By: Chad Wilson
Twitter: @GridironStuds
Perhaps I’ll stir up some nests with this article but my real hope is that it appeals to the common sense of most, the good sense of others and the reality for those that are left (fat chance on that one Chad!). I have heard the word from some who think it’s ok to demonize those who charge “kids” for recruiting help. Those that charge and do a good job are not the enemy my friend and I’ll explain to you why.
There are several options when it comes to recruiting help. Let me lay them out to you. First you can get recruiting help for free. Nothing really wrong with that unless you expect that help to be of strong quality. Let’s take a look at this. If the help is of strong quality then it will at some point be in high demand. If it’s in high demand then it seems many will be using it. If many are using it then how much help can it be? Those offering free help are usually doing so with great intentions. However, free recruiting help being used by the masses often means sending out a link to your highlight tape along with basic information on you typically through social media. That’s harmless. However, it has limited effectiveness when hundreds are being helped this way. Hopefully a school will notice your link, click on it and watch you. Simple math and probability says the more that use it, the less of a chance that is. A service like this is good but goes best when accompanied by additional help. For free services to get more in-depth, it would need the help of additional people and additional people need to be paid and where’s that money going to come from? This is simple economics at work, supply, demand and compensation.
Second, there are services that don’t charge the “kid” but charge the colleges. On the surface this sounds great. The recruit doesn’t have to pay for anything, the recruiting service gets funds to operate and everything seems like Heaven. Here’s the other shoe that’s about to drop. A service paid by the schools only, will never have every school as a customer. In fact, they will only have a handful of schools as a customer. So, guess who that recruiting service is going to send your information to. Guess where that recruiting service needs to steer you to in order to keep that college as a customer. This is common sense. So for example, the best place for you, the recruit, to go to is Utah but they are not a customer of this recruiting service so Utah won’t get your information. Instead, your information will be sent to Syracuse. Perhaps Syracuse is not a fit for you but they are paying that recruiting service $5,000 per year so guess where you are going. Services like this, while they may help, don’t have you as their priority. It’s a tale of common sense.
Finally, there are the services that charge the recruit for help. Those are the ones that people with an agenda like to make the enemy. You hear things like “oh how could you charge the kids?”, “Unbelievable that you would take money from a kid to help them!” and an assortment of other things. Cast a deaf ear to that noise. Recruiting services are entitled to charge a “kid” the same way that a trainer is entitled to charge a “kid”. Both services are in the business of helping the individual that stands to gain the most and that’s …… you got it, “the kid”. As with the first two examples, there are business in this category that don’t do a good job. It is in your best interest for you to do your research to determine who provides quality work and who does not. This is like anything else you pursue in life. You, the recruit, try to find out who’s a good coach, what’s a good school, who makes great shoes, games, etc. Same applies here. However, a service that charges “the kid” now works for the kid. If they are to stay in business, they must serve the interest of the kid. They are not limited in the schools they can approach and since money means limited customers, it means you don’t get lost in the shuffle of 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of customers. This is not rocket science, I promise.
GridironStuds.com provides free services for potential college football recruits. It’s free to create a profile on our site and add your highlight video. With college coaches visiting the site, you do have the chance for a coach to see your information. On top of that, we also offer “premium” services. You know what premium means. This means you need to pay and it also means you get more in-depth help with your recruiting situation. That means we are going to put in some extra work to get you seen by colleges. It also means we are going to do it right. So the morale of the story is, there’s nothing wrong with free as the headline may have suggested just taper your expectations when you go this route. You may get help from a service that charges the schools and not you but you will severely narrow the choices and finally, a service that charges recruits is not the devil, it’s actually the one by circumstance that has the biggest burden of helping the intended subject and that is “the kid”!
Chad Wilson is a college football recruiting expert and creator of the GridironStudsApp which allows high school football players to gain exposure to college football coaches and fans. Wilson is a former college football player for the University of Miami (92-94) and Long Beach St. (’90-’91) and played briefly for the Seattle Seahawks (’95). He is also a former youth and high school football coach for over 15 years most recently for 5-A State of Florida Champs American Heritage. He runs All Eyes DB Camp a defensive back training company located in South Florida IG: @alleyesdbcamp. Wilson’s oldest son Quincy plays in the NFL for the New York Giants and his younger son plays cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals.
