If you have a kid who plays a sport seriously, at some point a piece of mail will show up with a college logo on it. Or a camp invite. Or a follow on social media from a coach. And the question that lives in every parent’s head from that moment on is some version of: Is this real, and what are we supposed to do about it?

This is the page that answers that.

We are not going to sell you a service. We are not going to tell you that your kid has a shot at a Division I scholarship if you just buy the right highlight reel package. What we are going to do is walk through what college recruiting actually looks like from the coach’s side of the desk, sport by sport and level by level, so you can stop guessing.

Below is the pillar guide. After this, click through to your sport for the specifics that actually apply to you. The sport pages are where the real differences live.

The five things every parent gets wrong about recruiting

Before any of the sport-specific stuff, there are five things almost every family gets wrong in the first conversation. Get these straight and you are already ahead.

1. Most college sports are not on TV.

There are about 1,100 four-year colleges in the United States that play sports at the varsity level across the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA. The schools you watch on Saturdays are about three percent of that. The other ninety-seven percent are where most college athletes actually compete. Your kid is far more likely to play at a school you have never heard of than at one you have.

This matters because the entire emotional architecture of recruiting in your house is probably built on the three percent. Reset it.

2. “Getting recruited” is not one thing.

A camp invite is not the same as a coach calling you. A coach calling you is not the same as an offer. An offer is not the same as a roster spot. A roster spot is not the same as playing time. Each of those is a different mile marker, and families routinely confuse the early ones for the later ones.

3. Athletic money is not the only money.

At Division I and Division II, athletic scholarships are real. At Division III, NCAA rules prohibit athletic scholarships. But Division III schools, especially the academically strong ones, have substantial academic merit aid. We have seen families turn down a partial D2 scholarship for a D3 academic package that ended up being worth more over four years. The sticker price is not the price.

4. The coach’s interest is a function of need, not just talent.

Coaches recruit to fill specific positions in specific years. A program that just signed three left-handed pitchers may not need a fourth, no matter how good your kid is. A school with a graduating senior at your kid’s position is suddenly very interested. None of this has anything to do with whether your kid is good. It has to do with whether your kid is good and useful right now to that program.

This is why it pays to apply to a wider net than feels comfortable, and to keep your kid’s academic options open as long as possible.

5. The student-athlete has to drive it.

College coaches are recruiting your kid, not you. We will say more about this on the sport pages, but the single biggest behavioral red flag in recruiting is a parent who answers questions the kid should be answering. It does not matter whether you are right. The coach is evaluating whether the player can show up at 6 a.m. without you. If the coach has to talk to you to learn anything about the player, the answer is already no.

The three big variables: level, sport, and timeline

Recruiting is not one process. It is three variables stacked on top of each other, and the answer to “what should we be doing right now” depends entirely on where your family falls on each.

Variable 1: Level

There are five practical levels of college sports. Each one has its own recruiting culture, money, and timeline. Here is the honest version.

Division I. The big one. Television contracts, scholarships, dedicated recruiting staff, official visit budgets. Roughly 350 schools. Recruiting starts early — for some sports, very early. The recruiting process here is the most professionalized and the most cutthroat. If your kid is being recruited at this level, you will probably know by the end of sophomore year. If you are getting form mailers and questionnaires only, that is interest, not recruitment.

Division II. About 300 schools. Athletic scholarships exist but are typically partial and stack with academic aid. The culture is somewhere between D1 and D3. The recruiting timeline is later than D1, often picking up junior and senior year, and the contact volume is lower. Many D2 programs are excellent, regionally strong, and a much better fit for many athletes than the D1 schools their families fixate on.

Division III. About 440 schools, the largest division by school count. No athletic scholarships, by NCAA rule. Academic and need-based aid only. Recruiting here is run through admissions. The athletic department’s job is to identify kids who can play and who fit the school academically, then route them to admissions. Strong D3 programs compete at a high level and can be a far better four-year deal financially than some scholarship offers elsewhere.

If your family makes too much for need-based aid but the academic profile is strong, D3 is often the math that works. We will say more about this on the sport pages.

NAIA. About 250 schools, mostly smaller, often faith-affiliated. Athletic scholarships allowed. Recruiting is generally late and direct. NAIA programs frequently win games against NCAA opponents in scrimmages and exhibitions. The recruiting calendar is more flexible than the NCAA, and NAIA coaches can sometimes fill a roster spot in May for September.

NJCAA (Junior College). Roughly 500 schools. Two-year programs, with athletic scholarships at most levels. JUCO is its own ecosystem. It can be a path for academically borderline students, late bloomers, athletes who need a development year, or families who want to defer the four-year commitment. The recruiting pace is fast and the culture is direct.

We have not listed NCCAA, USCAA, or club levels here. They exist. They are smaller. If your kid is being recruited there, the coach will tell you exactly what you need to know.

Variable 2: Sport

This is where the page you are reading branches into the rest of the site. Here is what changes by sport.

