Assignment Two: College Recruitment Amelia Mohr Channell University of North Carolina at Charlotte ASSIGNMENT TWO: COLLEGE RECRUITMENT 1
Assignment Two: College Recruitment
Amelia Mohr Channell
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
ASSIGNMENT TWO: COLLEGE RECRUITMENT 1
Introduction:
I am tired of hearing how high school recruits are making the wrong decision on where
they are committing to, too early. It’s almost like a competition between all the recruits to see
who can commit the earliest to a college for their sport. If any of them were educated on the
NCAA rules and the recruitment process they would know all recruits do not officially sign until
their senior year in high school... So why are players trying to commit before that? Are they
totally blind when it comes to the rules and regulations of the NCAA? For many kids that answer
is yes. In Friday Night Lights, Jason Street is a perfect example of an athlete that committed too
early, being disappointed in the long run. This paper investigates the various practices employed
by college recruiters as they seek out new talent for both established and “up and coming” sports.
More specifically, I will compare the processes employed by recruiters for both male and female
sports. By the end of this paper you should know all the basics of college recruitment, what to
look out for from coaches, what to look for in a school and things to stay away from when
committing to a school.
Literature Review
Terms:
Recruiters: They are typically college coaches with the
intent to hunt down the best athletes, and convince these
athletes to represent their program for the next four years.
Recruits: High school athletes who are watched and evaluated by
recruiters, receiving a wide variety of athletic scholarships.
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National Letter of Intent: A legal document that is used to indicate a students
athletic commitment to a certain NCAA college and university in the United
States.
NCAA: Short for National Collegiate Athletic Association; A nonprofit
association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and
individuals that organize the athletic programs of many colleges
and universities in the US and Canada.
Athletic Scholarships: Financial aid given to athletes, based on their athletic
ability and predicted success.
Officially Committed: A term used after signing the National Letter of Intent
your senior year of high school that you tell someone when you are going to play
for a schools athletic program.
Unofficially Committed: A term used by athletes before their senior year of signing the National
Letter of Intent. This usually means they verbally said to the coach
they will play for his team after senior year.
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Recruitment Strategies & Rules:
Staples, Talty and Popper all agree that the recruiting process begins early for college
coaches, as well as high school athletes. Coaches follow the same standard rules provided by the
NCAA, but also utilize strategies of their own to reach out to players. According to the NCAA,
players cannot officially commit to a schools program until after their junior year of high school.
Technically, players are not officially committed to a school until they have signed the National
Letter of Intent in the Spring of their Senior year. Popper points out that coaches find loopholes
in these rules by contacting the high school and club coaches, in order to determine an athlete's
interest level in their program. Coaches have multiple techniques to get in contact with an athlete
if they are interested in recruiting them. Staples (2013) says, “They will call you, text you,
message you on Facebook and talk to you in person to try to get you to commit to their school.”
Over the years, as social media popularity skyrockets, coaches utilize it as a recruiting tool
(Talty, 2011) (Staples, 2013). Talty (2011) explains that coaches are always trying to develop
“cutting edge” athletic programs, which magnifies the importance of social media marketing
efforts. Not only do coaches use social media to recruit players, they also attempt to target
younger generations, promoting their program for the future. According to Talty (2011) , “With
more than 800 million people on Facebook and 300 million people on Twitter, it makes sense
that athletic departments gravitated to the two social media platforms.” Schools and coaches
cannot directly mention a recruit on Twitter, or Facebook but are able to send direct messages to
a player of interest. The NCAA has put limitations on the amount of phone calls coaches can
make, but some have attempted to slide by communicating with recruits via an alternative media
network: Skype. Talty (2011) makes it clear that, “the NCAA doesn't have the manpower to
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monitor what every single coach is doing, especially on Facebook and Twitter... but it ultimately
comes down on the school to monitor itself.” Coaches will try every way in the book to get in
contact with an athlete even if it is not “legal” NCAA rules.
Factors Influencing Committing to a school :
Staples, Just, Pennington, Talty and Letawsky all agree that there are many factors that go
into an athletes decision to commit to a school for a varsity sport. Letawsky (2003) found that the
academic reputation of a college is more important to the athletes than the financial aid offered.
