I received a very good question on my first blog post, Recruiting Step One – Expand the Pool. Since often comments are difficult to find and navigate, I reposted the question for today’s post:
The question, from Andrew, was “How difficult is it to be recruited by a NCAA Division II team?”
First let me start by saying that yes, it is difficult to get recruited by an NCAA Division II school. If you want to play football at ANY collegiate level you have to be a VERY good football player… a very good student-athlete. If you look at the rosters of the good NCAA DII football programs, and we have several right in our back yard (click on any of these links to take you to the football rosters – Northwest Missouri State, Missouri Western, University of Central Missouri, Pittsburg State) they are filled with players that were just an inch “too short”, a few pounds “too light” and a tenth of a second “too slow” to play at a FBS school.
That being said, typically there are more student-athletes that will sign with FCS, NCAA DII or NAIA schools. As I pointed out, there are more schools at those levels. Even though they don’t have as many scholarships to use in their programs as FBS schools, they CAN split up their scholarships and offer (and sign) athletes to partial scholarships. When I was at UCM and William Jewell, we signed athletes each year to scholarship amounts that ranged from $500 for books, up to a full ride. These scholarships can be renewed annually, and can be (and often are) increased annually as well.
The good thing about the area you live in, Missouri, is that there are many good DII schools that recruit the KC Metro area. The 10 member MIAA (Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association) is generally considered one of the top DII conferences in the nation. The 12 member Great Lakes Valley Conference (a new DII conference) also includes many area schools such as William Jewell, Missouri S & T and joining next season Truman State.
I hope that answers your question. I will post more information on things you can do to help market yourself over the next few weeks.
In addition to these written posts, I have recently launched my YouTube Channel that deals specifically with the recruiting process. The channel can be found here : The YouCanDoMore YouTube Channel, and the complete playlist can be viewed here.
Any additional questions, just leave a comment or email me!
Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com