What do you want out of your college experience?
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Before making your college decision, you really need to think hard about what you want to get out of your college experience. When bringing this up, I am not just talking about athletics and academics. There is so much more to the college experience. Things like campus life, dorms, male to female ratio, graduation rates, location, and many other things that you need to think about before calling it a day on your future college.
The reason why I think this is so important is because if you want to make as informed of a decision as you can, you need to try and take this all into account. Obviously if there is one Division I offer on the table and that is the level you want to play at, things may be easier. But if there are a host of schools showing you interest, then this will make it easier to eventually come to a final decision.
The importance of your ACT/SAT score in athletic recruiting
While I recently talked about the NCAA requirements and their sliding scale that allows you do be eligible as a freshman, a big part of that scale is determined by your SAT/ACT score. While you don’t need to take both, scoring high on one of the tests will allow you to have a little more breathing room if you have a low GPA.
And while the dream for everyone is to get a scholarship that will pay for college and allow you to play the sport you love all year, that may not always work out. You may not be good enough for that scholarship coming out of high school or eventually decide to transfer out. That is where the real importance of an ACT/SAT score comes in.
Part 2 - What role should your high school coach play in the athletic recruiting process?
One thing that you will definitely want to speak to your high school coach about is sending game tapes and highlight tapes. Honestly, not all coaches have the time to keep track of where to send highlight tapes and where to send game tapes. That is why it is vital for you to talk to your coach about it.
The first area to discuss is regarding the creation of your highlight video. Some coaches are willing to produce them for the athlete and doing that would help save them a great deal of money during the process. You must make sure that they are able to product a quality highlight video in order to send out to colleges. If the coach does one that is not very good, it is worth investing a few hundred dollars into getting one professionally made.
What type of grades do I need to play Division I athletics?
The goal of the majority of high school athletes is to play at the Division I level in college. And while some may have the ability on the football field, basketball court, or baseball diamond, one aspect that may be just as important is your work in the classroom. The NCAA has academic requirements that will determine if you can be eligible as a freshman.
While I won’t be going into the core courses that are required in this article specifically, I will be taking a look at what the NCAA calls the sliding scale test score requirements. This sliding scale weighs your GPA and ACT or SAT to determine if you can qualify to play as a freshman. For example, if you have a 3.55 GPA, you only need a 400 SAT (In Math and Verbal) or a 37 on your ACT. If you have a 2.0 GPA, you will need to score a 1010 on your SAT (This is again in Math and Verbal) or an 86 on your ACT.
Looking at the NBA Draft and their prep rankings
With the 2008 NBA Draft now behind us, I feel that it is a good time to take a look at the top draft picks and see where (Or even if) they were ranked by Rivals.com when coming out of high school. And because many of the top picks were freshmen, it is obvious that they will have rated these athletes high. Onto the picks:
1 Chicago Derrick Rose - PG
Rivals.com Ranking: #3 in 2007
Miscellaneous Athletic Recruiting Ramblings - 6/28/2008
Thank Again
While the month has not officially ended, it has been a great stretch once again for Recruiting-101. As I have said before, I cannot thank the users of this site enough for visiting and checking out the content. This site is to help educate readers out there during the journey of the recruiting process. I am never going to charge jaw dropping fees but just want to help get families through the recruiting process. If you can, please help spread the word regarding this site and get it in front of others going through the recruiting journey.
Articles to keep an eye on from this past week:
Part 1 - What role should your high school coach play in the athletic recruiting process?
The cost of the athletic recruiting process
When can Division II schools recruit me for athletics?
How much football recruiting interest can I receive as a sophomore?
Part 1 - What role should your high school coach play in the athletic recruiting process?
Love them or hate them, your high school coaches will play a very important role during the athletic recruiting process. It doesn’t matter much what sport you play but if you want to play at the college level, you will need them on your side to help you achieve your goals of playing athletics past high school.
The first thing that you need to do as an athlete is tell them what you want to do early on. For example, say that you just finished up your sophomore season playing at the varsity level. You had a solid year and were named second team All Conference. Because you have that experience for playing under that coach, now is a great time to tell them your goals at the next level.
The cost of the athletic recruiting process
For those about to start the athletic recruiting process in any number of sports, it is always a dream to receive a scholarship offer from your dream school, commit, and call it a day. But the problem is that the game of recruiting rarely works that way unless you are a special athlete that is college ready early on.
Recruiting-101 decided to take a look at the costs for those going through the football recruiting process, basketball recruiting process, and baseball recruiting process. If you are going to be handing off the services to others, you will be spending a great deal of money. Then again, it really depends on how much you know and how much you want to get involved.
When can Division II schools recruit me for athletics?
As I have mentioned here in just about every article written, it is essential in the recruiting process to consider all of your options. And while you may have grown up with Division I eyes, it may be time to consider other options. They may essentially be back up options but the most important thing is that there are other possibilities to consider if your dream school does not work out.
So with that in mind, a great option to consider is looking at Division II schools. While the schools are normally much smaller than Division I programs, that doesn’t mean athletics at these programs are played at a much lower level. Many Division I athletes actually end up transferring to Division II schools. If you are curious when these schools can recruit you, we have a few thoughts on the recruiting rules for Division II schools.
Football Recruiting Advice for Long Snappers
Another series of articles that I am going to continue doing is breaking down the recruiting knowledge that I have for different positions in both basketball and football. While some may feel that recruiting is all the same, that is definitely not the case at all. The recruiting process for a quarterback, lineman, linebacker, or kicker is very different. That is why I plan on focusing on a variety of positions to help with basketball recruiting and football recruiting.
When talking about the long snapper position, this is not a spot that you will be seeing headlines in the newspaper unless something bad happens. But it is an art that only a small amount of people can do. You may not know their headlines but long snappers in the NFL are earning a lot of money and have extended careers in the pros as well.