Athletic Scholarships For Dummies

Introduction 1

Part I: The World of College Sports 7

Chapter 1: Getting the Basics: Athletic Scholarships 101 9

Chapter 2: Defining a College Athletic Scholarship 19

Chapter 3: College Alphabet Soup: NCAA, NJCAA, NAIA 35

Chapter 4: Clearing the Clearinghouse 47

Part II: Getting Recruited 71

Chapter 5: Knowing What Colleges Are Looking For 73

Chapter 6: The Game Begins: Getting Noticed 83

Chapter 7: The Full-Court Press: Calls, Letters, and E-Mails from Coaches 105

Chapter 8: What to Do If You Don’t Get Noticed 125

Chapter 9: Recognizing College Recruiting Violations 139

Part III: Making College Visits 149

Chapter 10: The Play-by-Play of College Visits 151

Chapter 11: Taking Your Turn to Recruit 171

Chapter 12: Preparing for and Evaluating Each Visit 185

Part IV: Committing to a School 195

Chapter 13: Negotiating a Financial-Aid Agreement 197

Chapter 14: Making the Verbal Commitment 209

Chapter 15: Understanding the National Letter of Intent 219

Part V: When You’re in the Big Leagues: For Existing College Students 229

Chapter 16: Maintaining Your Eligibility 231

Chapter 17: Redshirting 249

Chapter 18: Transferring 259

Part VI: The Part of Tens 271

Chapter 19: Ten Things Not to Do during the Recruiting Process 273

Chapter 20: Ten Considerations When Choosing a School 279

Appendix A: College Scholarship Web Sites and Resources 287

Appendix B: Resources for College Recruiting and Selecting Colleges and Coaches 291

Index 299