draft one - assignment two

Assignment Two: College Recruitment

Amelia Mohr Channell

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

ASSIGNMENT TWO: COLLEGE RECRUITMENT 1

Needs to be longer 2500 words

Introduction:

I am tired of hearing about high school recruits make the wrong decision on where they

are committing to, too early. Its 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. 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.

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.

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.


I am tired of hearing how high school recruits are making the wrong decision.

Needs a filler for the end. “ I hope you learn as much as I have over this paper”

Add something about Friday Night Lights and how it relates to committing early.

Athletic Scholarships: Financial aid given to athletes, based on their athletic ability and predicted

success.

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

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 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,


Add his year so it doesnt sound like the word Just and more of the Name Just.

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.

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 women's


Simplify the terms and elaborate more on what I mean by leading to a growing number of coaches chasing talent pools that hae not expanded at the same rate.

sports scholarships they offer, leading to a growing number of coaches chasing talent pools that

have not expanded at the same rate. 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 believe that there should be a plan that prospective

athletes follow during their high school years of recruitment, in order to 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


Needs a better ending statement to sum it all up like the other paragraphs.

Chop up. Too long. Make it more clear.

Split this up. And say at the end I say this so people will not regret their decision later on.

follow provided by the NCAA, and what factors they need to base their decision off of, so there

are no regrets 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 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 coach really wants particular athlete to play for them on their future


Put the two terms offically committed and unofficially commited in lit review so they can be better understood.

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

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.


End it more with a summary rather than just a fact.

Works Cited

Channell, A. ( Febuary, 2014). Assignment One Observations: Friday Night Lights.

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

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

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


http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/negotiation




http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/high-schools/football-news/headlines/20140128-signing-day-college-coaching-changes-can-force-recruits-to-scramble.ece




http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/College-Student-Journal/112720427.html




http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&




http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/sports/committing-to-play-for-a-college-then-starting-9th-grade.html?_r=0




http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1207793/index.htm




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


http://www.examiner.com/article/high-school-juniors-and-the-ncaa




http://www.fastweb.com/student-news/articles/3197-athletic-scholarships-who-gets-them-and-how-many-are-there




draft one - assignment two

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