Rething Your College Plan
The College Recruiting landscape is changing fast! Legislation could allow Colleges the ability to grant full scholarships to their entire rosters. NIL money is pouring in from all over. And the transfer portal (at this time) has over 4,000 players. These factors have many college coaches re-thinking how they are going to recruit. And as a parent, so should you.
It’s been almost 28 years since I signed my National Letter of Intent (NLI) to attend Wake Forest University. Back then, the process was simple. A Wake coach saw me at a High School All-Star event in June 1996. I went to a camp at Davidson University in August, where another Wake coach saw me. They asked me to come over to the campus for an unofficial visit. Then, in November I made an official visit and signed the next day. Outside of Wake, I made two other visits but was receiving recruiting calls from a dozen or so schools. At that time there was no NIL or transfer portal. If you wanted to transfer, you had to get a release, then sit out a year before playing at the new school. Colleges were recruiting from JUCOs, so that hasn’t changed. But, outside of JUCOs, a College Coach spent their time hunting for the best High School Players.
Now, many College Coaches are hunting the best COLLEGE Players. College Coaches are hesitant to commit too heavily to High School players unless those players are at the top of skill level. Instead, College Coaches at the Power 5 schools are patiently waiting for who enters the Transfer Portal. There is no need to fill spots with High School players when you know hundreds, or thousands, of College players will be available in June. It was a risk a few years back; but no more. College players are entering the portal at a dizzying rate, changing the landscape of the recruiting process.
I have been able to speak with a few mid-major Coaches and coaches at DII schools and they are beyond frustrated. If they do their job of developing players, it increases the chance that those players will leave. Players that have great years at the mid-majors, DII and DIII schools are quick to enter the portal. Not only is there a good chance they will be scooped up; but there is also a chance they will get NIL money. Another great avenue for College Coaches is recruiting from the Collegiate Summer Leagues. It is now commonplace to see College Coaches attend College Summer Leagues instead of them going to see High School players showcase their abilities in travel ball tournaments.
This opens up a whole new avenue for players to get to their upper tier of D1 schools. I believe that High School players may need to start considering going to a lower level DI school or a DII/DIII school; dominate there, and then enter the transfer portal. Outside of College Camps, and National Showcase events, it is getting harder to get in front of the higher level D1 schools. The best avenue now for many may mean spending time at a lower level school, then transfering. Sure there is a risk. You have to dominate. You have to work hard to get the results the D1 schools want to see. But, put in the work and bet on yourself. It may be the only chance you have of getting to play at a high level.