NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

As someone who went to a small academic-focused Div. II university, I’ve heard it time and again.

“Athletics bring down the quality of this school.”

Ooo! That hurts. And I heard this A LOT, especially during my senior year, when the school proposed a mandatory athletic fee for students.

As a member of the Editorial Board of the student newspaper, I wrote an article supporting the fee. I, of course, stated the obvious – teams won’t have to fight over fields, the new facilities will help improve the teams themselves, and compared with other schools, our fee was the lowest. My biggest challenge, though, was to try to persuade the common student, the student who says the above quote. This is what I wrote to get that done:

The most prevalent concern, however, is that the results of the athletic fee will have no effect on the common student. Fact is, Truman athletic facilities affect the University’s appearance to others. We don’t want others to look at the condition of these locales and think we’re a second-rate institution - because we’re not.

Thankfully, the athletic fee passed … barely (55% to 45%). But if I had Div. III Adrian College (Mich.) on my side, I could have better shown how athletics can dramatically improve a school. During the last three years, enrollment has increased by more than 500 students to almost 1,500. But the school’s not sacrificing quality for quantity. From the article in the American Chronicle:

The additional revenues from enrollment have also helped increase Adrian’s operating budget by $20 million and have led to honored commitments to hire new faculty, renovate three academic buildings and expand the student dining hall. No doubt they´ve improved the quality of the food to take the nutritional concerns of the athletes into account.

According to the Chronicle story … and a previous article in the Detroit News from last year college spokespersons claim that the emphasis on recruiting athletes has not had a negative impact on the academic quality of the student body. The Detroit News piece reported that the freshman class entering in September 2006 had a higher academic profile than the previous class, and that the percentage of freshmen who returned to second semester jumped from 77 to 93 — the highest retention rate in the school’s history.

So if you’re going to be playing at a school where sports isn’t exactly top priority among the student body, just remember how athletics at Adrian College is making a difference. Whether you know it or not, you’ll be doing the same.

NCSA’s Exclusive Rankings System Assesses Academics, Athletics and Student-Athlete Graduation Rates at Four-Year Colleges

August 25, 2008 (Chicago, IL) – The National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) is pleased to announce the release of our 6th Annual NCSA Collegiate Power Rankings.
 
NCSA’s 2008 Collegiate Power Rankings rate colleges and universities comprehensively based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength and athletic prowess of the university. The institutions posted in the 2008 Power Rankings are in an elite group of less than 6% of colleges and universities across the nation.
 
“With so many outstanding colleges and universities to choose from, NCSA’s power rankings objectively help student-athletes compare collegiate opportunities so they know how institutions stack up pound for pound,” said NCSA Founder Chris Krause. “With this ranking, it shows us which colleges not only places importance on winning games, but on academics and graduating their student-athletes.”
 
The Collegiate Power Rankings from NCSA are calculated for each college and university at the NCAA Division I, II and III levels by averaging the U.S. News & World Report ranking, the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup ranking and the NCAA student-athlete graduation rate of each college/university. The collegiate power rankings based off of the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup rating evaluates the strength of NCAA athletic departments, while the U.S. News & World Report rating recognizes institutions of academic excellence. The student-athlete graduation rates are based on those provided by the NCAA.   New for 2008, NCSA distinguished the top national and liberal arts colleges from the list of comprehensive colleges.
 
In addition to the Collegiate Power Rankings, NCSA publishes recruiting guidelines and provides education to the nation’s top clubs, camps, and combines to high school athletic directors, coaches and families of student-athletes who are interested in competing at the next level.
 
“The backbone of NCSA is education,” said Krause.  “The NCSA staff consists of more than 70 former collegiate athletes and college coaches whose focus is to match college coaches with qualified and committed student athletes, maximizing their collegiate recruiting potential.” 

Top 10 Overall

1. Williams College
2. Amherst College
3. Middlebury College
4. Washington University in St. Louis
5. Stanford University
6. Duke University
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. Tufts University
9. (tie) Emory University
9. (tie) Princeton University 
 

Division I

1. Stanford University
2. Duke University
3. Princeton University
4. Harvard University
5. University of Notre Dame
6. University of Pennsylvania
7. Northwestern University
8. (tie) Cornell University
8. (tie) Yale University
10. Georgetown University
 

Division II

Division III

1. Williams College
2. Amherst College
3. Middlebury College
4. Washington University in St. Louis
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Tufts University
7. Emory University
8. Haverford College
9. John Hopkins University
10. Washington and Lee University

More than 35,000 college coaches and more than 1,700 colleges and universities use NCSA to meet their recruiting needs. NCSA annually tracks more than 100,000 of the top student athletes in 25 sports who will be making their way on to college rosters with the ultimate goal of earning a college degree.
 
