Tips for Navigating Football Recruitment for Non-Students
If you are a non-student who wants to play college football, but you worried about being held off the field due to your grades, or lack theroef, this article will provide you with some tips on how to navigate the football recruitment process. The NCAA has certain grade point average minimums that are required for all scholarship football athletes, meaning that football coaches and parents of talented football players must pay attention to academics as much as they pay attention to the football player's on-field performance. Read on to learn some of the things a football player needs to have academically in order to play for a college team, and to find some advice for non-students on navigating this process.
Eligibility Requirements
Eligibility requirements for all football players who are being recruited to play in college are set by the NCAA, and exceptions are never made. All players must first and foremost have graduated from high school. They will have needed to average a 2.0 grade point average in all of their core courses, meaning English, math, and science studies. Standardized test scores also must meet a minimum, though this is on a sliding scale. These tests entail either the SAT or the ACT, varying from school to school.
For an Ivy League school or top academic school, football players will need at least a 690 in critical reading and a 700 in math on their SAT, or at least a 31 on their ACT, which are good scores for just about anyone. For other Division I schools, the ones that seem to have great football teams on a regular basis, at least a 460 in reading and a 450 in math are needed, or more than an 18 score on their ACT.
Make a Highlight Reel
Non-students who want to get recruited for top level college football leagues need to be able to show recruiters their talents in some way, and this is best done through a highlight reel. If a player's family and friends shot every game he played on video, or his games were shot by the school itself, he should get this footage and edit his top plays down into a reel. He can send this to college football recruiters at top programs to review, so that they can try to offer a scholarship to this player based on his talents. As long as the player graduates from high school, most colleges can give out football scholarships allowing them to both go to school and play football for free.
NCAA red Shirt
"Red shirting" a football player means that a school recruits a player, enrolls him in the school, but does not let him play football for the first year, while still allowing him to keep his four years of eligibility to play after that year. A player with grades that aren't up to par coming in can be red shirted, receive financial aid from the school, and get his grades up in that red shirt year so he that he can be given a scholarship.
Go to a Junior College
Many football players will go to a junior college for a year or two to get their grades up, and continue to play while they are there. Once they meet eligibility requirements, they will transfer into a major university to play their final years of eligibility on the big college football stage.
