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Beyond The Ball — football recruiting
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Recruiting Checklist
Original Information From NCSA.com Managing your recruiting and staying on top of the college athletic recruiting process can be stressful. Not only do athletes have to stay mindful of their recruiting season, they also have to take steps to ensure they’re being proactive in the offseason. Recruiting checklists for the college bound student athlete—complete with important dates and helpful tips—so you know exactly what to do every step of the way during each season. Whether you’re gearing up for a new athletic recruiting season or taking time to make strides in the offseason, follow these steps to ensure you find the best athletic, academic, social and financial college fit. Insider Tip: Check out NCSA’s fall recruiting checklists, winter recruiting checklists and spring recruiting checklists to keep track of your to-dos during each season. Then, if you’re interested in competing at the NCAA D1 or D2 level, review our NCAA eligibility center checklist to ensure you’re maintaining your academic eligibility and amateurism status. Visiting colleges is a very important part of the recruiting process. Do you like the feel of the campus? How’s the climate? Can you see yourself living here for four years? As a student-athlete, you may go on both official and unofficial college visits, although official visits are becoming less and less common. You can (and should) start taking unofficial visits as soon as possible. Official visits, however, cannot occur until your senior year. There are other strict rules for both types of visit, so make sure you’re following the proper steps for setting each up. Learn more about official and unofficial visits. As you move through the recruiting process, the list of 50-plus schools you started with will naturally start to dwindle. It will be fairly obvious when a coach isn’t interested in recruiting you, and you can remove that school from your list within your online recruiting profile. Coaches who are interested will be sending personalized letters, emails, calling you at home, coming to see you play specifically and inviting you on an official visit. Just receiving a letter from the admissions office, a questionnaire from the coach if or a coach watches you play in a game doesn’t mean you’re being recruited. Realizing what schools are truly considering you will allow you to focus your time and effort on building relationships with those coaches. The last thing you want to think about when you’re trying to get recruited is probably deadlines and paperwork, but if you don’t pay attention to the important dates, you’ll most likely lose your chance to compete in college. There are seven main parts to the application process to pay attention to: Athletic scholarship amounts differ greatly—from division to division, sport to sport and school to school. While most student-athletes strive for a full-ride scholarship, the reality is that only 1 percent actually receive one, and they’re usually only offered to those who play head count sports (DI basketball and DI-A football for men; DI basketball, tennis, volleyball and gymnastics for women). The majority of student-athletes who are offered scholarships will be offered a percentage of the total cost, so it’s important to compare each package and—when possible—use them to find your best financial aid package at your top school.
Going on unofficial and official college visits
Updating your target list of schools
Stay on top of application deadlines and processes
Compare and negotiation your athletic scholarship offers
Unofficial Visits - Recruiting
There's a lot to consider before you start planning your unofficial visits. Due to the new NCAA recruiting rule changes (effective May 1, 2019), how you plan your unofficial visits will be different depending on your goals for the visit, your age and the division level of the school. If you’re visiting DII, DIII and NAIA schools, you won’t be impacted by the NCAA recruiting rule changes—they are only applicable for DI schools. This means that, no matter your age, you can arrange the unofficial visit with the athletic department or coach, and you can speak with the coach while you’re on campus. If you’re interested in visiting DI schools, you can’t arrange the visit with the athletic department—or talk about recruiting with the coach while you’re there—until August 1 of your junior year of high school. If you’re an upperclassman visiting D1 schools, or a recruit visiting schools at the other division levels, you can use your unofficial visit as a chance to advance your recruiting with the coach at that school. To do so, you need to make sure that the schools you’re visiting offer real recruiting opportunities. Ask yourself each of the following questions before you set up the visit: If you answered “yes” to most of these questions, you’re in a great position. Most importantly, you want to ensure that you have been in communication with the college coach. You don’t want to waste your time visiting a school that may not be a realistic recruiting opportunity for you. To set up your visit, call the coach and let them know you’re interested in seeing the campus. Ask them what dates they would be available to meet you and your family. Some recruits lean heavily on their high school or club coach to help them set up unofficial visits with college coaches. If you’re an underclassman interested in D1 schools, there are a few different routes you can go. First, you can take unofficial visits to those D1 schools as if you were a regular student. Tour the library and the campus at large. Check out the town. Ask questions, take notes and determine what you like about the campus. This can help you better understand what you’re looking for in a school, so you can refine your target list. Don’t forget to check out some DII, DIII and NAIA schools—you never know what your best fit will be until you explore the different options available! Insider Tip: There are a few different ways unofficial visits can “pay for themselves.” First, schedule back-to-back visits with schools that are located close to each other. Second, set up visits with schools in cities you’re already visiting. For example, if you have a tournament in the Kansas City area, consider visiting the University of Kansas in Lawrence if you have been in communication with that coach. While every school is a little bit different, most