Please visit www.ncsasports.org/about-ncsa/power-rankings for a complete overall ranking list, as well as rankings by division level.  And, if you’re still one of those athletes who has not registered with NCSA to be evaluated by the recognized leaders in collegiate sports recruiting, click here. 
 

Among the many reasons to enter the college sports recruiting process earning an athletic scholarship to pay for college is always at the top of the list. Playing in college offsets the burden of paying for college. After all, who wants to be paying for college 10 years after they graduate because of student loans? In May 2007, testimony before US congress revealed that a quarter of all students graduate with too much debt to pay back on a starting teachers salary. That is way too high.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be knowledgeable in the ways of Financial Aid?

I earned my MBA from one of the top business schools in the country and traded sophisticated financial instruments for over 20 years. I thought I could figure this financial aid thing out. I couldn’t. I needed help. I’m very glad I invested in professional advice that helped maximize the grants and scholarships my daughter received. One of the great things about NCSA is that their advice on how to maximize scholarship dollars actually works. And it continues to work. Except for the less than 1% of college athletes who have “full rides” (tuition, books, room & board, fees, transportation), most families must negotiate their financial aid package on an annual basis. Paying for that expert advice helped - a lot! As she enters her junior year, my daughter has received over $135,000 in financial aid. Not one penny of that is a student loan. It’s all grants that don’t have to be paid back. Do you think I’m happy with the professional advice I received? My return on that investment was over 6700.00 per cent!

The first few weeks of the high school football season is when a lot of recruits who are on the edge of Division I are eagerly waiting to hear from schools if they will receive a scholarship.  Most of the final offers will be gone in a few weeks and a lot of recruits’ eyes will turn to Division I-AA and Division II.

This weekend offers recruits nationwide a unique chance to examine just what it means to play at the lower levels.  CBS Sports will be broadcasting the season opener for defending DivisionII champion Valdosta State against in state rival Fort Valley State at 8 pm EST. 

Voldosta State Athletic Director Herb Reinhard is excited for the added spotlight.

“We’re showing our institutions and student-athletes in a positive light and maximizing the quality of Division II football. It’s an outstanding quality of football - we have great facilities, great crowds and great atmosphere around the country in Division II.”

The TV exposure will continue on throughout the season and recruits will get a chance to realize that big time football exists outside of the BCS.

Do you think the college athletic recruiting process should provide you with the highest number of opportunities? Do you think understanding college athletics recruiting can reveal the perfect college fit for you? How do you go about increasing your opportunities? What system should you employ to make sure you are selecting the right opportunity for you?

College coaches begin by initially contacting 1,000 or 2,000 or even 10,000 (depending on the sport) student athletes by sending them camp brochures, emails, questionnaires, etc. Those same college coaches are clearly not recruiting all of those student-athletes. Why do they start with such a large pool? They are following the advice of Marketing 101: the more kids who they find out about, the better chance they’ll find the really quality student-athlete who will help their program. If that’s a good strategy for college coaches, shouldn’t a student-athlete use the same strategy? Doing so will increase your number of opportunities.

A savvy student-athlete will learn as early as freshman year that they need to develop trust-based relationships with college coaches. This can only happen through communication. Since the NCAA restricts the amount and timing of contacts initiated by college coaches, the student-athlete must be proactive. Unfortunately, the 14 or 15 year old student-athlete doesn’t have the life experiences or the maturity to begin building relationships with adults. The good news is they can be trained in that skill set. It’s like interviewing for a job. 

College recruiting boils down to trust-based relationships between college coaches and student-athletes. What college coach is going to make a significant investment in a student-athlete unless they know a lot more about that student-athlete than her/his performance on the playing field?

If you agree with playing the numbers game and building trust-based relationships with college coaches, have you thought about how you would do that? If you’re a student-athlete reading this, do you think your parents can do this for you? If so, you better forget about playing sports in college. Do you think your coach can do this for you? Again, if so, you better forget about finding the perfect college fit for you. You are the one that needs to take charge. You can only do that if you develop the skill set to do so. Who will teach you that?