She explains that while both the academic reputation and finances are important factors, family
input has a major impact on the decision to commit to a school. Athletes look at recent
championships/titles the teams have won, as well as the merit and prestige of the coach when
deciding. Just (2014) also reveals that players are willing to follow the head coach or assistant
coach to a new school instead of the school they originally committed to play for. With this piece
of information, Just posed an interesting question: do players commit to the coach, or the school?
He found that it all depends on the athlete. Although Letawsky ruled that finances are not a huge
factor when committing to a college, Pennington declares quite the opposite. In his recent article,
Pennington (2008) points out that money is the parents soul focus while helping their children
commit to a school. Contrary to popular belief, he states that the average NCAA scholarship is
just a fraction of a full ride; the average athletic scholarship in 2008 was $8,707 (Pennington,
2008). “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get
a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000 (Pennington,
2008)?” All these authors point out just some of the many factors that influence an athlete to
commit to a school, however, every athlete weighs their decision on different aspects.
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Players part in Recruiting:
Many high school athletes have a preconceived notion that the ability to play a sport, and
play it well, will be enough to earn a scholarship to college. Van Niekerk (2013) points out that
this is completely wrong. In his article, he advices recruits on what they should be doing their
junior year of high school, within NCAA regulations, in order to be noticed by college coaches.
“Recruitment is just about the coaches contacting you but the players also have to contact the
coaches (Van Niekerk, 2013).” A players first step is to prepare DVDs or other short videos of
them playing their sport in order to send it to coaches. Not only do you want to showcase your
athletic ability, you also want to send in a list of your academic achievements, grades and so on
(Van Niekerk, 2013). Before coaches start contacting athletes, the athlete needs to make a list of
schools they are interested in, in order to prioritize and organize their decision process (Van
Niekerk, 2013). An athlete can also start making unofficial college visits to meet with coaches
and team members their junior year, to get a feel of the social and academic atmospheres of
potential schools. Lastly, getting registered with the NCAA Eligibility center is essential for all
hopeful recruits because it makes sure that athletes are academically eligible to play for an
NCAA college.
Male Vs. Female Recruitment:
The recruiting process is different for males and females. In Popper’s (2014) article, he
states that early recruiting is more prevalent in girls sports than men's sports, simply because
girls mature faster than boys. Over the years, colleges have increased the number of scholarships
offered given to women athletes. This lead to a growing number of coaches looking to fill those
spots they have empty but the talent pools these girls are coming out of have not expanded as
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quickly as the scholarships available have. For instance, there are 322 women's soccer teams in
the highest division, up from 82 in 1990 (Popper, 2014). There are also 204 men's soccer teams -
a steady increase from previous years. “In women's soccer, there are more scholarships than their
are good players,” said Peter Albright, the soccer coach at the University of Richmond. In men's
sports, its the opposite. Westfall (2011) takes the other route and explains the financial difference
between the two genders scholarships. “Men still receive more athletic scholarships than women
but it is more of a closer percentage than what it used to be. In fact, in 2007-2008, 1.6% of men
received athletic scholarships in relation to the 1.1% of women who received them, compared to
2.4% of men and 1.0% of women who received them in 1992-1993 (Westfall, 2011).” Westfall
(2011) predicts that if this ratio continues leveling off at this rate, it will take about 17 years
before men and women receive the same amount of college athletic scholarships.
Entering the Conversation:
As evidence suggests, many athletes and coaches do not follow the standard NCAA rules
when it comes to athletic recruitment. I propose that there should be a plan written that
prospective athletes follow during their high school years of recruitment. Providing this would
help prevent the athletes from basing their decision on factors other than academics and athletic
programs of the institute. The NCAA needs to put out a plan that can be accessed and taught to
those prospective recruits.
If I was in charge of writing the “Recruitment Plan”, I would let the kids know the basics
of what exactly goes on during their recruitment years and what to expect. This includes of
course the ways in which coaches come into contact with an athlete, the rules that they need to
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follow provided by the NCAA, and what factors they need to base their decision off of. This
would ensure that there are no regrets about their decision later on.
