Do Recruiting Services Work?

I have a question. I have always wondered if NCSA, BeRecruited, or any other recruiting services are worth the money. I see that they cost a decent amount, but never really heard how well they work or if at all. What levels do those services focus at (D1, D2, D3, or NAIA)? Or is an athlete better off sending emails to coaches themselves? Any body have any experience?

I have a question. I have always wondered if NCSA, BeRecruited, or any other recruiting services are worth the money. I see that they cost a decent amount, but never really heard how well they work or if at all. What levels do those services focus at (D1, D2, D3, or NAIA)? Or is an athlete better off sending emails to coaches themselves? Any body have any experience?

I don't know the answer to your question but I feel confident that any parent/coach/rep could post "film" here on BGP and we would could give you a pretty good idea of what level of college football the player is suited for. Armed with that information you may not need to spend any hard earned cash.

Haven't heard of 1 person that the recruiting service got a D 1 scholarship. I do believe it's a tool for the D2,D3,Naia schools to see film or possibly find someone. I would think if your kid is not on someone's radar :letters ,contacts,or emails find a fbs school and have him go to their camp. I would say much better chance to get noticed than any recruiting firm.

I have been told by a handful of people that basically it opens the doors to a lot of school that are not close to you. For example, if your player is of NAIA caliber then instead of getting info and looks from Georgetown, LWC, Campellsville, Cumberlands, KCU, as well as Southern Ohio and maybe Tenn. and WV or Western Va you would also get a decent amount of mail from NAIA schools in Northern Ohio, Mich, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri and the like. It doesn't, in their opinion, increase the looks from higher level schools as much as it puts their name on the board for schools who are mainly just farther away.

Hudl has changed things for a lot of smaller schools. If a high school program does not use Hudl or a very similar type of website they are doing a disservice to their student athletes. Should say that I do not work for Hudl.

I have recently enrolled in GoBig Recruiting.com. No cost to enroll but it does cost to send your video. Basically your athletes profile is sent out to all enrolled schools and a coach from those schools can request you send them video. We are up to about 40 schools requested and I have yet to send out the video. Since the price goes down with multiple videos sent and a large part of the requests we have no interest in we are still gathering teams to send to.

Recruiting services and most 3rd party camps and combines are a waste of time and money. The most important aspect of the recruiting process is honest acceptance of the athletes skill level by both athlete and parent. If you attend about 5 D1 camps, and you are not being separated from the pack for individual discussion, you need to start looking at lower levels of football.

A lot of people, even here on BGP, have romanticized perceptions of being a D1 athlete. Those perceptions don't mean squat if you are sitting on the sidelines for four years and not getting full financial support.

NCSA will offer you a decent offer on Princeton ACT review if you sign up with them. Or atleast they did last year. The ACT program is 299 to buy but NCSA gave it to us when we signed up so it only cost like 100 bucks to sign up. As for the service its decent. they open a lot of info that you can prolly find on your own but they compatmentalize it so its simpler for the athlete to do. We have gotten 2 scouting reports from NCSA on his video. The first was pretty accurate in what I see his abilities are the 2nd one was a tad better. Nothing overwhelming but not selling him short either. I agree 1000% with what was said earlier no D1 school is really using it. Alot of the smaller schools do however. We have gotten about 75-100 coaches that want him to come to camps and visits. Almost all of them are out of state. Hopefully it will lead to an offer if he can get his ACT score where it needs to be....

I gathered the names, phone numbers and email addresses of every school in the country and emailed video updates taken from Hudl weekly. I got a lot of replies and some interest from the cold call but most of that was just that, interest. In the end, a college coach visiting the HS made contact and that was it. If you have some time, you can save some $.

The best method of being recruited is camps and combines, along with meeting the physical needs required to play at your desired level. All about your measurables boys and girls.

I used NCSA. The fact of the matter is the service will work, if you work.

Recruiting is like a job. NCSA and similar sites give you the tools and support to get recruited. Pricey, but I now know that when/if my kids are looking to play in college I won't have to pay for a service since I learned about the whole process my senior year.

I used nothing really for my son. You can do all of the work yourself if you can understand where your son fits in the college football landscape. I highly doubt that many kids who go D1 in college are using these services. They are spending their money going to combines and camps hoping to get their name out there for recognition purposes. Thus you have the 'star' rating system.

As Bandit said earlier, if you do not have the measurable, do not waste your time on the bigger schools, but focus on the DII, DIII and NAIA ones. There are scholarships offered in DII and NAIA that sometimes prove more valuable than being a PWO at a bigger school that never sees the field.

Camps are very important and it is better to go to camps that have multiple schools at different levels. (UC puts on a camp and has MAC coaches in attendance, DII and some NAIA). As siad previously you need to know where you fit and target those schools. At non D1 levels it is almost opposite as you have to show interest in attending that school and almost recruit them. Start with position coach and who recruits your area. I can tell you my son got a very nice DII scholarship without a coach setting foot in our house or on our high school campus. It is a lot of work but and you have to ask the tough questions early. Is there money, are you recruiting his position, etc. Last, but certainly not least, grades are very important. They want kids to come that they know will stick. They cannot afford too many misses at that level as they have limited funds. Good luck.

I gathered the names, phone numbers and email addresses of every school in the country and emailed video updates taken from Hudl weekly. I got a lot of replies and some interest from the cold call but most of that was just that, interest. In the end, a college coach visiting the HS made contact and that was it. If you have some time, you can save some $.

 

The best method of being recruited is camps and combines, along with meeting the physical needs required to play at your desired level. All about your measurables boys and girls.

Dont forget the academic needs, anymore coaches look at that first and you either go in the maybe stack or the no stack.

I wouldn't use a recruiting service. All you have to do is email the coaches all their emails are in the staff directory of each colleges website. They usually respond very quickly if they like what they see on the hudl film and want contact info. I have sent film out for plenty of kids.

Recruiting services and most 3rd party camps and combines are a waste of time and money. The most important aspect of the recruiting process is honest acceptance of the athletes skill level by both athlete and parent. If you attend about 5 D1 camps, and you are not being separated from the pack for individual discussion, you need to start looking at lower levels of football.

 

A lot of people, even here on BGP, have romanticized perceptions of being a D1 athlete. Those perceptions don't mean squat if you are sitting on the sidelines for four years and not getting full financial support.

College coaches are usually pretty good at knowing D1 talent. Example OL Coppage Ohio U, OL Hansel Ball State, OL Webster UK all had D1 talent and started at the college level from SK.