The Dollars & Cents of Sports Recruiting

 

THE DOLLARS & CENTS OF SPORTS RECRUITING

Time to look at this recruiting process like we would a business. Any good business owner knows that if you spend money, it’s good to maximize your return on that money. This is where the “Rubber Meets the Road” (especially for the parents who spend countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars supporting each of their children in their chosen sport).

Often, high school athletes will enjoy playing their sport as they develop their skills, but don;t spend near the time planning their collegiate sports career. If they do get an offer to play in college, they get excited and accept and go play at the college that made the offer without ever exploring what else could have been.

Let’s look at an example: Johnny is a very talented lacrosse player who is going to a showcase tournament during the summer after his junior season. Coach Taylor of Desert University spots him, likes what he sees and, after some research, makes Johnny an offer to play for him. Johnny will receive 30% of his total needs in scholarships. Desert University wasn’t one of the schools Johnny was interested in playing for, but “it’s a scholarship”…both he an his parents are excited. Here’s what the deal looks like:

TUITION, ROOM & BOARD $40K
SCHOLARSHIP $12K
OUT OF POCKET COSTS $28K

Everybody seems happy, but did Johnny really do himself any favors? Is this the best thing for him to do?

Let’s go back in time & this time Johnny’s parents filmed his games during his sophomore and junior seasons & they had It’s A Wrap Video Productions produce a first class recruiting video. To make it easier on themselves, they joined a recruiting service and received good information to give them the tools they needed to confidently plow through the recruiting process. (Click here to get a discount for my fovered recruiting service, Letics, for less that $200 annualy)

This time, prior to the Showcase, they sent out well-written letters tailored to each coach/school, along with a link to Johnny’s 5 minute recruiting video. 8 of Johnny’s Top 20 Target schools were going to be represented at the Showcase.

After the showcase, 6 of the 8 programs present contacted Johnny to let him know of their interest. Eventually, Johnny had 4 scholarship offers. The coaches knew he had other offers and the laws of supply and demand took over and Johnny was getting bigger, better offers. He ended up accepting an offer of 50% at one of his original Top 5 School choices. His offer now looked like this:

TUITION, ROOM & BOARD $40K
SCHOLARSHIP $20K
OUT OF POCKET COSTS $20K

Now, let’s compare the 2 offers:
OFFER #2 (Worked smart/Used his recruiting resources) $20K x 4 yrs. = $80K
OFFER #1 (Went through motions, no real plan) $12K x 4 = $48K
DIFFERENCE $32,000

By utilizing a recruiting video and following some basic instructions on how to maximize use of his time, Johnny’s family was able to save $32,000 over 4 years. Assuming they paid $400 for his recruiting video and $200 for his Recruiting platform, that’s still a saving of over $31,000….A good investment?

Start early, use proven tools, make yourself “Easy to Recruit” and you will benefit financially, in your athletic pursuits AND in your Educational interests. A little work up front can pave the way to BIG dividends later!

Scott