We're closing in on the April signing period, where the overwhelming remaining number of commitments for college track and field/cross country will be signed. And, with the Class of 2017 signing their commitments, it's time for the Class of 2018 (and even 2019!) to start thinking about the process.
In the past, I've written about the whole college recruiting process. A great deal of that information is still current and I don't mean to try to update it all here.
What I do mean to lay out here is a few of the most basic answers to questions about the college recruiting process and link to the most current copies of the NAIA and NCAA guides for college-bound student athletes. You'll find that you're able to answer a whole lot of questions on your own simply by downloading and reading through those documents.
College Recruiting FAQ File - Track and Field/Cross Country
1. Can colleges and universities offer as many track and field/cross country scholarships as they want?
Well, yes and no. But mostly no.
In NAIA, member institutions are limited to 12 full-ride, or the equivalent thereof, track and field scholarships for both of their men's and women's teams. Theoretically, they could give all 12 as full ride scholarships (though they never do). Typically, they will multiply the effect of the scholarships by giving them out as partials. So, if they gave out one-quarter scholarships on their men's track and field team, they could give out as many as 48. If they further reduced the amount covered by those scholarships they could give out even more, but at some point this becomes impractical.
NCAA Division III institutions have no athletic scholarships (and therefore will not be discussed any further in this article). NCAA Division II institutions may give out as many as 12.6 full-ride, or the equivalent thereof, track and field scholarships for both their men's and women's teams. The same 12.6 limit applies to men's track and field programs in NCAA Divison I, but DI institutions are allowed up to 18 full-ride scholarships, or the equivalent thereof, for women's track and field programs.
All that said, not every institution is "fully funded." That is, an institution may, for example, compete in NCAA Division II, but offer only 6 (for example) of its allowable 12.6 scholarships.
NJCAA member institutions are allowed up to 20 scholarships for both of their men's and women's track and field programs.
2. Do I have to send ACT and/or SAT scores to the NCAA or NAIA?
Yes, absolutely, and much more as well. Part of the college recruiting process is establishing your eligibility to be a collegiate athlete. Your test scores are an important part of that process. So is your high school academic work and your amateur standing. For more information on each of these items, please reference the NAIA and NCAA prospective student-athlete handbooks linked at the bottom of this page.
3. Can I participate in college athletics without signing a National Letter of Intent?
Yes. The NAIA has no binding contract that is equivalent to the NCAA's National Letter of Intent. And, the National Letter of Intent only applies in the NCAA for athletes who are getting scholarship money for being part of one of the school's athletic teams. But, you still must meet academic eligibility requirements to be able to participate, which means going through all of the NCAA or NAIA eligibility processes and checks.
4. Can my athletic scholarship be supplemented with other scholarship awards?
Yes. In fact, this is more the rule than the exception. One way schools give "full-ride" scholarships to the most promising athletes is to make sure the athlete in question is getting any available academic scholarships and then making up the difference with an athletic scholarship, up to the full cost of attending the school.
5. What are the basic rules about contact with college coaches?
As an (unwritten) rule, you should contact coaches of any schools you are very interested in attending rather than waiting (and hoping) for them to contact you.
The rules vary by type of contact. For Division I schools, electronic contact and phone calls may happen between a coach and a prospective student athlete at any time after September 1 of your junior year. You and the coach are not allowed to have off-campus contact, however, until after July between your junior and senior year.
Official visits are not allowed until the first day of school of your senior year. You may visit each DI member school once only, with a limit of five official visits to all DI member schools combined.
Until you have signed a letter of intent, a college coach may not contact you or your parents more than three times.
Rules are much more lax for NCAA Division II. You can make official visits beginning January 1 of your junior year. You and the coach may have unlimited numbers of phone calls. You may have off-campus contact with the coach any time after the end of your sophomore year. You may make as many official visits to DII institutions as you wish.
There are very few restrictions on the NAIA recruiting process. The NAIA does not have an "official visit."
6. Will any official visits I make be paid for by the school?
That is entirely up to the school. If your parents go along, their expenses may not be covered. The school can cover as much or as little of your expenses for an official visit as they choose.
7. If I make a visit to an NCAA DI or DII institution, does it automatically count as an official visit?
No, you are welcome to visit a school on your own initiative as much as you like, but you may or may not be able to spend time visiting with members of the coaching staff and mix with the team while you are there.
8. Are athletic scholarships automatically renewed each year?
Not automatically, but they are, generally speaking, renewable. You must remain a member of the team in good standing, and you must remain academically eligible. It does sometimes happen that student athletes are dropped from an athletic scholarship from one year to the next apart from their own initiative, but this is usually not the norm.
9. Can my athletic scholarship amount increase from one year to the next?
Yes, but there must be room in the overall athletic scholarship limits in the program for that to happen. In practice, awarding scholarship funds to non-scholarship athletes who are performing well tends to take priority over increasing the amount of a scholarship athlete's award, though both can and do happen. Conversely, a scholarship award could also decrease from one year to the next though in practice it's more likely to be withdrawn altogether than to be reduced.
10. Under most circumstances, how long can an athletic scholarship be in place?
Barring unusual circumstances, up to five years or four seasons of the sport, whichever comes first. Scholarships, of course, are issued one-year at a time, up to a limit of five years. With track and field/cross country, you have four years of eligibility for each of cross country, indoor, and outdoor, but still only five years, total, of eligibility.
11. Are athletic scholarships ever offered as an enticement to attend the school, apart from strictly athletic considerations?
Yes. Tuition and fees are rather steeply marked up at most colleges and universities around the nation. Let's take a hypothetical example of a school with a 100% mark-up on costs and an offer of a 20% athletic scholarship. That 20% scholarship only eats up 40% of the mark-up on tuition and costs, meaning that the school still makes a nice sum of money when you attend. Colleges and universities regularly discount the sticker price of attendance as a means of attracting students. Athletic scholarships are by no means immune to such handling.
You probably weren't thinking of asking that question, but it's a good thing to know just the same. Part of drawing you to attend a particular school is luring you into thinking you're getting a great deal. Many, if not most, schools support athletic teams ultimately because doing so helps keep dorms and classrooms full, and tuition payments coming in. Colleges have a stake in all this as well.
12. Should I ever use a recruiting service to help me get a track and field scholarship?
Probably not. There is a very small number of schools that actually look at athlete profiles they are sent by recruiting services. For the most part, however, college coaches toss information received about an athlete that was not sent by the athlete. Don't believe me? Ask a college coach. If you're not interested enough to make your own inquiry, they're not interested enough to look over some glossy report a recruiting service made to market you. Moreover, it's not like a recruiting service can tell a coach something about an athlete that isn't readily accessible, anyway. Comprehensive athlete stats are as close as the athlete's MileSplit profile. And, test scores and high school course information are required information that must be sent to colleges before they will spend any time recruiting you. Spend your money on other things.