Background

Before diving into personal accounts and advice/criticism for my readers, I feel some seemingly tedious, but necessary background information must be established before I continue.

I guess I should begin by explaining the college football recruiting process. It traditionally commences with the ending of your junior season. You do what I like to call the b.s. work. Actually, it's all b.s. work because that's the name of the game. But more on all of this to come. You get a highlight tape of yourself together and then send it out to the prospective colleges you hope to play for. I thought sure, why not send a few out. If this can get me into some ivy league-esque school I could play football for four more years. Highlight tape goes out and then this is where all the "shooting of the breeze" takes place. Coach A tells you his school is the best and you have the "whole package" here. Coach B tells you that they are ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the 5th _____ school. Frankly I think none of this crap matters. What it comes down to is players, most, have a general idea of the caliber of school at which they want to play. They've done enough research on their own to understand what they are up against academically. What it comes down to is finding out from the coaches where they will bend over for you in admissions to get you in the door of a Notre Dame or Duke or Wash U.

Its also has a lot to do with you you know, your h.s. coach knows, and how well you and your parents can play the game of b.s.

Inagural Address

Let's face it, the college application process sucks. There is absolutely nothing remotely self rewarding or beneficial from it. Lets add to this the prospect of considering pursuing a varsity sport in college.

I had a twenty-five minute phone call with a coach from a midwestern University this evening. I felt like an ass after I hung up the phone because I don't feel remotely interested in attending this college. The guy just wouldn't take no for an answer. I came up with a million things to say. No business courses, I'm late on the application, my guidance department wont have the forms turned in on time. Forget it! This guy was throwing everything at me. When I told him my list of other schools I was considering he got real ballsy and made the claim that his school had better academics then a school founded in 1789 with an endowment larger then Bill Gates. In retrospect, the guy was great at his job. His goal is to hunt students like me down, and convince us why we should bother with their school. It gets a little old after a while but you learn the in's and out's of "the game" (more on "the game" next time).