The down low on the "recruiting service"
First, let's listen to what Penn State head football coach James Franklin has to say on the matter.
He can say it better than we ever could...
"The only recruiting service that I have ever used are the ones that WE pay for."
Who are they?
There are smaller, regional scouting services that scout and compile recruit information from one or so states to sell to universities.
There are also the larger, multi state data services that evaluate and sell the data.
How do they work?
How does AthleticOutlook fit?
What about the other recruiting services?
There are the companies that have huge business models that are dependent on you NOT knowing about the information above.
Recruiting services that claim that because you pay x amount of money (usually thousands of dollars!), they are going to get you "exposed" to these universities are not painting the full picture.
College is not cheap and so they leverage that fact: they convince families to shell out huge sums of money based on the dishonest promise that THEY are going to get you a scholarship.
These companies are not evil.
However...
You will notice that all the major recruiting services charging athletes are NOT football specific. They work with all sports.
Football is a huge money sport. The big time college football programs have huge budgets.
The way the football recruiting process works differs from many of the other sports.
There is vast centralization of data and film in football.
Because the services that charge athletes may have proven success in many other sports, their success stories, testimonials, and statistics are...
...not football specific.
Where IS their success in football?
Paid recruiting services do have some success at the lower divisions and small schools.
These are the schools where scholarships are often limited and you can have an equal amount of success simply by reaching out to the coaches at these programs utilizing the proper personal outreach methods that we teach.
One of the AthleticOutlook founders was a customer of this company. He went on to play on a Division 1 football team, not at all because of the service of this company. This says more about their sales team than about the service they provide. We can only wonder how many others that make up that 90% figure have a similar experience...
This company is charging for you to simply contact college programs. The information of college coaches is PUBLIC DATA. Meaning, it is FREE.
The point is...
Do not pay for exposure. Work for it.
College programs want to find you. If they think you can help them win a championship, they want to recruit you.
For the most part, only your hard work and the resulting performance will yield you the result you desire.