Whether you’re a senior zeroing in on a final choice, a junior hoping to narrow the field or even a sophomore just hoping to make the recruiting process a little more manageable, you’re taking on the same obstacle American voters are facing in the homestretch of this year’s presidential race. How do cut through the fluff, spin, creative approaches and marketing to get down to what a program or candidate actually represents? This topic comes up annually but after the recent bevy of Midnight Madness type events and the ongoing football weekend official visits, it seems time once more to talk about what such things actually mean ultimately in a prospect’s critical decision making.
No matter what situation you might be facing, any individual with expertise or experience will tell you that making choices from an emotional standpoint is a recipe for disaster. Even if that emotional swing happens to be positive and an enjoyable one resulting from a great on campus event it’s still wise to step away from the situation and view things objectively before truly giving weight to the experience and what it might mean to you and your future. Through the years many decisions have come on the heels of midnight madness or a campus visit and have been more of a response to the weekend rather than actually a choice based on needs and fit. In situations like that, those parents, high school and club coaches and anyone else genuinely interested in an athlete’s long term success should be pulling back on the reins and slowing things down.
I’m not minimizing or criticizing season opening events. They’re fun, they’re exciting, they’re unique (See Hammer Time in Lexington last week!) but they really should have no bearing on a prospect’s search to find the best place to call home. Looking at the bigger picture reveals that smoke, laser light shows, music (recorded or live); team choreography, dunk contests and skill events do nothing to make one program a better option than another. From the recruiting perspective, they’re simply not good examples of the true atmosphere around a program. This sentiment is valid in part because it’s just a once a year event and also due to the fact that often they’re joint marketing efforts with the men’s team.
If you’re looking to get an accurate gage of the norm for excitement and enthusiasm check out several of their home games. Choose ones that feature solid, competitive opponents but not ones that are either big rivalries or cream puffs. The atmosphere you find when a team plays someone in the middle of their conference standings is a going to be a better indicator of what you might find day in and day out during your career rather than at midnight one evening in October.
The same goes for official visits on home football weekends. Let’s face it, with just five to seven home games a year, a weekend with boosters and alums in town and roaming campus plus round the clock activities, tailgate parties and pep rallies, there’s not going to be a lot of insight available about what life will be like the other 350 days each year. Again, like Midnight Madness, football weekends are fun and provide a great setting for coaches and current team members to socialize with recruits and their parents. However, are they an accurate interpretation of college life? Not so much. Still, there’s a reason that college coaches try to schedule visits on the weekend of home games. They’re banking on emotion and hoping you’ll get caught up in the moment and pull the trigger.
Even an official visit on a non-football weekend challenges a recruit and those visiting with her to navigate some of the song and dance that comes inherently with recruiting. As I’ve written in the past it’s important to realize that every moment and every item on the itinerary is choreographed. Those you meet with academically and athletically have been screened plus given your detailed bio and briefed on your interests and concerns. Your host has been carefully selected after a lot of thought by the staff regarding personality, personal or geographic common ground, and success with previous prospects. Where you eat, when you tour campus, all the “personal” touches and creative team or staff activities are all scripted, thought out and planned. The catered team meal at the coach’s house isn’t really optional for current team members nor is it a regular weekly occurrence. Good recruiters leave nothing to chance. Don’t get me wrong, none of that is negative as long as you maintain perspective about all the warm and fuzzy things while still getting the answers that will be more important to your decision than who won the dance contest.
Even a bad visit warrants a more objective look. A school that has made the cut to the point of being one of your five NCAA permissible official campus visits deserves one last bit of scrutiny before they get the bad news. Sometimes a visit that’s seems lacking really isn’t a true reflection of the program. Did travel issues impact the time you had to see or do the things important to you? Was weather limiting campus tours and putting a damper (no pun intended!) on other activities? Were you distracted by things at home (an upcoming test, your own team, relationship issues)? Were you tired of visits or the recruiting process itself and just not focused? If the response to any of those questions was yes, you may want to take some additional time and reevaluate that particular program once more before cutting them loose. Be sure that the things not measuring up in your mind were actual issues rather than situational influences that could negatively distort your perception.
Not every school is going to enjoy the opportunity to have you on campus for Midnight Madness, football games or any other special athletic or university events. It’s important that those programs who didn’t win the battle for the “best” recruiting weekends aren’t viewed in a lesser light because of the timing of your visit with them. Ultimately, your ideal program should look good to you on any visit to campus regardless of when it happens to occur. It’s important to be cautious if you find yourself leaning towards one choice over another because of the great time you had attending one of these events. Be sure your inclination is a result of the factors and people important in your decision rather than any residual feeling from your trip.
Do these events offer some insight into programs? Absolutely. You can get a feeling for team and staff chemistry; gage the department wide commitment of the athletic program or the interest of the surrounding community as well as a host of other peripheral factors. As long as you keep perspective and understand the limited nature of these experiences, there are plenty of observations to be made and information to be learned. Never lose sight of the fact that your decision is much too important than to be influenced by the pageantry of an event rather than reality of every day.
