What Does Recruitment Look Like When You Leave The State of Texas?

Photo By Yvan Salazar: Entry way to James S. Malosky Stadium at University Minnesota Duluth.

The landscape of College Football has been analyzed through and through on specific trends. Analytics reveal what coaches do for strategy. However for the parents of Texas High School Athletes, many utilize analytics as information to help them make an informed decision about what college you should attend. For inner-city youth aspiring to attend college as a collegiate athlete, it can be challenging to assess where you are committing to. Not everyone can be like Matthew Salazar and Alex Araiza, both San Antonio, TX natives, and visit Millikin University in Decatur, IL because of their solid support system. There has to be a careful assessment to make the decision and know that it is going to be a calculated risk. After all, only 2.9% of 1,006,013 high school football seniors in 2020 attended Division 1 schools. With those numbers, how do parents and their children ensure it is the right choice?

What do the numbers tell us?

Let us use the State of Texas as a case study. According to the Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) website, there are different classifications of college athletics broken up into different tiers; those tiers are Division(s) I, II, III, and NAIA. With Division 1, it has two subdivisions known as Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). These schools are allocating yearly scholarships with a total of 85 full-ride opportunities in FBS and 63 total in FCS, whom have the ability to distribute at their discretion. In Division II, there is not a traditional sense of commercial success so their scholarships are not fully guaranteed to be full-ride scholarships and are often lower in numbers, which are distributed at their discretion. In Division III, there are no athletic-scholarships distributed but they do have more creativity in their alternative funding for financial-aid. Finally for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), funding for athletic scholarships is capped at 24 to be distributed by the school at their discretion.

In the analysis of Texas, according to the Fieldlevel website, there are a total of 17 Division I football schools located in Texas, 12 of which are in the FBS. There is a reported 6 Division II football teams, 10 Division III football teams and 5 NAIA football teams respectively in the Lone Star State. With the large numbers participating in Texas High School football, how is it possible to attend a school in Texas with limited opportunities?

Texans migrate out-of-state for opportunities.

In reflection of the numbers, Maxpreps reported in 2016 that only 54% of high school football players were staying in Texas. For the other 46%, the assessment of vital information that you can only uncover through visiting or fine research is essential to setting your next four to five years up for success. For example, have you considered how different the University of Texas in Austin is from its rival Texas A&M College Station? The big college atmosphere is drastically different as they each have its own charm to the experience. Ask your nearest Aggie and Longhorn, they will tell you. This is why planning is important. Araiza of Burbank High School talked about his commitment to Millikin University was as much football as it was to the relationship he nurtured with his Criminal Justice Department Head at Big Blue.

“I really liked the opportunity for an internship that was offered, and the city was nice,” explains Araiza.

According to an article in 2018 of USA Today High School Sports, there are varying reasons as to why athletes are leaving their state. Coaching ties and regional presence in recruitment marketing are mainstays; however some schools may be incentivize to bring you in from out-of-state as it correlates to a tuition spike. Analyzing your situation and potential regional exchange programs that offer an ability to circumvent the tuition discrepancy is vital for student debt-free attainment.

Genuine interest is always going to be encouraged through this process to attain dialogue. Because schools allocate so much of their recruitment efforts, many times your inquiry about your school of interest needs to be genuine for any relationship to materialize. There doesn’t need to be a straight commitment, just an acknowledgment that the funding of an out-of-state student-athlete needs to be acknowledged and internalized. Platforms like Twitter, Hudl, and student-athlete inquiries on the athletic site are the main catalyst for secondary markets such as out-of-state recruits and walk-ons.

In a 2016 conversation with Minnesota State University Moorhead Head Football Coach Steve Laqua, he expressed his inconsistencies in recruiting experiences with Texas. Many of the students from the south that do not have direct coaching staff ties often require dialogue in good faith. Laqua expressed student-athletes off their radar have to approach recruitment with him having excellent grades to have ground to stand-on in regard to Financial Aid.

A Duluth, MN Profile.

Getting to know your college area of consideration is tough, especially if money is tight to take a trip. However investing time to research is of great value. You save money, time, and heartache. Is spending the next four to five years of your life in fulfillment and happiness worth the time of thorough investigation?

Hypothetically, let us say that a coach with ties to Duluth, MN coached you and recommended the area to continue your playing career; what do I want to know? What would it be like living there? Duluth has much to offer but a glimpse at something like Wikipedia as a jumping point is great to know for general information. If Duluth sounds like a quality place for you, then elevating your research with school websites and tourism websites transcend your knowledge. Obviously nothing replaces an official visit, but circumstances have to align to travel I-35 from Texas to Minnesota. With any commitment, the more time you invest, the closer you are to expertise. Chances are, as a college-athlete, it would benefit you to even spend summers in the area. Getting to know your new home is frightening and challenging, but rewarding when you find your fit.

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