All coaches that are looking for recruits try to find new ways to contact an athlete that get
around the NCAA rules. One of the rules that the NCAA states is that a coach cannot call you
until your junior year of high school. Of course, mostly all coaches bend and break this rule.
They will contact athletes through social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, through
email, and through parents and coaches. I propose that the NCAA repeals this rule of when and
how coaches can contact an athletic recruit, allowing coaches to talk to a player at at any time
during the recruiting process. I think this will make the athletes better understand who is
interested in them, as well as keeping both players and coaches out of trouble with the NCAA
board.
When writing up the NCAA rules section of my plan I would focus on what I feel is most
important for the recruit to be aware of. I feel that commitment times and restricted actions need
to be addressed more clearly. Currently in the NCAA, an athlete cannot verbally commit to a
school until they have completed their junior year of high school. Their commitment is official
once they sign the National Letter of Intent; a legal document that is used to indicate a students
athletic commitment to a certain NCAA college and university in the United States; the spring of
their senior year. I think athletes need to realize that there is no rush whatsoever to “commit
early” just because there is this option provided by a recruiter. I had many close friends in high
school that unofficially committed (verbally committed without signing the National Letter of
Intent) to play soccer their sophomore year and ended up not officially committing their senior
year because they changed their mind on playing for the school they committed to early. If a
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coach really wants particular athlete to play for them on their future roster, he will not force a
player to unofficially commit before their senior year. Reiterating the rules to the prospective
athletes will keep them clear of NCAA trouble and keep them from following a coach that is
breaking the rules.
Lastly, I believe that athletes need to know the factors that are the most important to look
at when committing to a school. Student athletes need to base their decision on the academic
programs the college offers and how well the athletic program is, not just the scholarship money
they will be offered. Before students start the recruiting process, many believe that athletic
scholarships are all “full rides”. Unfortunately, that isn't true. Pennington (2008) confirmed that
when he stated that the average athletic scholarship in 2008 was only $8,707. Looking into what
programs and academic opportunities the school provides needs to be the number one priority
because education is the key to getting somewhere in life, not necessarily athletic abilities.
Secondly, an athletes decision needs to be based on the quality of the athletic program they offer,
because that sport will be a large part of the athlete’s college experience as well. Many kids
follow the coach, as pointed out in my literacy review. Getting along with the athletic coach is
important, however, an athlete also needs to feel connected and apart of the team. Overall,
paying close attention to a schools athletic program and academic programs will make an
athletes commitment a stronger one that will most likely stay the same. Decisions should not be
made on the amount of financial aid given, but rather how a particular university will set an
athlete up for the future.
In conclusion, I would love for the NCAA to write a book to hand out to prospective
recruits, in order to better prepare them for their decision making process. I think it would be
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interesting to see how just handing out a book with the necessary tools would change players
thinking. It would also be compelling to see how many recruits would stay at the schools they
originally committed to in high school, ultimately revealing the true quality of the NCAA athletic
recruitment process.
Conclusion (So What?):
So why does it matter if high school recruits are knowledgeable about the recruitment
process? Does it really impact their decision making process when it comes to deciding where to
play in college? To answer these questions one must take into consideration the recruitment
strategies and rules, the factors influencing committing to a school, the players part in the
recruitment process and the difference between male and
female recruitment. I’d answer yes to both of those
questions instantly. I saw too many kids in my high school
years decide on schools too early, and for the wrong
reasons. Most of them ended up de-committing once they
got to signing day. The new question now is, will this book
on recruitment 101 actually make a difference in how
athletes think or will it just be another book they throw on
their desk to “read later?” It would be interesting to see if
the number of commitment changes decreases over the
next few years.
ASSIGNMENT TWO: COLLEGE RECRUITMENT 10
(O'Shaughnessy, Athletic Scholarships by Sport)
Interview with Naval Academy Tennis Star: Audrey Channell
“Your Experience of the Recruitment Process”
1. Tell me a little about your background and what your role is at the Naval Academy?
I'm a 4/C Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, and ultimately, my role is to
train for the next four years, in order to graduate a Naval Officer. My athletic role is to
contribute as much as I can to the Women's Tennis Team, reflecting the prestigious
standards of the Academy on, and off the court.
