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Effective April 25, 2018, the NCAA has initiated new recruiting rules that will affect the way Division 1 college coaches may recruit prospective student-athletes during campus visits and college camps. Sports excluded from these new recruiting rules are Division 1 football, Division 1 basketball (both men and women) and Division 1 lacrosse (both men and women).

Here are the new recruiting guidelines:

1. Official visits: Official recruiting visits made by prospective student-athletes to college campuses may now begin September 1st of their junior year of high school. The old rule was on or after September 1st of their senior year.<
   
   Note: Division 1 college football remains the same with official visits beginning April 1st of the prospect's junior year through the end of June and then starting again September 1st of their senior year. Division 1 college basketball for men remains the same with official visits beginning January 1st of their junior year through the end of June, and then starting up again September 1st of their senior year. Division 1 college basketball for women remains the same with official visits beginning the Thursday after the NCAA D1 Championship game of the prospect's junior year through the end of June, and then starting up again September 1st of their senior year.


2. Recruiting by college coaches: College coaches are prohibited from having any recruiting discussions during camps prior to September 1st of the student-athlete's junior year of high school. Previously college coaches were permitted to make scholarship offers to sophomores and freshmen during their attendance at college camps.


3. Unofficial visits: College coaches and their respective athletics departments are not permitted to be involved or arrange any unofficial campus visits. An unofficial visit is when the student-athlete pays for the expenses of the visit as opposed to an official visit where the athletic department pays for the visit.


4. Division 1 Softball: Division 1 softball has instituted even more stringent rules whereby college coaches may not talk to recruits before September 1st of their junior year even if the athlete initiates the contact. College coaches are also prohibited from talking with high school or club team coaches before September 1st of the prospect's junior year. However, college coaches may express their interest in a particular prospect to the prospect's high school or club team coach as long as they do not engage in a discussion that may lead to an official offer or commitment.

How will these changes affect your recruitment as a prospective student-athlete?

The changes being initiated by the NCAA will have a greater impact on college coaches then they will on prospective student-athletes, but these new rules highlight the importance of starting the recruiting process as early as you can by researching college programs and gaining as much exposure as you can before your junior year. It is very important that by the time your junior year rolls around you are already high up on the radar screen with as much visibility and exposure as you can gain, making it that much easier for college coaches to identify you as a scholarship prospect for their programs.

How do the new rules affect PrepStar Athletes?

The new recruiting rule changes do not affect how PrepStar athletes or the services we provide at PrepStar are used by college coaches. In nothing else, these new rule changes actually enhance the services we provide for both college coaches and student-athletes alike! College coaches may continuing viewing our PrepStar recruiting profiles during these new recruiting blackout periods providing our athletes with valuable recruiting exposure that is vital to their success of being evaluated and ultimately recruited as scholarship prospects.

IMPORTANT!
If you are not currently enrolled with PrepStar and wish to see if you qualify as a PrepStar next-level prospect, please take a moment to create your recruiting profile in our prospect database. You may do so by clicking on the link shown below:

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May 15, 2018
Jeff Duva - President

One of the most often asked questions we receive from student-athletes looking to play at the next level is in regards to college recruiting showcases.

Every year tens of thousands of high school and club team players attend college showcases for sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, softball, baseball, and Lacrosse. The typical college showcase will have well over 1,000 athletes competing with their travel ball teams, all vying to get noticed by the limited number of college coaches in attendance. The larger showcases will have up to 100 or more college coaches in attendance from various levels of D1, D2 and D3 college programs. Smaller events may have 50 or less college coaches in attendance.

One of the main factors student-athletes must consider is the cost for attending these types of events. The cost to participate in these events can become quite pricy when calculating in registrations fees, travel costs, lodging, meals, etc. A winning strategy is for each family to come up with an annual budget for college showcases and to wisely choose showcases that will meet your financial budget to attend these types of events.

College showcases are a great way to compete against some of the nation's top high school talent and the experience at these events can be very rewarding and helpful in your development as a young athlete. So, just based on the sheer competiveness of these types of events, we do feel it is a wise decision to attend as many showcases as you can without breaking the bank!

Having said that, we have found that trying to rely on college showcases to get recruited and receive an athletic scholarship is not a very sound strategy in and by itself. Most college coaches that attend these type of events already have developed recruiting lists of athletes they plan to watch. If college coaches aren't going to the showcase to watch you compete, there is a good chance you will go unnoticed.

A winning recruiting strategy is to make sure college coaches attending the showcases you will be competing at already have your recruiting profile along with any video highlights you may have.

Athletes that are enrolled as PrepStar prospects have a huge advantage when attending college showcases as PrepStar delivers their e-Profiles along with videos to all coaches in advance of each event. This gives coaches a reason to watch you perform in live competition. In addition, PrepStar delivers information on our athletes to hundreds of other college coaches that are not in attendance of each event for maximizing recruiting exposure.

As a result of PrepStar's extensive recruiting database of college coaches, PrepStar athletes receive 100% recruiting exposure nationwide, greatly increasing their chances of receiving athletic scholarships for college. PrepStar only accepts a limited number of highly qualified prospects per sport/per graduating class, ensuring that PrepStar prospects are all highly qualified as college-bound student-athletes.

