Some bad or questionable practices used by many scouting companies. - Money back satisfaction guarantee - This could be interpreted by some as meaning you can get your money that you paid for the scouting service back if you don’t get a scholarship. This would be an NCAA violation. If a scouting company is as good and credible as they say they are, and they do what they say they do, they don’t have to have a money-back guarantee. This is not some kind of product that you ask someone to test to see whether or not they like it. In recruiting, you don’t get a second chance. If you’re burned or you’re unhappy the first time, it’s too late to try something else. Avoiding and going around the high school coach to get prospect referrals - Almost all the companies do this because they know the coach is probably not going to recommend them to their players who might be considered college prospects. On the other hand, a good scouting company will get their recommendations from the high school coach and ask for the coach’s assistance in promoting the prospect. If a prospect is seriously being recruited by a college, you can count on that college recruiter to contact the high school coach for an evaluation. The scouting service that goes around the high school coach will actually hurt the prospect’s recruiting chances, in many cases. Of course, colleges now actively recruit from the good, competitive club teams as well as the high school teams. Therefore, the college recruiter will also seek the opinion of a prospect’s club coach. Signing up athletes whose names were obtained from the Internet, Recruiting Seminars, Newspapers, Direct Mail or other non-credible sources. - In some cases companies will actually fly their sales representatives into an area where they company obtained prospect names through questionable sources or group meetings. These salespeople will usually interview the families at some meeting facility to try and sell their scouting program. It is unlikely that college coaches would view this practice as being a credible source for legitimate prospects, and therefore they may not give any of the kids signed up on this program any consideration, even though some of them could actually be legitimate prospects. - Picking and choosing colleges based on the prospect's ability - Almost every scouting company limits their promotions to colleges that they feel the individual prospect qualifies for. This is actually done by entering specific criteria into a computer search program that will take this data and come up with a list of colleges. Of course, a computer cannot and should not determine which colleges a prospect will qualify for – and neither can any scouting company. It may make for a good sales presentation for the company but it doesn’t work. In fact, scouting companies are not allowed by NCAA rules to provide prospect information to one college without giving another college the same opportunity to get the information. This means this practice could possibly be a violation of NCAA rules. And besides, it limits the exposure for the athlete and cuts down on his or her opportunities for a scholarship. College coaches and only college coaches should determine who they are interested in and any picking and choosing of prospects must be done by these coaches and not by the scouting companies. All scouting companies should provide their services to every college and for every athlete. Every athlete pays the same for the scouting service and therefore every athlete should get the same treatment – so should every college. Let these college coaches determine who they want to eliminate and who they want to recruit. Short Internet Video Clips - These are totally useless to a college coach. It’s just a sales gimmick used to impress prospects and their parents who usually don’t understand what college coaches really want to see when evaluating a prospect. Showing a few perfect plays on an Internet video might impress Grandma but it is not going to get anyone recruited.
Rating scouting companies and how to determine which ones are good and which ones are bad. - In the past, ACF has rated all the major scouting companies in various categories but we have now changed our rating policy. Based on the information and facts that we are providing, individual prospects, their families, and college coaches, are encouraged to do their own evaluations or ratings. There are dozens of scouting companies throughout the country. Most have either just gone into business or they have been in business a relatively short period of time. And, of course, some are small or fairly unknown. We can’t separate all the good from the bad but there are presently only five companies that are endorsed and recognized by American Coaches Federation as being the legitimate leaders in the industry. They are:
1. National Scouting Report
2. College Prospects Of America
3. Collegiate Sports Of America
4. College Partnership
5. Recruit
National Scouting Report is the oldest company and previously received our highest rating. They have been in business for over 25 years and much of the present day private scouting industry was founded on their ideas and principles. The director of American Coaches Federation is the original founder of this company. All of the companies reported here offer a variety of services that are beneficial to prospective student-athletes. Based on the information that we have available to us we are outlining the services of each company. The purpose of listing the services is so that any individual may make a comparison of the different companies. We cannot guarantee that all information is 100% correct or up-to-date, due to changes that are frequently made by the individual companies. However, we will, upon request, correct or update any individual company information.
