The National Letter of Intent Signing Day for college football prospects is tomorrow, February 1st and the guys at www.gobigrecruiting.com wanted to congratulate all of the Go Big football prospects in the Class of 2012 that will be putting pen to paper tomorrow.  Your natural ability combined with hard work and perseverance has allowed you to get to this point.  Never forget what it took to get here and keep that same mindset at the next level!  It is our sincere hope that www.gobigrecruiting.com played a part in your big day.  If that is the case, please send us an email to contact@gobigrecruiting.com and let us know.  We’d love to hear it.

For Those 2012 Football Players That Are NOT Signing on Signing Day

Do not be discouraged.  At all.  When it comes right down to it, it is all about getting the chance to play football while getting a great education at the next level, whether that is Division 3, NAIA, Junior College or whatever.  If your dream is to play professional football, they can still find you at those levels if you are good enough.  If it isn’t, how much does level of play really matter?  In fact, you can make the argument that the lower the level of play the better chance you have to get playing time sooner.

Either way, keep pushing and exploring your options via www.gobigrecruiting.com.  This is not over yet.  Not by a long shot.  A lot of programs at these levels recruit all the way through May looking for prospects!

Many prospects find themselves late in the process and still haven’t gotten the offers they are looking for.  The reality is that, more often than not, if they haven’t come at that stage, they aren’t going to. 

The football prospects in the Class of 2012 that want to play Division I are getting near that time.  Here’s our advice for them:

TONS OF GREAT OPTIONS- Most people have a goal to play at the highest level they possibly can. That’s understandable. The reality is, however, that very few prospects will ever actually get a chance in professional football and so the most important aspect of college football is the education you receive and the experience you have. There are hundreds of Division 3, NAIA, & Junior Colleges still looking for prospects as we speak.

Don’t miss out on what could be an awesome opportunity by being stubborn.  Too many prospects get caught up in level of play.  Go to www.gobigrecruiting.com and submit your video and information to these schools immediately!

Most of the www.gobigrecruiting.com guys are hitting the road this weekend for the annual American Football Coaches Association Convention which is taking place this year in San Antonio, Texas.

The event actually follows the U.S. Army All-American Bowl Game & Combine which both take place this weekend in San Antonio.

The AFCA is the biggest time of year for us to meet with college football coaches in person, find out the latest trends in their recruiting process, how we can improve www.gobigrecruiting.com, and what type of prospects they are looking for.

If you are a football prospect that has submitted your video and information to college coaches using Go Big expect to have a lot of coaches checking you out over the next four days and a lot of them also requesting video via the “XYZ University is interested in you!” emails that are generated when they specifically click on your name while searching our database.

The time that it takes for a coach at each school to review your profile and video on Go Big can vary greatly depending on the school, the coach, recruiting philosophy, and a number of other factors including how busy they are and how much time they are currently spending reviewing film of 2012-2014 recruits.

Remember, if you had sent them a DVD it would likely be laying in a box somewhere and you would have no idea whether or not it had been reviewed. Same with sending a YouTube link. Ignorance is NOT bliss.

If you want to try to expedite the process we would encourage you to be proactive and email the coach at the school that is recruiting you or the one that recruits your area to make sure he knows that your film is available at Go Big. It is completely free for college coaches so he could easily sign up if he isn’t already and check out your profile and game film.

In fact, every day new coaches sign up to view prospects after the prospect emailed them and let them know that their video had been sent to them via Go Big. It is that easy.

The holidays are around the corner and we wanted to take the time to wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season.  Hopefully the recruiting process has been going well thus far and you aren’t too stressed out!

We also wanted to reward each and every one of you with a coupon that you can use for a free school submission on www.gobigrecruiting.com.  The coupon code is simply xmas and you can enter that into the “Enter Coupon Code” field after choosing schools and proceeding to check-out.

The coupon code expires by the end of day on 12/26 so make sure to take advantage of it today!

