The Pressure of Athletic Recruitment

 

The Pressure of Athletic Recruitment

Over 420,000 student athletes compete in twenty-three NCAA sports at over 1,000 member institutions across the country (Hewitt, 2009). While not every one of these students will receive a full or partial scholarship, consider the number of students who do, and the value of those scholarships is high. Over 126,000 students receive either full or partial scholarships that have a total value of one billion dollars. With the monetary value of an athletic scholarship being high, it makes getting an athletic scholarship a high stakes game for student athletes.  Not only is there pressure on student athletes to get a scholarship, but there are also pressures on coaches to win, which can lead to aggressive recruitment of student athletes.

The recruitment process for athletes can be very stressful and even be intense for those who are 14-18 years of age.  With email, text messaging, and phone calls that can be made to prospective athletes, pressure for the athlete rises (Yen, 2011).  With the constant contact by coaches, many athletes feel the pressure to commit early, which can lead to excitement for some and sometimes the wrong fit for others. Although young athletes may have the physical appearance that coaches like, do these athletes really know what the right fit is for them at a young age when they are unprepared for the pressures they will likely face?

 

 

 

Hewitt, P. M. (2009). The Recruiting Process. College Student-Athletes: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Implications, 37.

 

Yen, A. C. (2011). Early scholarship offers and the NCAA. Boston College Law Review, 52(2), 585-616.

 

http://www.scholarshiphelp.org/