Hi, I have a 2021 son who would like to play football in college. His HS coach is of no help as he is new and has zero experience to how this works. When I try to google information I get general info from recruiting services or can find info for other sports but for players who are on the low D1 or D2 track, can anyone provide football related recruiting forums I can join?
To start with the basics, here is the NCAA page with academic eligibility criteria and other information. Make sure to download and read the Guide for the College Bound Student Athlete. http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/educational-resources
Here is the page with links to the NCAA DI/II football guides and calendars. http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/resources/recruiting-calendars/division-i-and-ii-recruiting-calendars
This info will familiarize you with the timeline and terminology.
In NCAA DI there are 2 football subdivisions FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) and FCS (Football Championship Subdivision).
FBS schools can give up to 85 full-ride scholarships, FCS can give up to 63 total scholarships. Football at FBS schools is a headcount sport, meaning all scholarship players get a full-ride scholarship (e.g., Tuition, room and board, books, fees). Football at FCS schools is an equivalency sport, which means scholarships can be divvied up among players, some may get full rides, but many won’t…they will only get a portion of tuition, for example, and have to pay the remaining tuition, plus room and board. Of course, you can also seek need-based financial aid.
Your son should start (NOW) by filling out the online football recruiting questionnaires for the schools he is interested in…for example, here is Bucknell’s: https://questionnaires.armssoftware.com/8463cb4b53b7?
Your son also needs a highlight video (a couple minutes) because that is one of the first things coaches will ask for. Does he have one? Can you access any game tape thru the high school?
Your son should also create a twitter account and pin the highlight video at the top of his profile. He should follow the coaches and programs he is interested in and retweet their tweets. Of course, do not tweet anything controversial.
Ultimately, you have to decide what the goals are: go to best football program possible, be accepted to a higher academic level school than would be possible without football, minimize costs (what is your annual budget), etc.
Depending on his goals you may also want to look at DIII and NAIA.
Hopefully some long time posters will jump in and identify some showcases that may make sense. Any bounds you can put on the search will help posters make recommendations…what academic level, what football level, geography, setting, major, etc. are you and your S looking for?
There aren’t any “recruiting” forums I am aware of. At the top end of D1, there are a plethora of sites that have comment sections, 247, Saturdaysdownsouth (SEC), saturdaytraditions (BIG), etc. Most big schools also have individual fan sites that track and discuss recruiting. As you can probably guess, these are of limited value for kids who are not P5 level recruits. At the FCS level there is a decent general site called anygivensaturday where individual threads track recruiting by school or conference. There is a fairly active Ivy football site on voy.com where various threads track recruiting. I really don’t know what is out there in the D2 or D3 level though, sorry.
My personal opinion is the place to start is making a hudl highlight tape and then hosting it on an aggregator site. My son used gobigrecruiting, which seemed to be the preferred hosting site of his target schools, the Ivys. He did get quite a bit of interest from other FCS schools and a smattering of low end FBS schools (MAC, service academies), although much of that could have been the nature of his high school program rather that the exposure from gobig, I really can’t say. A number of larger football states also have state specific hosting sites which several of my son’s high school teammates who were pointing at D2 or 3 used.
But start with a simple, short highlight tape. And then find the closest ESPN or Rivals camp this winter/spring so your son can get some half way accurate measurables reported. If he does well enough there, that might lead to a rating on a number of recruiting sites which helps increase his profile.
If you can give some more specific information about what types of schools you are targeting, the level of competition your son is playing at and what his measurables are, I can maybe give you some more specific ideas.
My son has been doing D2. His experience is to create a twitter account, with his name (not a nickname) so coaches can find him. On twitter, pin his hudl film, put basic info in comments. Start following college coaches for the schools he is interested in. When they follow back then the line of communication is open. All initial communication has been through twitter private messages. Even now at the official visit stage they are still messaging that way even though they have his # the majority of the time. Share appropriate videos. As his season went on he would create hudl highlights “first four games”, “mid year”, etc and post. For his target schools, try to go to their camps if possible. We didn’t and that hurt some, but he’s still getting some great options. Also, you can go to most websites and fill out potential athlete forms to get on their radar.
Helpful. Thank you.