Recruiting Services - The Truth and Alternatives

How to Use Online Avenues for Recruiting

Listing a profile online is one way - but not the only way to market yourself. Remember, college coaches do not scour the web looking for their next scholarship student-athlete. There is no reason to pay any fee to a company who offers to list your profile. Even if your profile is free -- if they charge the coaches - it isn't likely to be seen. 

Check out prepchamps.com or trupreps.com where you can put up your profile for free. You can then send coaches a link to your profile. Coaches can view the profiles for free!

SCOUTING SERVICES

There are some men and women around the country who are well-respected by college coaches. These people attend tournaments, All-Star games and Shootouts. They don't charge players money. When they see players that college coaches will want to hear about, they add them to their report. College coaches subscribe to these reports. Students don't pay to be listed on these reports. There is a huge difference between scouting services and recruiting services. Some of the nationally known recruiting services attempt to call themselves scouting services. Don't buy it. If they charge you money in exchange for sending your unsolicited profile to colleges -- they are a recruiting service!

THE PROBLEM WITH RECRUITING SERVICES

Recruiting services are SOOOO last century. The Internet over the past few years has allowed everyone to do for free what recruiting services charge several hundred, thousands or even - YIKES - a couple thousand dollars to do. And YOU can do it better by yourself!

Recruiting services are not allowed to call coaches to tell them about players.  They are also not allowed to allow scholarships for their services! Be careful about accepting free accounts from them. The NCAA has a rule against it.

Click here for a NCAA compliance bylaws about recruiting services.

In addition, some recruiting service companies will take your money, create a profile out of the information YOU spend YOUR TIME giving THEM, and send mass mailouts or E-mails to college coaches. These companies are not successful at finding scholarships for players who wouldn't have gotten them anyway - they at best help you organize your paperwork and fill college coaches mailboxes or e-mail accounts with impersonal solicitations for their interest. They get you excited by dropping names of high profile athletes who have "used their services." 

THE DIRTY LITTLE TRICK BEHIND THEIR SUCCESS

But upon closer investigation we've learned that they offer top prospects their services for free and stick YOU with the large bill. The town superstar gets an illegal free ride while you have to pay.  In other words, they are taking credit for getting a superstar a scholarship that the superstar would have gotten anyway!

Put yourself in the coach's place:  You are sitting at your desk in the athletic office. You and your assistant coaches receive a stack of mail. One large envelope includes profiles of several student-athletes from the same company with nearly identical resumes. 

Of more interest is a regular sized white business envelope that is written by hand. This includes a personal note an unofficial transcript and a profile from an athlete expressing an interest in your school. This one is addressed: Dear Coach Carter, 

Which student does the coach think has more interest in his or her school? Which one would you keep? Which ones would you toss? Right! You wouldn't think of not responding to a letter or e-mail sent directly to you, but many college coaches throw away the recruiting service clients' information. The recruiting service letter does not require a response in a coach's mind. The student-athlete's letter does!

WHAT COLLEGE COACHES SAY ABOUT THEM

[The following summary is from Dr. Bob Scott]
At a meeting of the American Baseball Coaches Association in 1998, the issue of recruiting services was addressed. The question was raised simply requesting feedback from Division I coaches on whether anyone used or was receptive to the need of the many profile recruiting groups emerging throughout the country. Only one coach in the meeting responded that he "occasionally" makes use of these profiles. As one member of the board pointed out: "Because each individual student athlete is charged for this service, they should know that this means exposure is not the answer." The consensus to come out of the meeting was that too many parents are spending money on something that has 1) become overwhelming for coaches to handle, 2) somewhat misleading for what such services can accomplish and most of all, 3) little hope for a scholarship outcome. The coaches indicated that a letter or call of interest from the student athlete, and a letter or call from the high school coach, gets the priority follow-up from the college coach that one is looking for.