Ten ways to save money during the athletic recruiting process

There is no doubt with the way that the economy is today, people have to watch what they are spending money on.  But for whatever reason, it seems like for some the athletic recruiting process is a spending free for all.  They are spending hundreds here, thousands there, and costing themselves a great deal in the long run.

While not everyone will heed this advice, I have come up with ten great ways to be able to save money during the athletic recruiting process.  It may take more time on your end but there is no doubt that you can save yourself some major cash in the long run.

1.) Handle the recruiting process yourself
I know there are people from recruiting services that read this site and disagree with this one.  If you handle the recruiting process yourself, you are going to save yourself thousands in the long run.  As I have said many times before, there is no one that is going to care about getting your son or daughter a scholarship as much as you.  You are going to put more time and effort in by handling the process yourself.  It may not be easy and it will take a lot of time but it is a safe alternative than writing a check for hundreds if not thousands of dollars up front.

2.) Asks for discounts on things
Are you getting a highlight video made?  How about a website?  If so, then ask for discounts on things.  The worst that can happen is that the person says no.  Don’t worry about offending anyone because you are looking for the best deal you can get for the money that you have.  (Need a highlight video?  See www.highlight-videos.com)

3.) Carpool on visits
If you live in a populated area, there is no doubt that there are going to be recruits that are hearing from the same schools as you.  If that is the case, why not car pool on visits?  Each recruit gets three tickets per unofficial visits so if you go with another recruit, you could bring six total people to the game.  It is easier if they are on your team but also search out other players in the area about possibly car pooling on the next visit.

4.) Save long trips for official visits
The long trips where you have to fly, get a hotel, and a rental car will add up very quickly.  If the school wants you badly enough, they will eventually offer you an official visit when you are a senior.  It may be worth waiting that long to be able to save the cost of the trip.

5.) Don’t go to combines that cost money
These are a waste of time and money.

6.) Inform yourself as best you can
As mentioned in #1, there is no doubt that informing yourself as much as you can about the recruiting process will help you.  Reading a site like this is free so that should save you a big chunk of change.  Most other recruiting sites like this are in fact trying to sell you something so keep that in mind before completely buying into what they say.  Also, ask questions to coaches.  This will only help.

7.) Do not send out tape unless a coach requests it
It makes me sick when recruits tell me that they send out game tape and don’t get a response.  The reason is because it is not a smart thing to do and it wastes time and money.  College coaches have a hard enough time viewing all of the tape that they request.  If you are sending tape without making prior contact, you might as well just get your tape, put it in a package, get postage for it, and then throw it away.  That is likely what happens anyways when you do this.

8.) Have highlights available online
While some coaches will want a hard copy of the video, getting your highlights online is a great way to save time and money.  You can email out your recruiting profile to college coaches with a link to the video.  You can post it on just about any site you can think of and that definitely won’t hurt.

9.) Call in all of your favors
If you have a friend who does video editing, call in a favor and ask him to do a highlight video.  Is there another friend who wants to drive you to the game this weekend for a free ticket?  Yes, it may be cheap but these are things to think about when trying to save money during the recruiting process.

10.) Sign up for free sites
As mentioned with #8, there is no doubt in my mind that signing up for free recruiting sites will not hurt anything.  Check out BeRecruited.com.  It is worth the time to put your profile and video on as many sites as you can.  BeRecruited.com is definitely one of the ones that I would do if given the chance.

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