The slippery slope for early scholarship offers by Division I-AA and II schools in the football recruiting process

When it comes to scholarship offers in the football recruiting process, 95% of the news is from Division I-A (BCS) schools doing the offering.  Most of the scholarships are from programs in BCS conferences in hopes that they are able to land top recruits early in the process.  If they do that, the coaches are not going to be sweating it out on Signing Day 2010.

I have talked that some Division I-AA and II schools do end up offering athletes this early at their camps and during the summer.  But if this happens, why is it not publicized and talked about much?  Why are athletes not broadcasting their summer Division II football scholarship offer?

The reason that they are rarely broadcast or even mentioned for that is matter that they don’t happen all that frequently.  Most of the coaches at these schools realize that they have been burned too many times in the past to waste their time with these early scholarships.

The reason is simple.  If you get a Division II offer, the first thing I recommend doing is broadcasting that attention.  You tell media and the other college coaches that recruiting you.  If you believe you are above a Division II player and a DII school offers in the summer, I would share that as much as possible with the Division I-AA (FCS) schools recruiting me.  You might as well share that information with other Division I-AA (FCS) schools that are also not recruiting you.

The Division I-AA (FCS) and II coaches who have been around long enough normally know that in most situations, it is best to wait to offer athletes.  I will tell a story for my reasoning.  Say that an under the radar athlete was hurt his junior season comes to their camp and just blows up.  All of the coaches are amazed by his skills and improvement.  The coaches are so impressed that they end up offering the athlete.

Luckily for this athlete, he has a very savvy high school coach who lets the in-state Division I-A (BCS) schools know about his rapid improvement, camp performance, and his overall abilities.  These schools start sniffing around and find out that this kid can play.  Two of the four Division I-A (BCS) programs end up offering by the end of the summer.  Do you really think that the Division I-AA (FCS) school really has a chance?

Again, I would say that 95% of the scholarship offers being handed out now as from Division I-A (BCS schools) and likely 90% is also of the schools from the top ten major conferences.  A scholarship offer shows an athlete that a college coach wants you bad enough at their school that they will pay for your education.  Word travels quickly regarding offers and recruiting information so it makes it harder for Division I-AA (FCS) and Division II coaches to hide under the radar gems these days.

There is also one other reason why these smaller schools could end up offering scholarships.  Their coaches have worked at all different levels and feel that they know level a player is after having seen them in camp.  What I mean by that is if you see a Division I-A (BCS) athlete at camp, you are likely to be blown away.  Division I-AA (FCS) and Division II type athletes may not be quite as big, quite as athlete, but it is obvious that they have skill.  These coaches could feel that this athlete could be a good fit at their level.

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