Contributor Rick Paine is an expert on the college recruiting process. He is also the Director of Swimming at American College Connection (ACC). ACC is a SwimSwam Partner.
I have been directly involved with college recruiting for the past 35 years…..17 as an Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Nebraska and 18 years as the Director of Swimming for American College Connection.
Needless to say, I have seen some significant changes in the recruiting process over this time.
I can remember when we first started American College Connection in 2001 the college swim coaches were not that interested in watching video on recruits. Today it is a must for most coaches. It took several years to get the college coaches to look at a recruit’s wingspan to help judge potential. Today most coaches consider wingspan and shoe size when assessing a swimmer’s ability to improve.
18 years ago very few D-III coaches were aggressively recruiting. Today most of them are. Just look at how fast D-III has become. With the new rule changes, I have seen quite a few D-III coaches actually contacting high school sophomores.
In case you have been out of the country for the past year here are some of the more significant rules changes that went into effect over the past several months.
- High school juniors can take official recruiting visits
- Coaches can text juniors
- The two signing periods have been merged into one (second Wednesday in November-August 1)
- Recruits are not allowed to meet with college coaches on unofficial visits prior to their junior year.
- Several years ago the NCAA passed a rule requiring coaches to get their swimmers to graduate. The NCAA actually will impose penalties for schools that don’t.
- Several years ago the NCAA removed the limits on official visits to D-II schools.
- Several years ago the ACT was recognized as equal to the SAT.
- College coaches are allowed in most instances to stack academic scholarships with athletic scholarships.
- Swimming and Diving scholarships are allowed to be guaranteed beyond the first year.
- Cost of attendance is being provided by a lot of schools now that is over and above an athletic scholarship.
Here are some observations on how these rules have changed the face of recruiting for swimming and diving.
- Verbal commitments are at an all-time high. SwimSwam lists nearly 400 swimmers/divers who gave their verbal commitment before the signing period this year. In September of 2018, they listed 180 and in September of 2017, they listed 55.
- Last year American College Connection had 4 high school juniors give their verbal commitments. This year we have 26 juniors give their verbal.
- September 1 of the Junior year has become a pivotal date. This is the first time a D-I coach can contact a recruit via email or text.
- Many junior recruits are being offered official visits during the fall of their junior year and many of those are being offered scholarships with deadlines to decide
- Coaches are using social media to find out about recruits.
- Coaches seem to be investing in a recruit’s potential more today.
- Coaches are recruiting a lot more international swimmers and divers.
- Recruits are being asked to take the SAT/ACT earlier in their junior year. This helps the coaches find academic aid for the recruit.
- Juniors are being asked to call coaches.
- Coaches are using Junior Days to get recruits to take unofficial visits.
- Swimmers and Divers must start the recruiting process early…at least at the beginning of their sophomore year and preferably in their freshman year.
- A lot of coaches have given their scholarships to high school juniors and are running out of money much earlier than ever before. I know of three D-I programs that are finished with their recruiting for the next two years!
- Some coaches have told us that there are limiting or no longer offering official visits to high school seniors.
- Coaches seem to be filling their rosters earlier than ever before. This greatly affects swimmers who want to wait to decide on a school or who are willing to walk-on.
Start early and be prepared to take official visits and entertain scholarship offers in your junior year.
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I wonder how this will change recruiting for the Ivies and schools like Stanford? If your top choice is one of those schools your are looking at the earliest commitment being in July between the swimmers junior and senior year. If that doesn’t pan out then the swimmer may not have scholarship money left at decent D1 program, correct? Talk about added pressure for the swimmer and their family.
Anyone know how the rules for early signing affect military academies? Can those coaches commit a spot to an athlete so early, without a long enough academic history to know that the kid will be able to get in. Just wondering…
There is one inconsistency with all of the new NCAA rules. Yes, these rules are encouraging earlier commitments with the HS junior official visits, deadline scholarship offers, etc, but the fact that you can no longer make unofficial visits before Sept 1 of your junior year somewhat limits what you can do before that date. I think that “starting the process” as a freshman means to start doing your research to come up with a list of 15-20 schools that might be a good fit for you based on your academic interests and swimming ability. And, I’d have a range so that you are covered in the case that you improve more than expected during your HS soph and junior… Read more »
“18 years ago very few D-III coaches were aggressively recruiting. Today most of them are.”
Not the ones I have come across, be curious as to who makes the list in your eyes…
having worked with 3 different D3 programs, they are very active in recruiting. It’s a completely different sell where they don’t have the resources of D1/D2 programs. The proof is in the finished products, top teams do a good job of recruiting
You mention that it’s preferable that recruiting process start as early as freshmen year. What do you define as “starting?” I have a hard time believing that 90-95% of the swimmers out there need to start the recruiting process this early.
The rule changes are forcing people’s hands to start earlier..
The rules hadn’t changed when the class of 2019 (2023) jumped on the early commit train. Swimswam had a good article about it actually starting with the 2018 class.