Finally, if you do all of the above correctly, how do you determine the right fit? There are many different factors including: academic quality of the school, size of school, location of school, financial aid package, level of competition, opportunity to play early, getting along with the coaching staff and players, receiving tutoring help (if necessary), etc. There is a way to logically sort out all of those factors. If you need help, go here.

The secret to College Athletic Recruiting success boils down to setting and achieving goals. To become a college student athlete, a parent should encourage their youngster to write down their goals. Then parents should support their children in achieving those written goals.

If you want an example of how this works, one need look no further than swimmer Michael Phelps who just earned his 8^th Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympics. I was struck by this Michael Phelps quote I read in Jay Mariotti’s column in the Chicago Sun Times: Phelps said, “The reason I was so emotional, I’ve dreamed a lot of things and I’ve written down a lot of goals but this one was the biggest one I ever wrote down. Everything was accomplished,”

Did you catch that? He wrote down that he would win 8 gold medals. Then he won them. Now, did the mere writing down of the goal make the gold medals inevitable? Of course not. The execution is the hard part. The perseverance to do the lonely work that allowed him to reach those goals was equally as important as stating the goal. But one thing a student-athlete should understand, the human brain has a magnificent capacity for helping you keep focused on that hard work if you give it direction. Writing down goals allows one to stay on task to achieve those goals.

Do you want to set realistic and achievable goals? Would you like to know how to put yourself in a position to be recruited to play college sports? Then get some expert advice. You can begin that process at NCSA.

As the recruiting class of 2009 gets ready to begin their senior season I’m starting to get the question of “When should I commit?” more and more often. Most recruits will enter into a period of confusion as to when they should decide between their present options and commit, or to continue to try and find a school that will be a better fit for them in the long run.

The recruiting process is tricky; most families don’t have a strong grasp as to what the timeline is truly like for recruits. The first thing you must understand is that each division operates off a slightly different timeline. It’s important that you find out what division level you are capable of playing at first and foremost. Once you have determined what division levels you should be targeting it’s time to find out more about when most recruits at that particular level decide to commit.

An easy guide to knowing when each division level looks to gain verbal commitments from their recruits is posted below.

D1

Most division 1-A schools begin to offer players at some point in their junior year, with the early offers beginning at the start of their junior year in September and the bulk of offers coming during the spring and summer. If you currently have interest from division schools, it’s important you ask direct questions about how many other recruits they have offered at your position and when they plan on making a decision on you. Typically if you don’t gain an offer by the end of September during your senior season, it’s not likely one will be coming. Schools at this level love to get decisions from their players as early as possible. Unless you’re one of the top recruits in the country at your position, I would recommend coming to a decision either before your senior year starts or shortly there after.

D1-AA

Division 1-AA schools have an accelerated timeline as well. They typically start offering players a little bit later than 1-A schools, most of their early offers will come during the spring of a players junior year, with the bulk coming during the summer and early fall. Most schools at this level hope to finish out their class or be close to it by the close of the senior season.

D2/NAIA

D2 and NAIA programs offer players a little bit of breathing room in terms of making a decision. Most schools will not extend official offers until after a player’s senior season, although expressed interest in offering is typically made early on in the senior year. Most players will have plenty of time to make winter visits before coming to a decision on where to play.

D3

When deciding to commit to a D3 school I recommend you take your time. With no athletic scholarship money available at this level, recruits will need to wait on finical aid packages are set in order to see what the cost of attendance will be. Most aid packages will not be given out until after the first of the year during a player senior season. This obviously gives players plenty of time to figure out which option is the best fit for them.

I would love to get some feedback from all the recruits out there on how close they are to making a decision and if they have any helpful advice for other recruits, if so please comment below.

Are you a student-athlete who is on a mission to play college sports? Are you a student-athlete who has played your sport for years? Imagine your first sport season after high school and you’re not playing. What would that feel like?

Most student athletes and their families are unaware of how early college recruiting begins. Or the reasons it begins so early. The problem is that 93% of high school students who go on to college are applying through the academic door. They begin researching colleges late in their junior year or early in their senior year. They listen to the high school guidance counselor who advises them to apply to several schools. They place these schools into 3 categories: 1) Reach schools (if I’m lucky, I’ll get in.) 2) Stretch schools (I’m pretty sure I’d get accepted to half of these I apply to.) and 3) safe schools (I’ll get in no matter what.) Make sure you have all of your applications in before Christmas break.

