Friday 9 November 2012

The High School Football Recruiting By Colleges

By Coleen Cote


When colleges engage in high school football recruiting it is a very intense affair. Each college wants to get the finest athletes they can. The process gets quite a bit of media attention. The fans of college sports and the experts on the game all want to know which teams are going to be the strongest next season. The colleges offer scholarships to these athletes.

College coaches know that their programs will only improve players skills so much. They must get the best players if they want to be competitive and be seen as possible contenders as college champion winners. This makes for a vigorous campaign to entice their targeted players. This is a very important component that helps the premium institutions stay at the top and the other institutions get better and move up in rankings. The higher the rankings are the easier it is to attract the cream of the crop of players.

Recruiters must also consider the athletes academic ability and his physical stature. The athletes academic record must be sufficient to gain admission to the college. This will be determined by his GPA (grade point average)and SAT scores. Recruiters prefer athletes to have already attained a certain height depending on the position they will be playing.

There are websites that have information on the high school football players such as their physical statistics, game averages pictures and videos of the players. These websites allow the recruiters to easily compare and contrast athletes across the country. This is the major way they would identify the group of players they want to focus on. Players also send their information and videos of their games to colleges that they like so that they are considered by those colleges.

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association)oversees college sports including football. It has created rules for colleges which are recruiting high school football players to follow.

Colleges start to court the athletes early so that they may become familiar with the colleges program and develop a preference for it. According to the NCAA recruiting rules college camp brochures and questionnaires may be given to freshmen and sophomore high school players. Junior players can get recruiting materials by mail starting September 1 of that school year and one phone call from the recruiter between April 15 and May 31.

Between July 1 and before the start of the season off campus contact is acceptable in the senior year. After September 1 of the senior year recruiters are allowed to get in touch with the players once per week but no authorized visits to the schools until after the start of the senior players classes.

The most exciting day in the process for recruiters players and fans is National Signing Day which is normally at the beginning of February. This is the first time that a high school player in his senior year may sign a binding agreement to attend a particular college on a football scholarship. The college or the player may not change their minds. After this point colleges are not allowed to recruit a player who has signed the agreement called the national letter of intent. Most National Letters of Intents are signed on this date. This is the goal of high school football recruiting




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