coaches will take some time to speak with you and your parents/guardians about the school and their athletic program. Come prepared with questions for the coach and use this opportunity to get them answered. Then, the coach may take you on a tour of the athletic facilities. The rest of the time will be up to you to arrange a tour of the campus and possibly meet with an academic adviser. You and your family may also be invited to attend a home sporting event. While unofficial visits are a great way to get to know a coach and the athletic program better, they also give you a chance to really experience the college campus. Can you picture yourself living there for four years? Here are a few key ways to familiarize yourself with the college campus during your visit: As you’re checking each of these spots off your list, take a couple minutes to write down your thoughts. It might seem trivial at the moment, but as you visit schools throughout the year, they can all start to blend to together. You can always refer back to your notes later on when you’re working on narrowing down your target list of schools. According to the NCAA unofficial visit rules, you are allowed to stay on campus with an enrolled student, but there are some specific rules the institution must follow based on its division level. For DI and DII schools, recruits can stay in an enrolled student’s dorm; however, the athlete must pay the regular institutional rate for that lodging. DIII recruits can stay with currently enrolled students in their dorm if that housing option is available to all students who visit the school, athletes and non-athletes alike. DIII schools can also pay for a student-athlete’s housing during an unofficial visit if they provide housing for every prospective student. Your parents/guardians will still need to find their own accommodations. When you go on your unofficial visit, one of your top priorities should be to ask the coach any questions you have about the school and the program. Before you go, write down your questions and keep adding to the list throughout your visit. When it’s time to talk to the coach, you’ll have your list ready to go, rather than trying to come up with questions on the spot. Here some examples of questions you might want to ask: A lot of recruits ask us what to wear, and our best piece of advice is to err on the side of overdressing, rather than underdressing. You want to look neat and clean throughout your entire trip. For men, bring a collared shirt with nice jeans or khakis. For women, skirt, dress, nice slacks or jeans are acceptable. Avoid wearing sweatshirts, sweatpants, hats, flip flops and ripped jeans. Bring athletic clothes and shoes in case you get invited to work out with the team. For all D1 sports—minus men’s basketball—athletes are not allowed to try out for a team during a visit; however, the team captain can organize a team workout, which recruits can join if the coach is not present. Similarly, at DIII schools, recruits can join in an unofficial team workout. For Division I men’s basketball and all DII sports, recruits are able to take part in tryouts during visits. When you get home, write the coach a “thank you” note. Tell the coach what you liked about the school and thank them for their time. You can also include a brief list of where you’ll be playing next so they can watch you in person. Not only does this show the coach that you are a thoughtful, courteous athlete, but it will keep you top-of-mind as the coach works on creating their roster.
Unofficial visits will be a little different based on your age, desired division level and recruiting journey
What happens on an unofficial visit
What are the NCAA unofficial visit rules?
Questions to ask the coach during your unofficial visit
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What to wear on an unofficial visit
After your unofficial visit: The coach follow-up
NCAA Eligibility Requirements
For 75 percent of college student-athletes, they will have no issue meeting the academic minimums laid out by the NCAA. That said, just because you are a good student doesn’t mean you can assume you will meet the academic eligibility rules. Every year, student-athletes with 3.5+ GPAs and honors courses are declared academically ineligible due to not meeting one of the following NCAA eligibility requirements. The cornerstone of the amateurism rules is that student-athletes are not allowed to have received prize money (beyond the reimbursement for participation); they can’t have signed a contract with or receive benefits from an agent; they can’t receive money for promotion of products or services; and they are not allowed to make money by use of their athletic ability or fame. Additionally, student-athletes are prohibited from delaying their full-time collegiate enrollment to compete in organized sports. Insider Tip: The NCAA does not answer questions about what you can and can’t do regarding amateurism. If you have questions about maintaining your amateurism status, you can get more information on our amateurism rules page. If you are enrolling BEFORE August 1, 2018 (Class of 2017) If you are enrolling AFTER August 1, 2018 (Class of 2018 and later) Division III schools are responsible for setting their own academic eligibility rules. If you are going to be competing for a DIII institution, or if you are unsure what division level you’ll be competing at, you can start with a free NCAA Profile page. If you do decide to pursue a DI or DII program, you can always transition to a Certification Account later. The NCAA will only review an athlete’s eligibility status if their status has been requested by a DI or DII college. This process will begin once you graduate high school, complete a minimum of 16 core courses—with a minimum 2.3 GPA average in these courses—and earn a qualifying ACT or SAT test score. You also need to request your final amateurism certification from the NCAA Eligibility Center. Once the NCAA reviews your account, they will assign you an “Academic Status.” Here are the various statuses you could receive and what they mean:
NCAA academic requirements
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NCAA amateurism requirements
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Division I eligibility requirements
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Division II eligibility requirements
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Division III eligibility requirements
Academic status: What your academic status with the NCAA means