Recruiting of Players for College Sports
Nowadays, we hear more concerning college sports recruiting news. Most of the talk revolves around college football or basketball. The reason for this increased interest is simple: college recruiting has become more competitive than ever. Drills, technique videos, and recruiting advice are readily available, and parents are starting their kids in basketball and football leagues at younger and younger ages. Everyone believes that with a head start and the right coaching, their kid can make it to the big league and carve out a profitable career in pro sports.
Enter the recruiting services. Where there’s a demand, multiple companies will surely arise to fulfill it.
All About 3-star Recruits.
Parents, athletes and sports fans want to know the future of the program even before it begins, and recruiting services such as Rivals, MaxPreps 24/7Sports, and Scout have emerged to deliver the data on high school and college sports. And they’re doing a great job tracking and compiling the stats. The only thing is, they each have a different method for interpreting the data, which can lead to a bit of confusion among parents, athletes and sports fans.
So, if you’re wondering what college recruiting is all about and what stars assigned to players mean, specifically 3 stars, this article is for you.
What is sports recruiting?
Sports recruiting typically starts with college athletics in the United States. College coaches add prospective student-athletes to their roster every off-season. At the end of the player’s recruiting process, the coach usually extends an athletic scholarship to a player who is about to be a junior in high school or higher.
Through the recruiting process, schools have to comply with whatever rules and conditions have been set in place by NCAA, but ultimately, a player is being recruited by an academic institution’s athletic department staff member or representative to secure that student-athletes enrollment and ultimate participation in its intercollegiate athletics program.
What do the stars assigned to players mean?
Four significant player rating services assign star values to players. They include Scout, 247, Rivals, and ESPN. These stars are a way to grade players employed by recruiting services, but they are often not authentic.
The important thing is that each scout and service has a different review system, as they do not operate on the same scale. For example, some focus on game tapes evaluations, while others prefer in-person evaluation. Some others weigh both.
The composite rating
The 247 Composite takes all the ranks into account and designates an average to said players. Their rating is based on a proprietary algorithm that compiles a player/prospect “rankings” or “ratings” listed in the internet media public domain by the major media recruiting services. How it operates is that it converts average industry ranks and ratings into a linear composite index topping at 1.0000, which indicates a consensus No. 1 prospect across all services.
247 Sports
247 also comes up with a rating from scouts that is way different from the composite score. They rank players in their way, and here’s how it is done.
In the 247 system, athletes are grouped into a star rating system and then given a numerical rating based on their future potential: the franchise player, the five-star prospect, the three-star prospect, and then the two-star prospect.
Rivals
In Rivals, they rank their players into the following groups: franchise player, four-star or All-American candidate, three-star or All-Region Selection, two-star or Low-End FBS prospect.
ESPN.com
ESPN assigns each player a number. Only this time, it is on a 100-point scale. It is also flipped from the 247sports and Rivals process. So instead of players being given stars relative to their peers, they are given a rating against a standard. This means that there might not be up to 30 five-star prospects in a given year.
What is a 3-star Recruit?
A three-star player is viewed as a college football version of an underdog. At the beginning of the recruiting industry, three-star players were not in existence, but now, the story has changed. The first composite data of 3-star players came in 2002, almost at the beginning of this century after years of consensus rankings of four and five stars.
Not to be taken for granted, there are a lot of golden talents that have emerged from the group of three-star players.
Different rankings and their meanings
According to 247Sports, a 3-star prospect is one player who will be likely a player who will develop into a solid starter for his college team and is among the best players in his region in the country. Of course, he is not like the four or five-star prospect, but it has been observed that he has some significant pro potential, as he is one of the top 10% players of the nation.
ESPN.com classifies a 3-star recruit as one who is not really consistent with showing dominance, especially when matched up against top players in the country. Based on a numerical rating of 79-70, players who are closer to 79 ratings possess the ability to be an all-conference or quality player. Players closer to the 70 ratings are likely not of the same caliber.
Rivals, however, groups a 3-star prospect as one who is seen as one of the region’s top prospects, mainly among the overall top 800-850 prospects in the nation. This is a player who has been deemed fit to have a mid to low-end pro potential. He is seen as one who has the ability to impact at the college level.
Does this mean a 3-star recruit cannot land a championship?
No. it doesn’t work like that. Most persons think only four or five stars win championships, and that’s false.
Here’s how it works. When a kid has graded five stars or four stars, it doesn’t automatically mean he’ll win 10 or 20 games a season from then on. Highly ranked players do not equal a championship; however, it increases the possibility that the player may win a championship.
So, getting a four-star player for your team doesn’t guarantee the team winning. However, it does increase the team’s chances.
For a three-star ranked player, this one has potential and can progress to a higher rank. How so? The answer is coaching. If a 3-star player has great coaches developing him or her out of high school, then that athlete can maximize his or her potential and rank higher.
Development of 3 Star Recruits versus 5 Star Recruits
Consequently, a 3-star recruit can become a potential 5-star athlete in some scenarios, with the right coaching and development. Often this is not only based on physical and sports development, but also mental coaching, which is one of our areas of expertise.
On the other hand, if the 3-star player has an average coach that cannot develop his or her players, there might be no observed improvement.
Development is key. We look at a 3-star player as a diamond in the rough. With the right development, a 3-star athlete can become the next underestimated sports phenom.
Star Ranking and Academic Standing of the Player
You shouldn’t just focus on the rankings to determine how successful a player will be. There are other attributes a player needs to have that might not be evaluated in a player, but will surely play a big part as talent.
These attributes include character and academics. If a player doesn’t have a good work ethic or can’t follow team rules and accept authority, then he won’t be a member of that team for long. Also, if a player can’t keep up with the demands of football and classes and stay eligible in college, then the star rankings will not do him any good.
To sum it up, recruiting a 3-star player could be good for a team and also for the player. If the team has a solid approach to athlete development, that team can transform their 3-star players into championship winners. Conversely, if that player wants it enough, if he or she is willing to put in the work and develop to progress to a higher rank, that player may be a 5-star athlete in the making.