The Benefits of College Recruiting Services – The Numbers Game

We have seen it happening over last 20 years: tuition costs for universities and colleges spiraling out of control. These increases bear no resemblance to the inflation index over this period and they are now at the point where higher education for many must seem like a dream rather than a certainty. However, talented student athletes are still able to find strategies to make college both affordable and more enjoyable.

Many opportunities at all levels of competition are available at the college level for student athletes. But it still is, after all, a numbers game.

First the good news. There are over 408,000 student athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics in the three levels of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. These levels are Divisions I, II and III. And this does not even include the over 45,000 student athletes participating in athletics at the NAIA level. The NCAA has over 1,000 member colleges and universities fielding teams in 28 men’s and 27 women’s sports. At present, there are 17,713 teams fielded in the NCAA.

Now, unfortunately, the bad news. During the 2008-2009 academic year there were a total 4,422,622 boy high school athletes and 3,114,091 girl student athletes competing in the United States. Take basketball for example. There are 17,869 boys high school teams and 17,582 girls teams. Over 1.1 million boys played high school football last year.

So how is an aspiring student athlete supposed to stand out in this very large crowd? How can she or he increase their chances for being recruited and having a chance to “Play for College” rather than pay for college?

Recruiting services such as Interscholastic Futures can get a student noticed by coaches and athletic departments thereby dramatically increasing their chances of being offered both the financial assistance needed to attend college and the opportunity to compete.