5 Financial Mistakes that Can Limit Your Chance of Playing Your Sport at the College Level

Athletic balls representing 5 financial college recruiting mistakesSo far I’ve covered college recruiting mistakes concerning signs that you don’t understand the college athletic recruiting process and mistakes players and families make about their ability and what it means. Today, I’m going to cover mistakes related to finances when looking for athletic scholarships. If it’s really about using sports to help pay for college, you need to avoid the following college recruiting mistakes:

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4 College Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid When You’re the Best Player on Your Team

Boy saying oh no about college recruiting mistakes

Boy saying oh no about College Recruiting MistakesMany high school players and their families believe that being the best player on their teams is their ticket to playing at the college level. The truth is that star high school athletes are likely to make some assumptions about their ability that will undermine their chances of playing in college. Here are four college recruiting mistakes based on assumptions of talent that you must avoid.

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5 Warning Signs that You Don’t Understand the College Recruiting Process

Baboon scratching head representing common college recruiting mistakes

College Recruiting MistakesIf you spend any time on the internet or reading books on college athletic recruiting, you’ll see lists of common mistakes made by families during the recruiting process. The interesting thing is that there isn’t a lot of variation in the mistakes mentioned, it appears that people are making the same college recruiting mistakes over and over. You have to wonder since there are warnings about them everywhere.

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8 Ways Showcase Camps Can Be a Waste of Money

burning money by going to a showcase campRemember when camps were something you did for a week or two in the summer or maybe over a weekend with a scouting troop? High schoolers didn’t go to camps, they worked at them to save up money for college. Not anymore. At least not for high school athletes interested in playing at the college level.

Showcase camps are a convenient, although increasingly expensive, way to get recruited. Given that most college athletes don’t receive scholarships, it can be hard to see the ROI on attending showcase camps. It’s not that showcase camps (or prospect camps) are automatically a waste of money. But they’re certain to be if you make the following mistakes.

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What is a walk-on player in college sports?

sideline football players representing walk-on players

Football players asking What is a preferred walk-on playerCollege athletes without a scholarship that play on a team that offers scholarships are generally referred to as “walk-ons.” Over time, the term has evolved such that now some people recognize three types of walk-ons. There are preferred walk-ons, recruited walk-ons, and just plain walk-ons. If you’re going to be a walk-on, “preferred” is definitely the way to go.

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Is Stacking Athletic and Academic Scholarships Allowed?

Basketball and mortar board representing stacking athletic and academic scholarships

Basketball and mortar board representing stacking athletic and academic scholarshipsThe first thing you need to know is that athletic and academic scholarships can’t be stacked at D3 schools because they do not offer any athletic scholarships. Until recently, it was theoretically possible to do so at D1 and D2 schools but only if athletes met certain academic requirements. Otherwise, it was assumed that that athletes were just receiving academic scholarships, or institutional need-based aid, simply because they were athletes. What happened in cases where the athletes didn’t meet the academic requirements, the award money was counted against the total number of scholarships allowed for the team. It was complicated.

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3 Types of Players that Don’t get Recruited by Colleges

player standing on base representing types of players that don't get recruited by colleges

baseball player representing a player that doesn't get recruitedThere are a lot of athletes and their families that are expecting to play their sport in college. And far too many of them are actually counting on an athletic scholarship as part of their plan to pay for college. Yet, the truth is that most of these players won’t be recruited to play in college, much less get a scholarship because they make common recruiting mistakes. If you’re one of the following types of players, chances are you won’t be playing in college.

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Why My Spreadsheets Don’t Include the Coaches’ Email Addresses

cat looking at laptop to find college coaches email addresses

cat looking at laptop to find college coaches email addressesMy College Athletic Spreadsheets do not include any coaches’ information. No email addresses for baseball coaches or phone numbers for softball coaches. I occasionally get requests to include the coaches’ email addresses but I have no intention of doing so. Why? Because athletes serious about getting recruited to play in college aren’t going to spam every college coach in their sport.

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Using Baseball to Get Into College: The College Application Essay

baseball college admission essay

Outline of baseball player with words inside representing using baseball for your college application essayWhen people think of using baseball to get into college, they’re usually thinking about a coach offering a full-ride scholarship to play on the team. For those who still hold such delusions, time for a reality check. But there are still all sorts of ways baseball can help you get into college, including providing content for your college application essay.

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