Unfortunately, student-athletes and their families think that college athletic recruiting operates along the same time-line. It doesn’t!  If you wish to apply through the athletic door, you need to understand the different calendars and timelines.

Different sports have different recruiting calendars and time-lines. However, all sports have the following in common:

1. College coaches would love to find out about you early. In some sports that’s as early as 7^th and 8^th grade, other sports it’s by 10^th grade. Waiting until the beginning of junior year begins to reduce your opportunities.
2. A college student athlete has a certain athletic profile. For example, in baseball, a student athlete needs to have a certain 60-yard dash time, a certain overhand throwing velocity, a certain bat-speed, etc. For very competitive schools, those metrics need to be achieved by the end of junior year. If not, many college coaches will refuse to evaluate a student-athlete. It takes time to develop physically and student-athletes need to train to that level early to ensure they reach that level on time.
3. College coaches only give scholarship money to student-athletes they know, like, and trust. Those trust-based relationships take time to build. Because of the recruiting restrictions placed on college coaches, it’s important that a student-athlete begin to build those relationships as a freshman. Most don’t know how to go about that.

If you’re serious about being a college student-athlete, you need to implement that game plan that will get you there. Knowing what to do is as important as doing it. If you don’t know what to do, you should contact an expert for an evaluation. You can do that at NCSA.

 Do you know anyone who plays a sport at NCAA Division II Claflin University (S.C.)?

I guarantee that you don’t. Well, that promise holds true until Sept. 9.

The Panthers were granted full NCAA Division II status yesterday, after completing a three-year term as a provisionary member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. 

But just because Claflin is new to the NCAA party doesn’t mean they’re going to stand in the dark corner. From the TandD.com:

“Last year, Claflin had 20-win seasons in men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball. Plus, the men’s basketball team (24-2) finished with the best record among HBCUs. Now, with its newly acquired Division II status, Claflin hopes to build on previous success.”

To learn more about athletics at this historically black college in Orangeburg, SC, click here. 

 Squandered opportunities can haunt a recruit for years.  The Pittsburgh Post Gazette checked in with one of college football’s most notorious recruits, Willie Williams, to detail his last chance. You may remember Willie as the high profile recruit who went to Miami after being arrested a staggering 11 times in high school.  After the Hurricanes stuck their neck out for him, he rewarded the school by promptly transferring to Louisville after discipline issues arose.  Louisville was in turn rewarded with an embarrassing failed drug test.

So Willie is down to his last chance at small Division II Glenville State in West Virginia.  He will be senior on Scholarship in the fall and plans to graduate.

The former Parade All-American is taking his game to Division II Glenville State in West Virginia, a place known for giving second chances to tarnished athletes.

Miami and Louisville it’s not. The hilltop college is in a town of 1,500 people and in a county with only two grocery stores and four gas stations. The nearest big city, Pittsburgh, is 157 miles to the north.

“I’m using that to my advantage,” Williams said. “It’s best sometimes to fly under the radar. You’ll get more things accomplished.

Williams said there were no promises exchanged with Fiddler like those made — and later broken — with Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich.

“It was just like ‘Willie, you know what you’ve got to do,’” Williams said.

“I realize the mistakes I’ve made in the past. All I can do is change and grow from it. Coach talked to me like I was a grown man. I interpret that better than a promise or something because he came to me like it was man to man.”

Welcoming players who were rejected by other colleges for past indiscretions has been well documented in West Virginia.

The poster child is Rand native Randy Moss, who lost scholarships at Notre Dame and Florida State before starring at Marshall a decade ago. There’s also Ahmad Bradshaw, who was kicked off the Virginia football team and flourished at Marshall.

Now, there’s Williams, who knows this is the end of the line.

Behave and perform.

NFL teams might be watching, and even then, they’ll have reservations about his character.

I’m all for second chances, but I want everyone out there to realize that 3^rd chances are rare.  Willie has been given one last get of jail free card, but is the exception due to his NFL talent.  Athletes need to remember to not waste their first chance because they probably won’t be as lucky as Willie Williams.