For the next three blog posts I am going to look at some of the media tools that are used in the process of recruiting. The first being NCSA which stands for National Collegiate Scouting Association. It is almost like a Facebook page for recruiting. The difference is that NCSA requires a payment to make a profile. College coaches however, get to create a log-in for free. The trade-off is that potential athletes will pay to create a profile knowing that college coaches will log-in and search for them. Since they don’t charge college coaches for a log-in, they can get more traffic on their site from college coaches and thus charge more for their service.
This is the page you are brought to after you log-in and hit search. The initial page brings you to a “suggested athlete” page, similar to Facebook’s “people you may know.” Essentially that page is showing you local athletes whose school preferences match what your school offers. Now the search page is what you use to navigate these athlete profiles. You can search by state, position, height, weight, graduation year, if they have a highlight video or not, you can even search the newest profiles added after a certain date. There is also a ratings search item, NCSA rates prospects on their highlight videos, personally I don’t use their ranking system as I prefer to rate the athletes myself.
This is what a NCSA profile looks like. I decided to use one of a quarterback who will be playing here next year. The initial page gives you the background info on the athlete; school, position, height and weight. The highlight video, which is the most important part of your profile, is also on the initial page. You can see the tabs above that read: video, athletics, academics, my info and statistics. That’s how you navigate around the page. the “my info” tab is another big piece of the profile, it is what gives you the contact information on that athlete, so if you like what you see in the highlight tape, you can get in contact with the athlete. Athletics tab gives you information on the school and the coach, so if you were looking for a reference from the head coach or a guidance counselor at the school, you have the info there to contact them. Academics is another important tab, you’ll find GPA and a transcript there as well as a potential major for each athlete. This way you can eliminate athletes who have too low of a GPA or want to major in something that ins’t offered at your school.
NCSA is a one-stop shop for college coaches. It gives you everything you need on a recruit in one place, from highlights to transcripts you will find it all there. Athletes who have profile are far easier to recruit, you have everything you need from them in one place. NCSA even has their own blog which they use to supply athletes with information about recruiting practices.
Recruiting: Life on the Road 
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