ACADEMIC IMPORTANCE

College coaches will look at your performance first to see if you can help them and then immediately look at your grades. Recruits with good performance and good grades are much more affordable than a recruit with just great performance. Coaches like to help recruits get academic scholarships first then fill-in with athletic scholarships. By using this method it will obviously make their program dollars stretch farther.

• All College coaches look for student-athletes who have at least a 3.5 GPA.
• A lot of college coaches look for student-athletes who have a GPA between 3.0 and 3.5.
• Some coaches look for student-athletes who have a GPA between 2.5 and 3.0.
• Very few college coaches look for student-athletes who have a GPA below 2.5.

To qualify for an academic scholarship in college you would need to at least be close to meeting the following criteria (these are approximate and each institution has different criteria):

1. High school cumulative GPA at 3.5
2. SAT score around 1150 (math and reading), ACT around 28
3. Be in the top 10% in your graduating class.

If you become academically ineligible once you are on the team here is what the coaches lose:

• A team member
• Your scholarship for a period of time
• The recruit they turned down in order to sign you

College coaches have to be concerned about your academics. They can't afford to waste time and scholarship money on a great athlete who doesn't go to class and who will likely become academically ineligible. If you become academically ineligible the team not only loses you, but they lose your scholarship for a period of time. If enough team members become ineligible the NCAA can sanction the school and team.