It is important to remember when reading this guide that every highly selective college has its own criteria for recruiting high school athletes to their NCAA teams. While the general process remains the same, the profile of athlete recruited to each college can vary quite significantly.

High school athletes interested in being recruited to an NCAA sports team at a highly selective college in Division 1 should do their homework carefully to understand the athlete profile of that team, and the academic requirements set by the admissions office at that college.

It is also important to remember that the highly selective colleges require their recruited athletes to meet academic requirements as well, so not every outstanding high school athlete can be recruited to a highly selective college.

Note: X Factor Admission will build out the athlete profiles of every NCAA sports team at the highly selective colleges to facilitate clarity in where a high school athlete may find success as an athlete recruit. Some colleges only recruit the very best athletes who meet academic requirements while other colleges will recruit successful athletes who rank lower in their athletic statistics but meet the college’s academic requirements.

A highly selective college that excels in a sport and is in regular contention for NCAA, Ivy League and Conference championships will place a great deal of importance on recruiting the best high school athletes in that sport who meet academic criteria. The same highly selective college may be less competitive in another sport, and they may recruit good athletes who rank lower with their athletic statistics.

Duke University, for example, has one of the best basketball teams in the NCAA, and it recruits nearly all of its team members from amongst top high school players nationally. However, Duke’s fencing team is not as competitive as its basketball team, and Duke’s fencing athlete recruits, while academically very strong, are not the very top ranked fencers in their age cohort

The athletic statistics that matter for athlete recruitment vary by sport. Some sports, like fencing and tennis maintain national rankings and recruitment is based on these rankings, while team sports may rely on a collection of factors. In basketball, for example, individual averages for points scored, rebounds, assists and blocks are taken into account along with the player’s team win-loss ratio, the player’s ESPN rankings, whether the player was team captain and so on.

Academic requirements and the Academic Index

While meeting academic requirements is very important for the highly selective colleges, the size of teams for certain sports like football require some trade-off between athletic prowess and academic performance in order to fill out the team.

To make sure that academic standards were maintained and not compromised or become arbitrary, the Ivy League colleges developed the Academic Index in 1985 so that the academic standards required of athlete recruits fall within an acceptable range of deviation from college’s average. The Academic Index and its variations are now in use by all highly selective colleges.

Read more about the Academic Index

It is very important to remember that the admissions decision is made by the admissions office and not the NCAA coach. Until an athlete receives a Likely Letter from an Ivy League admissions office or an offer of acceptance from the admissions office of the college who issued them a National Letter of Intent (NLI), the athlete has yet been admitted to that college, no matter what the NCAA coach says.

All potential athlete recruits will be asked to submit their academic information to the admissions office for an academic read to make sure that they meet the academic requirements of the college. Only if the athlete passes the academic read will he/she be asked to submit a completed Common Application to the college.

When does the recruitment process start for Division 1 colleges?

There are very strict rules imposed by the NCAA on when a Division 1 NCAA college coach can initiate recruitment of an athlete. While information about camps, questionnaires, NCAA materials and non athletic college recruiting material can be freely shared at any time with a high school athlete, an NCAA college coach is restricted as to when they can approach to discuss athlete recruitment.

Depending on the sport, the official athlete recruitment process for Division 1 colleges typically kick off sometime at the end of sophomore and junior year in high school, with exceptions for basketball, football and baseball, where an athlete can approach an NCAA coach at anytime without restriction.

Most top performing athletes would have been noticed by NCAA coaches long before the start of the official recruitment process for their sport. It is only a matter of time before the courting dance to recruit a top athlete gets started once restrictions are removed on direct contact between the NCAA coach and the athlete. However, in this pre-recruitment period, no direct contact is allowed between NCAA coach and the athlete.

For most sports, the official athlete recruitment period takes place over a period of between 18 months and 2 years starting with the high school athletes being able to contact the NCAA coach directly. While athletes can approach NCAA coaches by the time they end sophomore year or start their junior year in high school, this is only the beginning of the process.

Junior year, in particular, is a very important year for an aspiring athlete recruit. Some may already be on the NCAA coach’s radar while others use the year to improve performance and gain the NCAA coach’s attention. This period of honing performance to meet athlete recruitment criteria lasts through summer after junior year and into early fall of senior year in high school.

Front runners in the athlete recruitment process would have been asked to submit their school transcripts and test scores for an academic read in the summer after junior year, followed by instructions to submit a completed Common Application by the end of summer if the athlete passed the academic read.

The Ivy League colleges, all of which are in NCAA Division 1, issue Likely Letters between October and December (and sometimes as late as March) of senior year of high school to athlete recruits who meet academic criteria and will most likely be admitted to the college provided nothing changes in the academic performance.

The 23 highly selective colleges that are not Ivy League colleges in Division 1 will issue National Letters of Intent(NLI) to their athlete recruits in the period between November and April of senior year in high school. The NLI when signed is a commitment by the athlete to play that specific sport for a year on admission to the college, and it is not an indication of likely admission. It is important to remember that the highly selective colleges issue these NLIs after their admissions offices have received and reviewed completed Common Applications and determined that the athlete meets academic criteria.

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