"SUCCESS RATE" Most Misleading Irresponsible Metric in College Athletic Recruiting
My 1st experience hearing the term “SUCCESS RATE”
It is mid-March 2015, my oldest son just finished his Freshman year of high school. He started on the Varsity Basketball team 20 of 21 games averaging 18ppg and was awarded honorable mention All-State. I received a phone call from a “recruiter” for college athletics. He congratulated me on my son’s accomplishment and then went on to state that my son had what it takes to get a college scholarship. He then went on to say that recruits who sign up for their service have a 90% success rate. The minimum cost was $700, but the recommended package was either $1500 - $2200. It was painfully obvious this person had never seen my son play or knew anything about him. The call was to prey on a parent who wanted nothing else than to help his child accomplish their hopes/dreams of playing college athletics. The recruit was like a shark and who smelt blood in the water so they went in for the kill with the “90% Success Rate” statement.
Let that SINK in, 90% Success Rate.
What does that mean? 9 out of 10 players get a scholarship.
That is what they lead you to believe, but the truth is when asked directly the question what your success rate is or what is the formula, all companies will go running away and will leave you will no comment. Yet, this term is thrown around in the process of selling their product.
My Investigation
In recent months with my new business and both my sons playing college basketball, I have heard the “success rate” metric thrown around in conversation. I decided to contact one of the big companies that have the success rate metric still listed on their website. I specifically asked what was their success rate and how it was calculated. The first response from them was them asking me where I saw or heard “success rate”. I sent them the links (to their website) where the quotes were located, they stated they would get back to me with the number and formula.
After 2 hours they replied:
“I spoke with our team and we do not release the number publicly.” I was then given the president of the company’s email and phone number to contact if I had any other concerns. In addition, they were going to take down all mentions of the success rate from their website.
These companies know “success rate” should not be used, these companies are distancing themselves from this term, however, it is still used as a sales tool.
If “Success Rate” is 90%+, then this means that either it is a false claim or they do not accept everybody and only accept players they know will get a scholarship anyway
It is irresponsible advertising (at best) to take credit for getting a player a scholarship when he/she was going to get a scholarship with or without your service.
Every recruiting service is a “tool” to help get an athlete’s talent seen by college coaches. That is it, a recruiter can not take a player that did not start in high school and magically make him a D1 prospect. (not saying it has never happened, but 99.99% of the time it does not happen)
Tools/tips to help your recruiting:
Look for companies that do not talk about the success rates.
Ask what you get with your money (number of coaches that will see your information, etc).
Ask if coaches will contact the athlete directly or will the coach contact be governed through the company?
Look to get your information in front of as many coaches as possible, it takes one coach to see something in you that they can develop. That is why it is important to get information in front of as many coaches as possible.
Beware of “Hype” talk and people that overinflate you or your child’s ability. Try to find NON-HYPE agencies that will give you a taste of brutal honesty.
SUMMARY
I believe the use of success rate is on a downward trend, however, in my business I get asked what my success rate is by far more than any other question. My answer is always the same:
“ Success Rate metric is Hype talk and it would be extremely irresponsible and reckless to try to predict your scholarship chances without ever seeing you play or knowing your level of interest.
What I can promise is exposure to hundreds/thousands of coaches and provide data/metrics to show just how many coaches we reached with the athlete’s info and more importantly, how many coaches viewed the highlight link.”