2. When were you first getting looked at my college coaches and were you aware when it was
going to start?
I was first looked at in April of my junior year of high school - that's when coaches could
verbally call me for the first time. Yes, I was aware of when it was going to start because
the recruiting process is highly competitive - all of the higher ranking recruits know
exactly when the coach can contact them.
3. Did you know much about the recruitment process before your Junior year of high school?
Not really - I wasn't too worried about it. I figured coaches would contact me when they
could - which was the wrong thought process. Coaches need to know that you are
interested in them.
4. Going back to the question before, are there things you would have liked to have been told
before being recruited?
Yes. First - unless you're a national champion or tennis prodigy, full scholarships are
VERY hard to get. I just thought a full ride as common.
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5. What were the factors that made you choose to attend and play tennis at the Naval
Academy?
Well, to be honest, it was the only school that offered me a full scholarship. I wanted to
take that stress of paying for college off of my parents shoulders. The tennis facility at the
Naval Academy is also very nice. With a nice multi-million dollar indoor tennis facility, it
adds a significant level of prestige to the tennis program and is hard to turn down. Other
than that, the Naval Academy is a very different type of college; I was interested in the
unique way of life and doing something different with my life.
6. Was there anyone specifically who helped you through the recruitment process?
My dad. He made sure to keep me on top of contacting coaches and helped me make
tennis recruiting videos on you tube. Most other sports can rely on their club coaches to
talk to college coaches, but it doesn't quite work like that for tennis.
7. What thoughts were going through your head when you signed the National Letter of
Intent?
I didn't... It is different at the Naval Academy. You sign your life as I like to say to the
military. Kidding.... it’s only five years after graduation.
8. Do you have any advice to give to athletes going through the recruitment process?
1. If you have any type of interest in a school, make sure you contact the coach as soon as
possible. Send them a simple email telling them that you're interested in their program
and give them a call.
2.START EARLY - it's never too early to plan your future; and you don't want to be stuck
your senior year of high-school still not committed to a school.
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3. Don't expect any type of scholarship! A lot of schools have little or no funding when it
comes to less popular sports, and you have to be one of the top recruits to get any amount
of money. Make sure to stay on top of your academics because the coach may be able to
provide a partial academic scholarship as well.
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Reference List
Channell, A. ( Febuary, 2014). Assignment One Observations: Friday Night Lights.
Channell, A. (2014, March 27). Interview by A Channell. Experience with the recruitment
process.
Curtis, B. (2012, August). The negotiation. Texas Monthly. Retrieved from http://
www.texasmonthly.com/story/negotiation
Just, D. (2014, January 04). Inside the 'business' of college football recruiting. Retrieved from
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/high-schools/football-news/headlines/20140128-
signing-day-college-coaching-changes-can-force-recruits-to-scramble.ece
Letawsky, N. (2003, December 1). Factors influencing the college selection process of student-
athletes: are their factors similar to non-athletes. College Student Journal, 37(4),
Retrieved from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/College-Student-Journal/
112720427.html
O'Shaughnessy, L. (Designer). (2013, January 25). Athletic Scholarships by Sport [Web
Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.thecollegesolution.com/where-the-full-ride-
sports-scholarships-are/
Pennington, B. (2008, March 08). Expectations lose to reality of sports scholarships. The New
York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/
10scholarships.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
Popper, N. (2014, January 26). Committing to play for a college, then starting 9th grade. The
New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/sports/
committing-to-play-for-a-college-then-starting-9th-grade.html?_r=0
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Staples, A. (2013, June 17). The case against the letter of intent. Retrieved from http://
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1207793/index.htm
Talty, J. (2011, December 15). How social media affects college athletics. Retrieved from http://
www.ibtimes.com/how-social-media-affects-college-athletics-383910
Van Niekerk, A. (2013, January 26). High school juniors and the ncaa. Retrieved from http://
www.examiner.com/article/high-school-juniors-and-the-ncaa
Westfall, L. (2011, July 15). Athletic scholarships - who gets them and how many are there ?.
Retrieved from http://www.fastweb.com/student-news/articles/3197-athletic-
scholarships-who-gets-them-and-how-many-are-there
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