NCSA Blog

It doesn’t matter how good you are. If you don’t get past the NCAA Eligibility Center (formerly known as the NCAA Clearinghouse), you’re not playing anywhere. Case in point, incoming Minnesota freshman quarterback MarQueis Gray. From a Myron Medcalf article in Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

“MarQueis Gray is not with us at this time, due to an NCAA Eligibility Center [formerly the NCAA Clearinghouse] issue,” Gophers coach Tim Brewster said in a statement. “We’re hopeful, for MarQueis’ sake, that this issue will be resolved.”

You can register online at any time, though the Eligibility Center recommends you do so your junior year. For Division I and II, the Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete provides useful information regarding the high school courses you must complete, the minimum grade-point average for participation, as well as what your test scores must be at.

This further emphasizes the reason to start the recruiting process early – so you can plan your coursework according to what the NCAA requires to participate in intercollegiate athletics. I talked to a father yesterday whose son needs to take an extra semester of math (you need to take 3 years worth if you want to play Div. I) because he didn’t realize he needed that much for the NCAA. As a result, rather than enjoying the summer before college, he has to take summer school.

Need I say more?

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. 
 

I just watched the video from Brian Davidson’s post below. If you haven’t seen it yet, read the post and watch the video here.

As funny and outlandish some of the things these coaches say are, there’s definitely some truth to take away. If you play the sports college recruiting “game” wisely, college coaches should be fighting over you and will go to great lengths to get you to come to their college.

But here’s the thing. Once you lace up those sneakers, put on the practice jersey and step out onto the field/court/etc., in most cases, you’ll quickly find out that you’re not the program’s savior afterall. An article about Blaine Gabbert, who was a five star recruit in high school, is a perfect example of this. From the University of Missouri’s student newspaper, The Maneater:

As a tall and sturdy 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound freshman, Gabbert’s high school performance was nothing less than extraordinary.

His All-American status and five-star recruit ranking earned him a spot on the Missouri roster, but playing time is hard to come by on this team.

“He’s the most physically gifted quarterback to come out of high school that I’ve seen in six years as far as size, speed, arm strength and release,” said David Yost, quarterback coach and recruitment coordinator. “If you were to build a quarterback, you would build a guy like Blaine Gabbert.”

For this season, Gabbert waits behind senior quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Chase Patton. With the publicity of his high school football days gone, Gabbert must wait his turn on the bench. …

The same story holds true to Jimmy Clausen last year on Notre Dame. Clausen, who was considered by many as the No. 1 prospect for the class of 2007, wasn’t announced as the starter once the season began. And even when he took over that role, he struggled, only passing for 1,254 yards, with 7 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.

It’s a whole different game in college. You might have been a dominant high school player, but if you’re playing in college, chances are that your entire team is made up of former dominant high school players.

So when you step on to the playing surface for the first time, check your ego at the door, realize you have a lot of learning to do and eventually, you can become a dominant college player!

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!

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.

You can be extremely talented so as to be ranked as the 13^th (out of 1.1 million+) high school football players in the country, and still not receive an athletic scholarship. Consider the case of Josh Jarboe. Two days before he was to begin his freshman football season, he was dismissed from the University of Oklahoma Sooners. Why? As written on the ESPN website, “Earlier this week, Jarboe was the subject of a 74-second video posted on YouTube. Jarboe’s obscenity-laced rap included references to shooting people and guns.”

Be careful what is published on the internet about you. Run from any situation that will make a college coach question your character. From the day you are recruited by a college coach, you are a reflection of that program recruiting you. Make sure your actions reflect favorably on that coach and institution, or they will drop you quickly.

 The NCAA has always tried to walk the fine line between marketing their sporting events while not violating their amateurism principles.  That line will again be tested thanks in part to a recent Supreme Court decision that essentially ruled that an entity does not own the rights to statistics and names that are in the public domain.  The ruling spurred CBSSports.com to change their College Football Fantasy League’s naming of players. For the first time they will use the actual players names instead of the previous generic tags. This season FLORIDA QB will be replaced with more recognizable Tim Tebow.  CBS believes this will be a huge boost to its Fantasy Sports Division.

NCAA spokesman, Bob Williams, confirmed that they had sent a letter to CBS informing them that their bylaws were being violated but given the added exposure it could bring to the player they would not stand in their way.

“We are concerned with protecting the amateur status of the student athlete,” Mr. Williams says, but conceded that their bylaws were created in a era “before new media.” do not properly address a situation like this. Still, he warned that the NCAA will be watching closely.

This seems to open Pandora’s box for the NCAA.  They don’t want to see their athletes exploited for profit, but likely don’t have any legal ground to stand on.  They have been backed into a corner and it seems the only solution is to work with CBS for now, but what will happen when other companies jump on the bandwagon?

 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. 

 They call it “The U.”  Since the early 80’s the Miami Hurricanes have been one of the dominant programs in college football.  During that time they have also taken their fair share of criticism for a variety of topics.  Among those topics is the charge that the school has sacrificed their academic standards for athletic success. 

More fuel was thrown on the fire as yesterday’s Miami Herald reports that at least three of their incoming recruits will have to take a detour to prep school for failing to qualify. Coach Randy Shannon admits that “about six” of their 33 recruits have yet to be cleared by the NCAA Eligibility Center.  Despite their incredible athletic talent they will have to wait to show it off for at least one year.

Recruits need to be aware of the requirements to be eligible to compete as freshmen.  It is never too early to start reading the NCAA’s Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete.  It summarizes the rules that every recruit needs to understand including the proper core courses that every potential recruit needs to pass.  Don’t let your self fall into the same trap by failing to prepare!

 The NCAA is always playing catch up to coaches who are looking for any advantage in recruiting.  They ban text messaging and coaches soon find a new way get their message across to recruits.  In the last few years camps have become an increasingly important evaluation tool for coaches.  ESPN’s Bruce Feldman wrote a piece for the magazine detailing the trend.

In the past, holding camp meant eager high school players could get some tips and college coaches could collect some easy pay on the side. Then a few schools began using camps to evaluate the skills and coachability of recruits. Five years ago, Rutgers set up shop way off campus-in Florida-moving the NCAA to forbid schools from holding camps outside of their state lines. So the Scarlet Knights-along with schools like Oklahoma State, Rice and Southern Miss-put together roving seminars in their states. “It works great because with the rising cost of gas, lots of kids and their coaches can’t make long drives to campus,” says USM coach Tony Hughes.

Another trick: full-pad camps. Many prep governing bodies limit the number of live practices. But coaches noticed that those rules don’t address full-contact college camps. Now prep coaches can cram in extra practice time, while recruiters get a good gander at prospects in pads. “It’s a tremendous draw,” one assistant says.

The NCAA forbids invite-only camps, but some schools stay within the rules by barely advertising certain sessions and relying on word of mouth to attract top talent. Florida stages Friday Night Lights on July 18, an event in which many of the nation’s top recruits will compete on UF’s field. At USC’s Rising Stars Camp in June, Pete Carroll hosted blue-chippers from Arizona, Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee.

And in a copycat industry, that means the stakes have grown to where coaches now have to recruit kids just to come to their camps. Want to bet the NCAA is watching?

That is exactly why athletes need to be proactively contacting schools to find out which camps to attend.  They can not afford to waste valuable time and resources attending the wrong camps.  Trying to catch a coach’s eye at a camp could end up being a huge mistake if you miss attending a camp for a school that is actively recruiting you.  You need to find out where you qualify!