Keeping Your Options Open

You may feel that you are a sure fire Division I prospect, but until you have officially received the scholarship, you must always keep your options open. No matter what sport you play or consider playing at the college level it is always best to have options, many things can factor in receiving a scholarship and all of these factors can affect your options down the road. Here are the StudentBlitz reasons for keeping you options open.

Fall Back Plan

An example of this is of a few years ago when following a recruit on Rivals.com, in which the athlete appeared to have many positive things going for him in the spring of his junior year. At 6'6" tall and 215 pounds, this athlete had a great deal of interest from colleges from the Big 10 and Big 12, with hand written mail being sent to him everyday. He was rightly attending visits to different colleges and learning more about them in doing so. With all the interest from the big time schools, he still did not feel that he would be playing Division I football, and wisely kept interest in a wide range of schools to be safe. As the signing day approached, the interest from the Big 10 and Big 12 colleges had rapidly declined, and the athlete eventually signed for a Division III school. This shows the importance of the athlete responding to even the smaller schools during the recruiting process, despite interest from bigger schools. Even if you have interest from top schools, this does not assure you of a scholarship, and if this athlete had only conversed with top schools, he may not have found one at all.
It is important to look into all of your options, whether they be Division I , Division II or even Division III, you never know what will be the best fit for you as a person and as an athlete.

It is clear that the more schools that are interested in you, the better options and more choices you will have. The scholarship offers may not have come to the table as you may have hoped, but any financial package offered will help pay for college and reduce student loans. You may be offered a Division I walk on place, a Division II partial scholarship, or a Division III scholarship, so all options are important to have so that you are able to try and reduce the expense of college.

As mentioned earlier, it is important to know that just because Division I and II schools send letters and show interest, it does not mean that a scholarship is offered or is about to be. Student athletes should always keep their options open; college keep their options open in the attempt to sign the best recruits that they can. While it is flattering to have interest from these schools, they may have just added your name to a list that could consist of around 5,000 prospects. Also, despite that the Division III or NAIA programs may not send a media guide like the bigger schools do, they are still good fall back options if things do not go to plan. Therefore you should try to respond to as many schools as possible and do not burn bridges with schools you may want to turn to later in the process.

The Transfer Option

One last reason of keeping your options open, is if you want to change your mind after a few years of attending a college. For example, you may get the scholarship you wanted from a big school, but after two years you are unhappy due to the lack of playing time or personal satisfaction. If this happens, it would be useful to have contacts from schools which recruited you at the start, and you could contact these coaches to see the options. This is of course after you have received your release, according to NCAA rules. To have this option will give you a starting position, especially if you have developed relationships with the coaches from the recruiting process.

Overall the more open minded a student athlete is, the more choices they will have in deciding what college they will attend. The StudentBlitz personal recruiting coach can help you develop long term relationships with college coaches as well as create options for you in the recruiting process. Fill out the above form and let the journey to the next level start here……..