We’ve launched a brand new podcast to help parents and student-athletes understand the challenges, strategies, and tactics required in order to navigate the recruiting process with confidence.

Introducing The Realties of College Recruiting Podcast. Each week we will tackle some of the most important questions about the college recruiting process. Hosted by former collegiate athletes, The Realities of College Recruiting Podcast will give you expert advice and insights into the world of college recruiting.

In our first episode, Ryan Thompson (former college baseball player and MLB Scout) discusses when the best time to get started in the recruiting process is…

How early is too early?
When do colleges begin the recruiting process?
How do you get noticed in the first place?

Find out all of the answers to these questions and much more in this week’s episode!

This podcast episode will also cover:
– How athletic and academic ability factor into the recruiting process
– The differences between NCAA division levels
– Finding the best college fit for you
– Getting an unbiased evaluation is key

Don’t want to miss an episode?

About the Realities of College Recruiting Podcast:
The Realities of College Recruiting podcast, brought to you by SportsForce, will tackle some of the toughest college recruiting questions. Our college recruiting experts will share their personal expertise and key insights that will help you maximize your college recruiting efforts. This is a weekly podcast that is hosted by former MLB scout for the Cleveland Indians, 2x coach of the year (Junior College) and current recruiting advisor for SportsForce, Ryan Thompson The Realities of College Recruiting podcast will bring you interviews with some of the top college coaches from around the country in order to help make your college goals a reality! Raise your game with SportsForce!

According to the Department of Education, the average recruiting budget for FBS men’s sports programs is $700,000.00.

Think about that for a minute. A major NCAA Division I athletic program will spend an average of $700,000.00 on the recruiting efforts for ALL of its men’s sports programs.

What’s rarely mentioned is that football and men’s basketball will consume about 50% or $350,000 of that budget. That leaves an average of only $50,000 for each of the remaining sports programs like baseball, golf, lacrosse, swimming/diving, tennis, soccer, track/field & cross country to secure recruits.

If a college or university funds additional men’s sports like water polo, wrestling, and hockey, the recruiting budgets are even further diminished. But each program is not evenly funded so many sports may receive much less than $50,000 to recruit high school student-athletes.

Important note: women’s sports programs usually average substantially less in recruiting budgets than men.

Here are the average men’s teams recruiting expenditures by the conference for 2013-2014 (take notice of all the number of programs in major conferences below the $700K average):

Given these figures, it’s easy to understand why college sports programs have a difficult time locating and evaluating all of the talented high school student-athletes in the U.S and abroad. They simply do not have the resources to accomplish the task. This is even more evident if you compete in a sport outside of football and basketball.

Here are 3 steps to overcome the limits of college recruiting budgets:

1. Be properly evaluated and start targeting schools that match your athletic, academic, financial and geographic goals.
2. Don’t wait to be contacted by college coaches. Create an appropriate game plan to begin personally introducing yourself to coaches at proper fit schools.
3. Begin building and sustaining personal relationships with college coaches over an extended period of time in order to secure offers from best-fit schools.

Understanding the limitations of college programs to recruit high school student-athletes and executing a well thought out game plan may produce outstanding results in your goal of playing your sport in college.

Over the last five years, SportsForce has helped over 1,000 student-athletes and families successfully navigate the college recruiting and athletic scholarship process while saving families on average $50,000 in college expenses.