That’s the reality when it comes to you and the recruiting process.

It is nobody’s responsibility to put yourself in the best position during this process but your own.  You can’t count on your high school coach because they have a lot on their plate.  Not only that, but quite frankly, a lot of them don’t think it is part of their job description.

The only thing you can control is making sure that EVERY school you are interested in knows about you, your interest in playing for them, and has access to your video and contact information.  Whether that is DVDs, YouTube, or www.gobigrecruiting.com is up to you.

We obviously think Go Big Recruiting is the best way to go about it but no matter how you do it the bottom line is don’t wait or expect anyone else to do it for you.  This is YOUR LIFE and YOUR FUTURE.

At this point the reasons why prospects prefer www.gobigrecruiting.com is fairly obvious.  It is much easier/better than sending DVDs thru the mail and unlike YouTube or DVDs you actually KNOW when each college reviews your video and information.

What about the college coaches themselves? Why do so many of them specifically tell prospects, parents, and high school coaches that they PREFER Go Big Recruiting?

There are two main reasons.  Number one, DVDs are a huge hassle for college coaches.  They don’t want to be carrying them around or having literally hundreds sent to them and sitting around their office.  And while YouTube is convenient for watching video, it does not allow them to check out full game video which they ultimately need in order to properly evaluate a prospect.

More importantly, there is a separation of the prospect information and video with YouTube that does not exist with www.gobigrecruiting.com.  Go Big acts as an online video database for college coaches with all of your information and videos in the same place.  Coaches can sort by a number of different categories and prefer our ease of use and one-click functionality to DVDs, YouTube, or any other online video service.

The first thing you need to do, if you haven’t already, is make sure you have a highlight video. We can help you with that: Need a Highlight Video? if you would like.

Many coaches will eventually ask for your best full-game video so keep in mind which game that is but they all usually want to see highlights so they can decide whether or not they want to watch more.

Remember, longer does not mean better. If you aren’t sure whether or not a clip is good enough to put on your highlight video, it isn’t.  Only the ones you are SURE about should be on there.

Once you have the video, just use www.gobigrecruiting.com to submit it online to every college of your choice.

Well, that depends upon how many options you would like to give yourself and your future.

Think of it this way: If you were going to sell something, like a hat or your old bike that you used to ride before you could drive or whatever, what would be the best way to give yourself the best chance to get the most money possible? The answer is to make sure that as many people as possible know it is for sale.

Well, recruiting is no different. Instead of selling an item, you are selling yourself. The only way to make sure you give yourself every possible option and therefore the best offer is to submit your video and information to as many schools as possible.

We recognize that it may appear as if we are saying that for Go Big’s benefit. Understandable. To be clear, whether you send out DVDs, random YouTube links, or Go Big, we highly recommend sending your video to EVERY school you could even possibly be interested at any point in the process.

REMEMBER: We’ve never spoke with anyone who says that they wish they had sent their video to less schools or that they sent it out to too many. NEVER.

November is fast approaching and with that, early decision deadlines for college applications. Those current seniors who have dedicated themselves to connecting early on with college coaches in providing them with the necessary evaluation tools coaches need to determine “potential matches” have narrowed their list to a few or even one institution they feel is a perfect fit.

Nowadays, college coaches, in many cases are encouraging prospects to commit early to their institution in an effort to wrap up recruiting and outdistance the competition. This article attempts to shed light on a variety of “options” prospects and families can embrace moving forward in the ever changing college search for athletes.

Essentially, student-athletes have 3 choices in the college application process. They can 1) apply early decision or early action, 2) Consider a rolling decision option or 3) Choose to apply in the regular decision pool of applicants. Deciding which option to choose depends mainly on one’s readiness and comfort level to apply and how far along they are in the recruiting process.

Tom Kovic is a former Division I college coach and the current director of Victory Collegiate Consulting, where he provides individual advisement for families navigating the college search. For further information visit: www.victoryrecruiting.com.