If you are not currently enrolled with PrepStar and wish to see if you qualify as a PrepStar next-level prospect, please take a moment to create your recruiting profile in our prospect database. You may do so by clicking on the link shown below:

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Mar 19, 2018
Jeff Duva - President

Every year approximately 487,000 student athletes participate in high school football. Many of these young athletes are hopeful of one day receiving a college baseball scholarship!

Receiving an athletic scholarship and participating in the exciting world of college baseball is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The competition is fierce among high school athletes as tens of thousands of student athletes are vying for a limited number of scholarship opportunities on the collegiate level.

Annually, there are approximately 8,000 new opportunities for entering college freshmen to make it onto a 4-year or 2-year college roster. That means less than 7% of graduating high school senior baseball players will make it to the next level.

Division I is the highest level of college baseball and are comprised of schools that include the major collegiate powers in the U.S. To be eligible as an NCAA D-1 baseball program the university must sponsor a minimum of 14 different NCAA championship sports. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with larger budgets, more elaborate facilities, and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.

Currently there are 1,673 college baseball programs on the Division I, II, III, NAIA, NJCAA, USCAA, and CCCAA levels. There are 299 NCAA Division I programs, 269 Division II programs, 384 Division III programs, 184 NAIA programs and 540 JUCO programs.

Division I baseball programs have a limitation of 11.7 scholarships per team. These scholarships can be divided up between multiple players in order to meet the 11.7 scholarship total. Division II baseball programs have a limitation of 9 scholarships per team. These scholarships can be divided up between multiple players in order to meet the 9 full-ride scholarship total.

Division III programs do not offer athletic scholarship but may offer financial aid based on academic merit and financial need basis. NAIA schools may offer a total of 12 full-ride scholarship per team and these scholarship may be divided up between multiple players in order to meet the 12 scholarship total.

If your goal is to play college baseball, win an athletic scholarship and receive a rewarding college degree, then it is of vital importance that you create a winning game plan to make this dream a reality! Here are some steps you need to be taking during your high school career:

The first and foremost area of importance is academics. Without the proper academic qualifications you will not be recruited for a college football scholarship. Here is a quick review of Division I Academic Standards...

To be eligible to practice, compete and receive athletics scholarships in your first full-time year at a Division I school, you must graduate from high school and meet ALL the following requirements:

1. Complete a total of 16 NCAA core courses in the following areas:

• 4 years of English.


• 3 years of math (Algebra 1 or higher).


• 2 years of natural/physical science (including one year of lab science if offered).


• 2 years of social science.


• 1 additional year of English, math or natural/physical science.


• 4 additional years of English, math, natural/physical science, social science, foreign language, comparative religion or philosophy.

2. Complete 10 of your 16 core courses, including seven in English, math or natural/physical science, before the start of your seventh semester. Once you begin your seventh semester, you must have more than 10 core courses completed to be able to repeat or replace any of the 10 courses used to meet the 10/7 requirement. Students whose academic credentials are solely international (including Canada) are not required to meet the 10/7 requirement.

3. Earn an SAT combined score or ACT sum score that matches your core-course GPA (minimum 2.300) on the Division I sliding scale. SAT scores earned on or after March 2016 will be evaluated based on concordance tables established by the College Board.

In one of our earlier blogs we talked about steps you need to take to receive an athletic scholarship for college. Here is a quick review of our 4-C's toward success...

• Character


• Courage


• Commitment


• Championship Mindset

CHARACTER: Make sure you maintain the highest level of CHARACTER and citizenship at all times, not just when people are watching.

COURAGE: Don't be a crowd follower but instead be a leader with impeccable character and the COURAGE when you have to make the hard decision amongst your peers when you know it is the right decision for you!

COMMITMENT: To be successful in anything you do in life you will need to have the proper COMMITMENT and determination to succeed at what you are doing. Most great athletes have an unwavering commitment and determination to go past fear and doubt, propelling you toward your determined goal.

CHAMPIONSHIP: This leads us into having a CHAMPIONSHIP mindset. Champions aren't born they are made! Set your goals high and if you put into action your action the proper commitment, courage and character you will be well on your way to high school and collegiate success.

Now that you have created your game plan for the next-level, there is one vital and necessary step you need to take to ensure you reach your college goals of obtaining an athletic scholarship. That step is EXPOSURE! Many great and highly qualified and deserving student-athletes go unnoticed in the recruiting process every year due to a lack of exposure. With the digital age upon us, social media outlets, online profiles, videos and much more, are a necessary part of the recruiting game.

There are companies in the world hyper space that will offer student-athletes web platforms to self promote themselves to college coaches nationwide. These types of services can be helpful but more times than not college coaches find these types of services that you may be familiar with, cluttered with non-prospects who have no chance of playing beyond the high school level. Many of these sites even promote themselves are being the best because they are the biggest, with tens of thousands of athlete profiles.

PrepStar offers a much different solution than these other companies by focusing on qualified, verified next-level prospects. Because PrepStar works with a select group of no more than 360 athletes per year, we can choose the very best that have the academic and athletic qualifications for college. As a result of this much more refined and "rifle" approach to college recruiting, PrepStar delivers the result families are looking for by helping their athletes reach their college goals. If you would like to see if you qualify as an elite PrepStar 360 prospect, please take a moment of your time to create your athletic resume by clicking on the link below.

After we receive your personal information you will be contacted by a PrepStar Scouting Coordinator to setup a personal scholarship evaluation with one of our national Scouting Directors!

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Mar 10, 2018
Jeff Duva - President