College Athlete Advantage is NOT a spam email service.

We don’t send messages to every coach in the country for every player.

We employ a three-step strategy to identify a target list of colleges for each player:

1. Evaluation

2. Values List

3. Research

We have at least five of our advisors (all former college players/coaches) evaluate each player. The advisors provide feedback about strengths and weaknesses AND a projection about the level(s) of college baseball that fit best.

Once the evaluation is complete, we guide our players through a “values list” exercise to determine which factors are the most important.

Based on the evaluation and values list, we teach players how to utilize the college search tool on our one-stop-shop online platform to perform research on colleges and college programs to create a broad list of target schools.

Once this process is complete, we come up with a multi-pronged strategy to promote our players to the schools on their target list.

Here’s a question players and parents often have when I explain this process:

How an I determine if a school and baseball program is a good fit based only on website research?

It’s a fair question.

Certainly website research has limitations:

• You don’t get to experience the campus firsthand

• You don’t get to talk to coaches, professors, financial aid reps, etc.

• You don’t get to taste the food in the cafeterias

I DON’T recommend making final decisions based on website research, but it DOES have value.

Performing website research in a systematic way can help you narrow your initial target list to a manageable list of schools.

Read on to learn about the system I recommend:

Ability

There are approximately 1700 college baseball programs in the United States. Researching every program isn’t realistic.

Here’s the first question to ask:

Do I have the ability to play at this school?

If the answer is “no,” or “not yet,” cross the school off your list.

How can you figure this out?

Get an objective evaluation from someone you trust and will tell you the truth.

At College Athlete Advantage, we have at least five of our advisors evaluate each player. We give a lot of feedback about strengths and weaknesses and project the level(s) of college baseball that fits best for each player.

If you’re not sure about the level of a college program, either:

• Ask Google, “What division is the baseball program at XYZ college?” OR…

• Go to the athletics page of the school and scroll to the bottom of the page. You will typically see a symbol for the division here.

At College Athlete Advantage, our one-stop-shop online platform includes a college search feature, allowing for quick and easy filtering.

Location

Here’s a second question to ask when narrowing your list of target schools:

Am I willing to go to this school based on its location?

Your answer may depend on a number of factors, including:

• How far the school is from your hometown

• What part of the country the school is in

• Whether you like the city or town the school is in

Most college websites will have information about the city or town. Click here for an example.

You can also do a simply Google search for additional information.

Obviously, if the school isn’t in a desirable location, cross it off your list.

Size

A third question to ask is:

Am I willing to go to this size of a school?

Size refers to enrollment.

You can easily find the enrollment of any college through a Google search.

At College Athlete Advantage, our “College Search Tool” provides this information.

I recommend being open to schools of ALL sizes at first.

I’ve worked with players who THOUGHT they preferred a large school, but then visited a small college and were pleasantly surprised.

It’s best to keep an open mind, especially early in the process.

Academics

A fourth important question is:

Does the school offer the major I’m interested in?

If you’re not sure what you want to major in, this question becomes:

Does the school offer academic programs that I MIGHT be interested in.

Every college website lists academic programs and majors.

Most website have an “academics” link at the top of the home page. This link will include a list of majors.

If the quality of the academic programs is important, you can click on the programs you’re interested in to learn more about the courses, professors, and general structure of the program.

Also related to academics, search for the academic standards required for admittance to the school. Our college search tool with CAA provides this information up front.

Room and Board

If the academic programs fit, move onto the next questions:

Does the college offer room and board?

AND, if so…

Are the living arrangements and food options satisfactory?

There are some colleges that DO NOT offer room and board, meaning you will have to secure a place to live and buy food on your own.

Most college websites will have a “campus life” link on the navigation bar. Here you can click on “residence life” and “dining” links.

Some colleges offer in-depth virtual tours of the dorms, while others may just show pictures.

Either way, you won’t be able to answer this question in depth until you visit campus and see/experience the dorms and cafeterias firsthand.

Athletic Facilities

Next, check out the athletics facilities online.

Almost all college will have photos of their facilities on the website. Some will also have a virtual video tour of the facilities. Here’s an example:

As a college athlete, you will spend A LOT of time in the athletic facilities, so it’s important to check them out online and in person.

Coaching Staff

You can find a list of all the coaches on the baseball page of most college websites.

If you click on each individual coach, most website will show the bio of each coach as well.

Here are some things to look for:

• How long has each coach been at the school?

• Which coach handles your position? What is his experience?

• What other schools have the coaches been at?

• What is the track record of success for each coach?

Roster

A final item to look at when doing website research is the construction of the roster. Here are some questions to find answers to:

• How many players are on the roster?

• How many players are at my position and what year’s are they?

• Where are the players from?

• What percentage of players are high school players versus transfers?

A normal roster size for a college baseball program is 30-40 or so. Many programs, however, carry very large rosters (often dictated by the administration to boost enrollment).

A large roster can be a red flag, but doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. Here are some questions to ask the coaching staff if you’re considering a program with a large roster:

• How many coaches are on staff?

• How do you handle practices with such a big roster?

• Will I receive any individual coaching?

• Do you have a JV program? If so, how is it structured?

• Do you plan to keep the roster the same size?

When evaluating the number of players at your position, take a close look at what classes they are in. If their are a lot of young players on the roster at your position, ask the coaching staff how they see you fitting into the position group should you commit (this is a good question to ask anyway).

Looking at where the players are from will give you an idea about the coaching staff’s recruiting philosophy.

If you see mostly players from the same state as the college or surrounding states, the coaches likely focus their recruiting regionally (this is usually the case for smaller schools). This means it may be difficult for you to gain attention if you’re not from the same region.

Conversely, if you see players from all over the country, the coaches are open to recruiting nationally.

Finally, some coaches focus on recruiting high school players, some focus on junior college and four-year transfers, and some are balanced.

Some coaches recruit transfers when they first take over a program (especially a struggling program that hasn’t won much) and then transition to recruiting more high school players after a year or two.

Regardless of the roster construction, it’s fair to ask the coaching staff questions about how they recruit. The answers to these questions can provide insights about what you’re experience would be like and how you might fit in.

In summary, here is a list of questions to find answers to when researching colleges online:

• Do I have the ability to play in this program?

• Am I willing to go to this school based on its location?

• Am I willing to go to a school of this size?

• Does the school offer the major I’m interested in?

• Do my high school grades match the college’s academic standards?

• Does the college offer room and board?

• Are the dorms and cafeterias satisfactory?

• How long has each coach been at the school?

• Which coach handles your position? What is his experience?

• What other schools have the coaches been at?

• What is the track record of success for each coach?

• How many players are on the roster?

• How many players are at my position and what year’s are they?

• Where are the players from?

• What percentage of players are high school players versus transfers?

As your answering these questions, write down other questions that come up that will need clarification from the coaches or someone else at the school.

This research takes some work on the front end, but will save you time in the long run because you will be able to cross off schools that definitely aren’t a good fit and focus on the schools that are the BEST fit based on your research.

If you found this information valuable, please share it with others who may benefit from the information.

Sincerely,

Matt

P.S. If you would like my advisement and guidance through the entire recruiting process, please reply to this email or text 319-883-0242, and let me know you’d like to schedule a free consultation.