Why Your Recruiting Homework Needs to Go Beyond the Athletic Forum
March 4, 2015
By Chris LeGates, TCS Co-Host
Last night I received a tweet about the closing of Sweet Briar College in Virginia as a result of insurmountable financial challenges. The college is an all women’s institution that has tried to reinvent itself amidst very difficult economic times and a dwindling number of students interested in a small liberal arts schools. In addition, the overall number of women looking at all women’s colleges is declining – making the task even more daunting. Is this the shape of things to come in higher education? Some say yes! One professor at Harvard has even gone as far as saying that within 15 years half of the 4,000 institutions of higher learning in the United States will fail. So what does this mean for the student-athlete? Well, it certainly paints a picture of doom and gloom, but not all of this is to be believed at this point, however, situations like Sweet Briar could be firing a warning shot for the future. Student-athletes who are looking to continue their athletic careers in college now must do more than just go and meet with the coaches and see the campus and meet the team. They must now check on the financial stability of the institution and be prepared to ask questions of coaches, admission counselors, and faculty about the financial health of the schools they are looking at. Investigating the endowments of schools is helpful in knowing what type of financial shape a school is in and what type of financial aid may be available. Here is a long list of schools in the United States and what their endowments are.
In the next decade, we can expect the financial landscape of higher education to change. There is no doubt that it cannot continue as is. You will see mergers, programs cut, faculty and staff layoffs and in some drastic cases institutional closures. This makes it imperative that prospective student-athletes be proactive in their approach to their research. Sweet Briar sponsors six sports with over 90 student-athletes participating and now these student-athletes have to basically go through the process of finding new places to go to school and play. Fortunately, they have been granted their releases by the NCAA and will not be subjected to any transfer stipulations. You will hear more stories like this in the future and you do not want to be going through what the student-athletes at Sweet Briar are going through now. Do your research and your homework in this process. It is your responsibility to ask questions and remember that the only questions that go unanswered are the ones you do not ask!
Good luck and always #BeYourBest
Chris
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