The overall costs involved with 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.

Here is the breakdown for a number of different things you obviously are going to want to do to get ahead during the recruiting process.  Some vary to the three sports that I mentioned above but many are actually similar overall.

Three Day Football Camp – $300 plus
If you are going to be staying on campus at the football camp and eating there for meals, then it is not going to be cheap.  I always recommend speaking with the coaches about possibly going to one day of camp to save money.  Most college coaches have the ability to recognize if you can play or not rather quickly.  If you decide to go to all three days, you may be funding an assistant coach to get their kitchen redone.  They probably should be thanking you.

Elite Basketball Camp – $100 plus
If you are good enough to be invited to an elite basketball camp, the coaches will keep the price tag down because they want to get as many recruits as possible on campus to see the school.  But then again, are the coaches just using you to have the numbers to hold this elite camp?

Baseball Showcase – $150 plus
Are you a baseball recruit waiting to get out and play in front of the eyes of college coaches?  Then you definitely will need to go to at least one baseball showcase.  These are huge during the baseball recruiting process.  Playing well in front of a coach at this can really make or break the recruiting process for you.

Nike Football Camp – Free
The Nike football camps may be free but you are failing to add in the costs of gas and food along the way.  I know some recruits that traveled ten hours to get to an event like this.  That would not be cheap with the price of gas these days.

Quality Highlight Video – $400 to $3,000
This has a very broad range simply because some parents think that their athlete needs to to have a Hollywood production team putting this together.  The truth is that the coaches are looking to see the player showcase his or her skills on the field.  The smoke and mirrors introduction is not going to get you a scholarship.  It is going to fund the person who made the film.

A personal website for the athlete – $300 to $1,000
Depending on how high tech you want to get, these can cost a great deal.