Each step of the recruiting process is new and exciting, but I'm going to skip to the offering of scholarship part of the process.  

The second thing I tell a kid I coach or anyone who asks my counsel is the responsibility has now shifted to the player, as well as anyone advising him -- typically parents and coaches.  Part of that responsibility is waking up every morning asking yourself, how will you feel if that scholarship offer is gone.  

As more offers (hopefully) come in, that game has to be played with each school, and at any point the specter of a scholarship going way makes them uneasy, it's time to consider when it's time to make a decision to commit or not.

What's the first thing I tell them?  Congratulations!

Most colleges, when they offer someone as young as an incoming sophomore, they expect the decision to be made a little bit into the distance.  Joey Hart, incoming sophomore from Linton and a player who is very good, received an offer from Indiana State became the first kid from Indiana's class of 2023 to receive a scholarship offer.  As it is any year, the first one always turns heads.  

FOMO is real.  Fear Of Missing Out

The psychological part of this is covers anyone else in the same position just without an offer. 

A player I coach texted me a link to the Instagram post (keep the Instagram part of this in mind for later reference), revealing the offer to Hart.  He was happy for Hart, but he wanted to know how he could get his first offer.  This is very common at this stage, and it's been a discussion had with players from almost every team.  

Even in the strongest classes of Indiana kids, there are typically only five or six kids who get offers before June after their sophomore year.  There are 14 players in the class of 2022 with D1 offers.  Seven had offers before June 15, the first day colleges can contact prospects directly.

With social media, these offers get reported almost instantly -- excited players, excited parents, excited coaches.  Meanwhile everyone else, especially early on, wonders, when is it my turn?

Colleges get their own FOMO.  More on that later. 

Let's apply some logic to this situation

I have been coaching in the summer since 1991.  There is one fact in this discussion that is indisputable.  There are FAR more D1 opportunities for scholarships in 2020 than there were in 1991.  The recruiting processing is convoluted a bit these days by post-graduate transfers at the college level for many high school players, but the reality is there are 336 D1 schools, which is up by 50-60 since 1991. 

OK...so the baseline is there are more D1 opportunities out there than where were 30 years ago.

If have settled into any scholarship is good, there are also the same number of D2 and NAIA opportunities that were in 1991.  It's a dangerous starting point if you're a D1 or bust family.  Even if to others it's obvious how good a kid can be, the first rule of recruiting should be check your ego at the door.  Don't 'big time' anyone, even D3 schools, which don't necessarily fall into this discussion because they can't give athletic scholarships.  

Between injuries, college coaching changes or other players making decisions that impact your opportunities, the recruiting process can change in an instant.

Very few players get to control their recruiting process

Sure there are kids who get their process to a point where they have some control, but in a class as a whole, there aren't many, let alone many in any state, who produce cut lists.  (Something I would rarely recommend anyway.)  As much as calm and patience is being preached, scholarships are still a supply and demand process, and a vast majority of time, colleges control the supply. 

One more piece of logic

Hart goes to Linton, and Linton's incoming senior, Lincoln Hale, is already committed to Indiana State.  Indiana State has seen Hart a great deal, and the familiarity they have in his game and how they project his talents going forward led to this offer.

This isn't why he got an offer.  This is just to speak to the timing of it, especially relative to Indiana State's process.  Hart is going to get more offers, and don't be surprised if a couple of colleges get a little FOMO and want to make sure they're in the game with him and offer.

The true recruiting process begins when colleges start to get a look at the players.  For some, that's the summer after their freshman year.  For more, that's the summer after their sophomore year.  For the majority, their junior school season and the summer following. 

So what has changed since 1991?

Really, it's what has changed since 2012.  The aforementioned, social media.

Social media, especially Twitter, slowly eroded the ability to 'scoop' anyone in the recruiting process.  Now that the players can control the message, it's turned reporters who could get scoops into just plain old reporters.  Retweeters, if you will.  It was fun getting scoops.  Now, not only has most of news broken by the players themselves, most people in this business step back to give them 'their moment'.  #yogiGate

However, the ease of broadcasting information on a very personal level means hundreds, sometimes thousands of people can see it in an instant.  Before the internet became truly common in the mid-90's, about the only time you knew anything about a player's recruiting was after they committed.  It would be in the local paper, which could often be a weekly, and maybe the local paper in the school the player committed to.  It might've shown up in the state by state section of USA Today. 

Now we get it instantly, and the speed at which that news travels can often create a false sense of urgency.  

It took me 970 words to get the main point of all this.  Social media has created this false sense of urgency in the recruiting process.  

The recruiting process goes from letters to phone calls to visits to offers to decisions, and from a college's perspective it evolves from hundreds who get letters (yes, hundreds), to dozens who get phone calls, to a handful (maybe two handfuls) who get visits (going to game only doesn't really count as a visit), to a few who get offers (at a position) to one who commits.

However, if you're just thinking D1 schools, there are 336 D1 schools with an average of just over three scholarships to give in each class.  That's about 1008 D1 scholarships available, on average, each year.  There are also about 300 D2 schools, as well as 230 NAIA schools.

So where are we going with this?

Be patient. No matter how early a player gets his offer and commits, it doesn't change the total number of opportunities that will eventually go to a given class.   It might change a school's interest in other players at that position, but even as this draws out, most schools will offer a two or three kids for each available scholarship.  Some even more, and some drop them like bird seeds.  How schools handle their offers could another topic altogether.

This isn't to suggest scholarships aren't scarce resources.  This is just to suggest, view it more as 1,008 D1, 900 D2 and 690 NAIA scholarships are out there on a yearly basis on average, and if the player and family are moderately realistic about the process and the player's ability, there will be plenty of time to sort through the recruiting process.  

Unless it's a power six basketball school (Big 10, ACC, Big East, Pac 12, SEC or Big 12), odds are most colleges are recruiting one class at a time.  That means for most kids it can be pretty quiet until after their junior school season, even knowing they might have teammates whose recruiting process are advancing much sooner.

It can be tough on some, but none of this statistically reduces the scholarship opportunities available.  However, we have about a dozen kids in each state who start getting reported interest, even a couple with offers, in the summer following their freshman year, and that leads to FOMO.

Advice to any parent and player

Stay away from social media.  OK...sure...that's not realistic, but still, just do it.  The more realistic advice would be keep the big picture in mind.  It's never bad to ask questions, but the recruiting process (should) starts with a coach watching a player a few times to get a feel for how that player fits.  

Sometimes schools won't offer a player because it's an obvious waste of time, and they have their levels of FOMO dealing with kids who they love, who later slide up a level higher or to a bigger school.  

A vast majority of kids' recruiting doesn't really get any traction until after their junior year.  This has been echoed a coupe of times.  Remember, most colleges (low major D1 schools down to the NAIA) recruit one class at a time.  Even D3 schools truly don't get too involved until after the summer before their senior year, and even a lot of those don't fully know what their financial situation is like until after Christmas of a player's senior year.

So sit back, take it easy and enjoy the basketball.  The process isn't all fun and games and is even tedious at times, but the basketball should be enjoyable. 

 

If you want some thoughts on the recruiting process, especially amid COVID-geddon, check out the first segment our 4th podcast:

CSI Pod:: Episode 4 – Recruiting impacted by COVID-19, incoming Crossroads League recruits

 

 

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