receive and hold, as they are solemnly dependent on the academic outcome and not on anyone’s evaluation of you, which could be rather subjective.

Furthermore, it is often the case that colleges will also evaluate your parents and not only you as a student athlete, in order to make sure that they too are a good fit for their program. This is because colleges have identified that:

• Parents of recruits provide insight into the maturity and character of the recruit
• Parents of recruits foreshadow if their kids will be a handful in the future
• Parents of recruits will foreshadow how their kids will represent the program and school
• Parents of recruits will reveal how much of a distraction/help they will be to their child
• Parents of recruits reveal what type of student-athlete the coach is recruiting

Keep the above in mind and talk to your parents about this sensitive issue. Make sure you avoid hurting their feelings; they are on your side and they will do whatever possible to help you achieve your goals.

Eligibility checklist

As already discussed, there are two types of eligibility that high-school student athletes should meet. One being of course the academic eligibility and the other being the overall NCAA eligibility, which includes completion of the required paperwork and achieving, as well as maintaining, amateur status as athletes.

The NCAA Eligibility Center is responsible for deciding the academic eligibility and status of  all NCAA Division I and Division II athletes by assessing their high school records. Coaches are prohibited from overlooking these two criteria, something that parents should remind their children. The Eligibility Center essentially makes sure that student-athletes are college qualified. Traditionally, an athlete needed to go through the NCAA Eligibility Center only when recruited by a Division I or Division II program. Yet, a few years ago the NCAA revamped the platform to include a free profile for families who don’t know yet whether that will be the case for their young athlete. Therefore, it’s best to register anyway and you can choose to either create a profile page or a certification account.

In short, if you’re not yet sure in which division your child will compete, or even if your child is considering attending a junior college program or Division III – which come without academic requirements – then you should opt for a profile page which is free. You can always switch to a certification account, if something changes and your kids get recruited by higher division schools. However, if your children are being chased by a Division I or Division II program, then you need to sign up for a certification account; this account will carry a small fee as well. If you qualified for ACT or SAT fee waivers, remember that it means you have also qualified for a fee waiver in the NCAA Eligibility Center. All you need to do is ask one of the authorized high school officials to submit the necessary documentation online, after you’ve completed your registration.

So, the first step of this process is to create an account with the NCAA eligibility center (online platform). Visit the website where you will be asked the initial questions about your personal information, academics and sports history. It’s best if you do this early, preferably at the start of your high school junior year and definitely before the start of your senior year. Make sure that you receive and store the NCAA ID number assigned to you by the platform, as it will be asked by colleges later on the recruitment process.

The second step is to schedule a meeting with high school officials, namely the Athletic Director and the Guidance Counselor, preferably in the presence of your parents. The Athletic Director usually provides parents and athletes with accurate recruiting information, which will instill confidence in the process and goodwill amongst all parties involved. The goal of these meetings should be to avoid any false expectations anyone may have, or of the recruiting process, to provide outside resources for the presentation of accurate information about the recruiting process, as well as pass on any available material.

The guidance counselor will talk to you about academic requirements and the NCAA Core Course requirements. Remember it’s not just about making good grades, it’s also about being enrolled in the appropriate courses. If you are headed to a Division I program, you need to take 10 out of 16 core courses before your senior year, with seven of those being a math, English and science course. In other words, these meetings should take place as early as possible in your sophomore year or beginning of junior year to avoid any surprises.

Remember, also, that the requirements differ slightly between Division I and Division II.

The third step in the checklist is to register to take the SAT or ACT test and work together with the high school administration office to send official transcripts to the NCAA Eligibility Center, by uploading them on the High School Portal (please note that you are not allowed to send copies; this must take place physically through the office). This is a process that must take place at the end of your junior year of high school (11th grade) and this will aid in the preliminary certification, provided you also submit an SAT or ACT score by the end of the 11th grade, which is not however mandatory.

The next step is to submit the SAT or ACT scores to the NCAA Eligibility Center, by using the code number “9999”. If you choose to take the test multiple times to ensure better results, you are encouraged to submit your score each time you take the test, as the NCAA will only use the best test scores when calculating your eligibility. There is no penalty for submitting multiple test scores.

During the final step, at the end of your senior year, you will need to make sure that your guidance counselor submits an official version of your final transcripts. Once that is done, log into your account on the NCAA Eligibility Center and request final amateurism certification.

For student-athletes this is the final step that will initiate NCAA proceedings to determine the athletes’ eligibility status.

Do keep in mind that if an athlete is enrolling to college in the fall, they can request final certification starting April 1 of the same year. Spring enrolees can start on October 1 of the year before they attend college.

Action steps – Exercise 1 (15 minutes)

Let’s check what you took away from today’s lesson. Please respond to the following statements with a True or False (T/F):

1. College coaches tend to acquire prospect information from high school principals, based on individual relationships that are built over time ___ 
2. One of the steps that you have to take in order to be a contender and eligible for collegiate sports is to take the right courses in high school and college entry tests and get good grades      
3. One of the things that your high school coach will be asked for, are correct and accurate evaluations of athletic and academic performance supported by adequate documentation        
4. One of the best ways to secure a scholarship is to attend and perform at the different college camps in-front of college coaches  __
5. College coaches evaluate you based on YouTube clips you have uploaded showcasing what you can do on the pitch  __
6. Where possible and applicable, college coaches evaluate your parents as well in order to make informed predictions about your future and if you are a good fit for the team ___
7. The NCAA Eligibility Center ultimately determines the academic eligibility and amateur status for all NCAA Division I and Division II athletes by evaluating their high school records  __
8. If coaches really want you, they can look the other side if your academic performance is subpar  __
9. If you don’t want to lose your eligibility, you should ensure that you only take the SAT or ACT tests once and get good grades  __
10. During the final step of the process (at the end of your senior year) you will need to make sure that your guidance counselor submits an official version of your final transcripts  

Answer sheet

Lesson wrap-up

Today we explored the NCAA recruitment process. We focused on the realities of the process and some of the external and internal factors that will play a role, such as your high school coach’s evaluation. The second thing we looked at was the Eligibility Checklist and how you should go about to achieve eligibility.

At this point we will wrap up today’s lesson. First, we will go over the learning objectives of this lesson and we want your feedback as to whether they have been achieved and then we will address any questions you may have. Please feel free to ask anything you’d like in relation to today’s lesson and we would love to hear how the concepts we discussed today relate to you and your life!