Financial Aid Limits 125
Football
Many high-school football players who are college prospects
get strung along as they seek roster positions and financial aid.
Remember, coaches aren’t trying to harm any prospect; their
priority is fielding a winning team.
Good college football coaches create a prospect depth chart
for the positions for which they are recruiting (computer
software is available that helps coaches organize both a depth
chart and a prospect chart). If you watched the movie We Are
Marshall, you saw a wall board sample of a Recruiting Depth
Chart. A coach’s preference would be to recruit the prospect
that is their first choice (number one on the position depth
chart). They know, however, that often they will lose their
first choice to another college, so they need to have a second
and third choice, perhaps even more.
To be certain that coaches keep all the prospects on the depth
chart strongly considering their programs, they usually treat
all prospects as if they were their first choice. If you happen to
be the coach’s third or fourth choice, you may think you’re as
good as successfully recruited because of the way the coach talks
to you. But more likely than not, the phone calls and promises
will abruptly stop because the coach has successfully recruited a
prospect higher on the position depth chart. Some coaches will
call to tell you that you are no longer be considered for athletic
financial aid, but unfortunately, too many don’t and families get
hurt. (A rule they know and one you may not know.)
You must never allow yourself to be strung along. You
must ask early in the recruiting process where you are listed
on the recruiting depth chart for your position. Coaches
rarely deceive a prospect when asked a direct question. If you
are listed as number three, for example, but you really want