Do football scholarships come in February for juniors or sophomores? If so, what type of athletes are receiving them?

For whatever reason, one of the most popular searched phrases on this website earlier this year was if scholarship offers come in January.  So with that in mind, we are going to take a look at the type of football scholarship offers would come in February.  This includes the age and why these schools may extend them at this time.

While we may be past it already time wise, one situation that occurs in very early February (ie: before Signing Day) is the late scholarship offers to the top senior players.  There are basically three reasons why a scholarship offer may come during the football recruiting process during the first few days of February.

The first is if a college loses a recruit.  It may be because they went head to head with another program and lost (although these usually occur on Signing Day and make it impossible to bounce back from).  The football recruit the college loses also may get an offer from his dream school and decommit from your program.  That leaves a void in the recruiting process that the coaches may feel they want to fill.

The second reason is if the school loses a current player.  If they find out after the new year that a player on their team is leaving/transferring, then they might feel confident about offering another athlete later in the process.  The closer this is to Signing Day, the better a late offer may come.  Most coaches will only extend the offer if they feel confident about the athlete they are recruiting.

The third is if it is an in-state school and a bigger college offers.  For example, say Ohio State has been recruiting a kid as a potential walk-on and Michigan offers a late scholarship.  If the Buckeyes like the recruit enough, the scholarship from the Wolverines may prompt Ohio State to offer.  This is the rarest of the three but it definitely can happen.

So for the juniors and sometimes sophomores, do football scholarships come in February?  The answer is a huge yes if you have the skills that the college coaches are seeking in a recruit at the next level.  The two things that college coaches want to see before offering a junior in most cases is their highlight video and them up close.

The recruiting highlight video will obviously be used to evaluate your skills.  If they are overwhelmed with your size, athleticism, or overall skills, then they will put you on their board.  Some schools may offer you but they usually will want to see if you can pass the eyeball test first.  I will tell you know that the biggest you are, the better your chances are here.

If you have the skills needed and can pass both of those tests (without having an huge red flags), the schools will likely offer you a scholarship.  Because they cannot legally call you just yet, the college coach will have to relay the message via email or by calling your high school coach.  In most cases, they want to verbally offer you themselves.  Afterwards, a written offer should be coming in the mail.

Since these schools cannot evaluate you on the football field at this time, they will pay close attention to their rivals and if they have offered a scholarship.  One player I was following recently is very big and athletic.  He was offered a scholarship by State University #1.  State University #2 thought enough about him to extend an offer a week later.

If State University #1 had not offered, I honestly feel State University #2 would not have offered either.  That is why I stress having media connections to make your offers public and the fact that scholarships breed other scholarships.

Overall, the month of February is a rather slow month in terms of offers for juniors and sophomores.  Scholarships will be extended but if you have followed the advice of this site, you should have already sent out highlight video and gotten it in the hands of the coaches that are recruiting you.