FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

When you respond to the session surveys, we post the most Frequently Asked Questions on this page so everyone can learn from each other. You can also send us an email.

Q: What are the major or minor differences between the NCAA and NAIA? Beyond religion are there differences?
A: This chart explains many of the differences from an athletic perspective:
http://www.naia.org/fls/27900/1NAIA/membership/NAIA_DIIDIII_comparison.pdf

Q: Is the Initial Conference a “paid” moment or is it part of a “free consultation”?
A: We both charge for the initial meeting. It lasts about 1 ½ - 2 hours. We will focus on the initial meeting in Session 2.

Q: If you call the coach in sophomore year and don't reach him/her, can coach call student back?
A: NCAA Division I coaches cannot return the student-athlete’s call during his/her sophomore year. Division II may not call until June 15 after the athlete’s sophomore year, but Division III and NAIA can call anytime during the sophomore year.

Q: Why am I hearing that recruiting is getting younger and younger? Into 8th grade even? Is this what you mean by sport specific?
A: Yes, unfortunately, recruited athletes are getting younger and younger. We mentioned sport-specific recruiting rules because the rules are becoming more detailed every year for each sport. For example, look at the rules for the “other sports” column on page 32 of the NCAA Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete.

Q: If an athlete is late to the game, how much does it help to have the athlete’s high school or travel coach step in to bring the athlete up to speed in the process? (i.e. reach out to college coaches)
A: As long as the club/high school coach is not in violation of NCAA recruiting rules, he/she may contact college coaches in order to provide a reference for a high school athlete to help support that student in the recruiting process. Many coaches have a developed a professional network over the years and are able to provide personal and/or professional connections in order to assist their players. However, they usually do not have the time or the experience to guide an athlete through the entire recruiting process as effectively as you, the counselor, can do with the knowledge that you gain from participating in our webinar series.

Q: Are your pdfs on the resource page exported to a Mac version? Are they copyrighted?
A: The PDFs should be viewable in a web browser and in Adobe Reader. The files we provide are copyrighted but we do authorize counselors enrolled in our webinar series or workshops to utilize any of the materials that we provide in our presentations.

Q: How do you gauge the student's level of passion for the sport beyond their words?
A: The answer to this is a matter of “actions speak louder than words”. Obviously, an athlete is going to respond to this question in the affirmative, and you do want to observe the enthusiasm in his voice and gestures. Likewise, when asking this question to the parents, you can often sense a very supportive level of confirmation as to their son’s “love of the game”.

Look too at his level of athletic participation and his personal success on the field of play. How many years has he played his sport? What position? Does he play for his high school team as well as a local club or travel team? Has he received honors for his athletic success within his team, his conference, or county? Does he attend college camps or clinics? What training does he do “on his own”, beyond the practices with his team? Does he work with a personal trainer, go to the gym, on his own, to increase his strength and speed? Can he get a strong, positive letter of recommendation from his high school and/or club team coach? Does he show a positive attitude in regards to doing all of the recruiting activities that you are going to guide him through to enable him to have a successful recruiting experience?

Finally, after a bit of experience working with your different CBSA’s (college-bound student-athletes) you will develop a sixth-sense that will tell you pretty quickly whether your athlete has an overwhelming desire to play his sport for four more years after high school, or is he just doing what Mom and Dad want him to do? And, it is very important to identify his “true feelings and passion for the sport”, or lack thereof, sooner rather than later.

Q: In terms of being a lot easier to get into a very selective school, it depends on the sport, right? Some sports are used to balance out others.
A: Sports like football and basketball are revenue producing sports for most schools and coaches for these sports usually have a little bit more academic flexibility with regards to recruiting, even at highly selective schools. Other sports outside of these two tend to have less academic flexibility in the admissions department. In general, athletes benefit from the “dual standard” for admissions because their athletic talent is helping them with admissions even if they are not receiving an athletic scholarship. We will talk specifically about highly selective schools around session 5. I recommend reviewing pages 60-63 in the Counselor’s Manual for more details.