American Coaches Federation

If you were to ask college coaches how they feel about private scouting companies most of them would probably tell you that they don’t use them. Some might even tell you that they throw everything away that they get from these companies because they do all their own scouting and recruiting and therefore they don’t need any outside help. Actually, this is a little misleading. In fact, many colleges use scouting material that was originated by a scouting company without even knowing it. The coaches who do the recruiting often don’t know where the original prospect information came from or where some of the continuous scouting information comes from. When a college gets the name of a prospect from a scouting service they sometimes send that prospect a questionnaire. Later on, they may follow up on that prospect after the questionnaire was returned and the recruiting coordinator from that school may even request the prospect’s video from the scouting company. As time goes by, they may begin to recruit this prospect and eventually sign him or her to a scholarship. The college coach may not admit to using the scouting service, or realize he used the scouting service. However, in fact, he not only used information provided by the scouting company, but also the scouting service was indirectly responsible for the prospect being recruited and offered a scholarship.

Videos - Any good scouting company will provide a quality video service to college coaches, whereas, the coaches can evaluate a prospect’s skills and potential. We’re talking about high-quality full-length digital video that coaches can use to truly evaluate a prospect. The short video clips that some of these so-called scouting companies use in their promotions are nothing more than a gimmick to attract people to buy their service. It is doubtful that any college would ever rely on these clips as a true evaluation of a prospect’s ability. Even the largest colleges in the major sports will often use a reliable scouting company to provide certain prospect videos that they cannot get for themselves. This may be the only thing this college will use the scouting service for but getting a good quality prospect video is critical to the recruiting process. It could be that the Recruiting Coordinator requested the video from the scouting company but the coaches who actually looked at and evaluated the film had no idea where it came from – and didn’t really care. Later on, if you asked one of these coaches if they used scouting services they may say “Absolutely not. We have our own system and we don’t need any scouting company to tell us who to recruit or who can play for us. We throw their stuff away”. Of course, a lot of colleges do admit to using a good scouting service and some depend on that service pretty heavily, especially for individual prospect videos. Actually, any college coach would be foolish not to take advantage of at least some of the services provided by the reputable services like the five companies we have mentioned. NCAA rules and recruiting budgets are so restrictive that any outside help should be welcomed by colleges.

What colleges want and don't want from scouting companies - Colleges mainly want two things from a private scouting company – (1.) Accurate statistics. (2.) Good quality full-length video. This is why most colleges will only use reputable scouting companies that they have dealt with for years and who have programs that will provide these two services. Some of the things that colleges don’t want are: (1.) Suspects that are not legitimate college prospects. (2.) A lot of hype or personal opinions about a prospect from the Scouting Company. College coaches will form their own opinions about a prospect. (3.) Inaccurate personal information and statistics. (4.) No prospect video, poor quality video, short-clip Internet video. (5.) E-mails and faxes from scouting companies that are not recognized or established.

Colleges may get a lot of their prospect information, scouting reports, and videos from a good scouting service but they do their own evaluating and their own recruiting without the help of a scouting company – any scouting company. However, a good scouting company can be an invaluable source for all college coaches at all levels. Their service is free to colleges, and while all their information and all their services may not be of use to all college coaches, a lot of it is. Colleges should encourage the development of worthwhile scouting services from the reputable scouting companies. Athletics and college recruiting will continue to become more and more competitive in the coming years. The NCAA has always advocated a level playing field for all schools. One way to ensure this is for everyone to have access to good scouting information on all the nation’s prospects. The only way this can be accomplished is through the efforts of competent private scouting organizations.

Scouting Company Comparison of Services

ACF cannot guarantee 100% accuracy of the services reported here. However, based on the information available through the Internet and individual company printed material, these are the services offered on each company’s premium program. If there are any inaccuracies or omissions we will make the necessary corrections if notified by the company. Some services that we feel are not of consequence may not be listed. For example: All the companies have a toll-free number that their clients can call for advice and assistance. We do not consider this a service of consequence in relation to this report and therefore it will not be listed.