Recruiting Services Explained

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."

He says that he gets emails and messages from recruiting services and simply ignores them.
Why?
Is he interested in finding only the athletes that pay for an expensive "recruiting service"? No.
He is interested in finding the best talent. His ideal recruit.
He pays companies who make it their priority to find all the best talent, not just the talent that pays them.
And you can be included in that data AT NO COST to you.
There are companies that work to solely provide the best, most comprehensive recruit data for a college program to drive its recruiting efforts.
This data helps a college coach in his search for his next recruit.

The data that is compiled by these data providers might look something like this...

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The bigger the program the more data that program will purchase.  
College programs then have softwares that manage compliance, recruiting and more. Those softwares will compile all the data they buy into a simple, easy to visualize hub.
Now, the coach will be able to look at a map of the country and SEE where all his potential recruits are located, including all their information. He can sort by GPA, height, weight, etc....

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.

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THESE are the messages you want to look for.

How do they work?


Some of these companies simply compile athlete info and contact information.

Others have built trusted relationships with their clients and have full time staff evaluate the athletes on their lists to include the evaluations with the data.

Others depend on the high school coach to give a prospective rating to the athlete.

Now, don’t go running to your high school coach telling him to rate you or your son higher. His reputation to these data providers, and to the college programs, depends on him providing fairly accurate ratings.
Notice the similar message in the photos above: they are intent on providing the information of recruitable student athletes to college programs.
That is where the evaluations come in.
How do they make money?
These companies charge universities on a regional basis.
The more data a school wants, the more money that university will have to pay.

Large schools with big budgets can afford to purchase the entire nations data.
Smaller schools likely only purchase the data within their state because, for the most part, they only recruit within and around their state.

How does AthleticOutlook fit?


As part of the AthleticOutlook program, we ensure you are a part of every one of those lists. Starting now!

More importantly, our program is designed to make you a better football player for when you are evaluated, either by a scouting service or their clients (THE COLLEGE COACH!)

Here is an email we got from one of the data service providers in our network.

We were working with an athlete in Canada and needed to make sure that he was on the list.

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We also work to ensure that all your info and the highlight tape on your hudl is in tip top shape before we get you out to these data providers.

Notice the information this scout requests.

Also notice....he WANTS the athlete on his list. His clients, the college programs, want the most robust data they can buy and search through.

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.

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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...

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What a slogan. This company then goes on to use a Division 1 college athlete as a reference to their program. A quick google search will yield that athlete has great size and was a high school All-American. Not tough to get recruited as an All-American!

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This company is charging for you to simply contact college programs. The information of college coaches is PUBLIC DATA. Meaning, it is FREE.  

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This company is claiming that college coaches do not search “free profiles.” GREAT example of advice that is NOT football specific. Hudl is by far the most used website in a football coach’s identification and evaluation process. Hudl is by far the most reputable organization in the space. Athletes do not pay for Hudl.

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.