I completely understand the rules change; but from the early trends I see it’s only the highest level kids that are experiencing the early recruiting.
It began as just the creme-de-la-creme, but it’s expanded deeper into the class every year. If the trend follows that of other sports (and we have no reason to believe it will be different in swimming), eventually the top 500+ kids will be committed before they start their senior year. It will never be everybody, but it will eventually be ubiquitous.
I agree that things will continue to expand with recruiting and juniors committing, my main concern is the notion that freshmen need to be involved in recruiting. I see it as the arms race situation that occurred with tech suits and younger swimmers. Are we really trying to sell parents on the idea that their kids must start the process as freshmen? Sophomores definitely need to start the process with so many spots being taken up by Juniors committing, but I’m just not buying the idea of freshmen. The one year difference may seem trivial, but I think it its an important distinction.
It would be interesting to see how far down the NCAA team rankings you would have… Read more »
It goes much further down than that….think into D2 and D3 now…
Maybe a few, but I find it very hard to believe that statistically significant amount of swimmers are committing early to D2, D3, or NAIA schools. Not sure how accurate this is, but I found these numbers online for total number of teams and swimmers in D2 and D3
Women
D2 103 teams with 2003 swimmers
D3 258 teams with 5119 swimmers
Men
D2 73 teams with 1515 swimmers
D3 229 teams with 4362 swimmmers
That’s 12,999 swimmers! How many of those are committing early? Swimswam better hire some more interns to start covering these early commits because I certainly haven’t seen them on this site, Swimming World, CollegeSwimming.com, Twitter, Facebook, The Daily Herald, National Enquirer, or anywhere else!
You can find it hard to believe, but it’s starting to happen on a larger and larger scale each year
Last year we had a high school sophomore girl get asked for a verbal commitment. She was offered a swimming scholarship worth $18,000 a year. This was from an NAIA school so the rules are more relaxed. She was not a high level kid. Her two best events were the 50 free (:27.2-yards) and 100 fly (1:02.0 yards). We recommended that she turn it down.
Other than starting to see what schools a swimmer may be interested in, what could start freshman year? If coaches can’t communicate until Sep 1 junior year what is possibly gained by reaching out to coaches via email before late spring of sophomore year (after short course). Seems like coaches have a enough on their plate and can’t do anything with freshmen anyway and nothing more with sophomores beyond starting to build their frantic Sep 1 email and text lists. What am I missing?
Freshmen and their parents need to start researching schools for academics (if the swimmer has an idea of what might interest them) and for swimming. They can compare their current times and their projected times with a school’s times. Better yet, compare their projected times with the 16th place time from conference championships. This will give them an idea of what it might take at specific schools in order to have a shot at swimming scholarships. They should put together a short resume’ painting a picture of their potential and send it to coaches at schools that are fairly realistic. The key is to get on the college coaches recruiting list early and keep the coaches updated with the swimmer’s… Read more »
Its a shame if many are leaving out high school seniors. The improvement from that junior to senior year can be huge!
Agreed. Particularly for boys!
Yes!! The growth spurt can help usually around 16/17 is when boys drop the most time.
So many swimmers that have been swimming their whole lives end up swimming their best times in high school/ first year of college, and never end up improving past that, while swimmers that started later in life that are improving on pace to be just as fast or faster are cut out of the recruiting process.
Totally agree, I started swimming my senior year of high school, walked on in college and became a pretty decent swimmer. I noticed a trend in D3 of coaches investing in recruiting kids who had backgrounds in other sports who hadn’t taken swimming full-time
I strongly agree with this and especially for boys. I was a good swimmer at the beginning of my junior year and a great swimmer at the end of my junior year (NAG record holder at the time) which set up great for college visits in my senior year. But i wouldn’t have been offered the same scholarships that i was in my senior year if the new recruiting rules are in place now that i would have had to decide at the beginning of my junior year.
This is a life changing decision in many ways (not just financially) and it is too bad there is more pressure on these kids earlier to decide and commit when most… Read more »
That can’t be understated! Male swimmers, especially young for their class, are at a huge disadvantage.
Totally agree! My daughter’s improvement was huge this year and schools that weren’t interested before were looking. She’s going to a great school next year due to her improvement. It makes me really sad for later blooming swimmers who’ve had their opportunities reduced by younger swimmers. Also, some swimmers are fast Sophomores or Juniors and then plateau and never get faster. I don’t think the new rules have helped anyone. It might make Senior year less stressful but just moves the stress and makes younger kids worry that they won’t find a spot. I disagree about the need for video. My daughter was actively talking to 15 schools and none requested video.
100% agree! Actually it is a terrible set up and puts so much stress on seniors who are still improving and those that need to wait to see if they receive merit money so they can actually afford the cost to go! Coaches also court a kid and draw them in and then offer a very small amount of actual scholarship. The pressure to commit early is way too much!