  • The recruiting calendar. A baseball player committing in tenth grade is not unusual. A football player committing in tenth grade is. Sport calendars are different.
  • Showcase culture. Soccer recruiting runs through ECNL and ID camps. Lacrosse recruiting runs through summer tournaments. Football recruiting runs through camps and combines. Volleyball recruiting runs through club. Each sport has its own infrastructure that you have to plug into to be seen.
  • Scholarship math. Football and men’s and women’s basketball at the D1 level are headcount sports — full scholarships. Most other sports are equivalency sports — the same scholarship pool gets divided across many athletes. A “scholarship” in baseball at D1 is often 25 percent of tuition. That is a different conversation than a full ride.
  • Roster size. A football roster carries 100 players. A women’s golf roster carries 8. The math of how many kids any program can take per year is wildly different by sport.
  • Position scarcity. Some positions in some sports are routinely overrecruited. Others are perpetually thin. Knowing which one your kid plays changes how you approach the process.

The sport pages get into all of this.

Variable 3: Timeline

There is no single recruiting calendar. There is your sport’s calendar, which interacts with NCAA contact rules, which interacts with your kid’s specific class year. But here is a rough framework that holds across most sports.

Freshman year of high school. Mostly off the radar. Build the academic transcript. Play hard. Do not let anyone sell you a $4,000 recruiting package right now. It is too early.

Sophomore year. The earliest end of the legitimate recruiting window for most sports. Coaches are watching and evaluating, but contact rules vary by sport. This is when you build the highlight reel, get on the right showcase circuit, and start filling out school questionnaires.

Junior year. The core of the recruiting window for the majority of sports and levels. Contact rules open up for most sports on June 15 after sophomore year or September 1 of junior year. Camps and visits matter most this year. Most D1 commitments in most sports happen during this window, with the late D2 and D3 process running concurrently.

Senior year. D3, NAIA, and JUCO recruiting often runs through senior year, sometimes well into spring. D1 and D2 senior-year recruiting tends to be backfill and late-bloomer scenarios, but it happens. Do not assume the train has left the station.

The sport pages refine all of this with the actual calendar that applies to your kid.

What you should actually do, by year

Independent of sport, here is the basic family operating system.

Freshman year.

  • Get the GPA right. This is the single highest-leverage thing you can do.
  • Get on a competitive team that plays a real schedule.
  • Do not buy services yet.

Sophomore year.

  • Build a clean highlight reel. Phone footage is fine for now.
  • Make a list of fifteen to twenty schools across multiple levels, not just D1.
  • Fill out questionnaires for all of them. They are free.
  • Get a real email address for your kid. Not a parent email. Not a joke handle.
  • Start tracking your kid’s stats yourself. Schools will ask.

Junior year.

  • Take the SAT or ACT once, even if your dream schools are test-optional. Coaches like to see a number.
  • Visit campuses. Unofficial visits are unlimited.
  • Go to camps that matter for your sport. The sport pages tell you which.
  • If a coach calls, the player picks up the phone.
  • File the FAFSA in October of junior year if you might qualify for need-based aid. Yes, junior year. Most families wait until senior year and lose options.

Senior year.

  • Apply to schools, not just to programs. The school has to make sense without the sport, in case the sport ends.
  • Decide whether Early Decision or Early Action makes sense for your top D3 choices. ED is binding and is often where D3 financial aid is most competitive.
  • Sign your National Letter of Intent if applicable. Or commit non-bindingly at D3, NAIA, or JUCO.
  • Plan the transition. Summer training. Strength program. Roommate match. Tuition deposit timeline.

Money, honestly

We owe you the math.

At D1 in football and men’s and women’s basketball, scholarships are headcount. Either full or none.

At D1 in most other sports, scholarships are equivalency. The school gets a fixed number of scholarships divided across the roster. A 25 percent scholarship is normal in baseball, softball, soccer, and most other equivalency sports. Some athletes get more. Many get less. Some get nothing and walk on.

At D2, scholarships exist across all sports, all equivalency. Often combined with academic aid.

At D3, no athletic scholarships, period. Academic merit aid and need-based aid are the levers. At academically strong D3 schools, merit aid is meaningful. We have seen four-year merit packages exceed $100,000 at private D3 institutions for the right student profile.

At NAIA, scholarships exist. Often combined with institutional aid.

At JUCO, athletic scholarships exist at NJCAA D1 and D2. NJCAA D3 does not allow them. Academic aid is also available.

Run the net price calculator on every school you are seriously considering. Do this before the recruiting conversation gets serious. The number can change everything. Most schools have a calculator linked from their financial aid page. It takes ten minutes per school. It is the most important ten minutes you will spend.

The role of the parent, more directly

If you take nothing else from this page, take this. The parent’s job in college recruiting is to:

  • Build the runway. Academic profile, test scores, financial planning, showcase access.
  • Ask the questions the kid will not think to ask. Aid, housing, academic support, what happens if injured.
  • Stay out of the coach-to-player conversation.
  • Make the visits possible.
  • Keep the emotional temperature in the house low. This is a long process and the player needs you to be the calm one.

That is it. Anything past that, and you start getting in your kid’s way. Coaches notice. They talk to each other.

What is on the sport pages

Each sport page below has the same five sections, so you can compare apples to apples:

  1. The honest version of recruiting in this sport. What it actually looks like.
  2. The level breakdown. What D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO look like in this sport specifically.
  3. The calendar. When the real action happens.
  4. The infrastructure. Camps, showcases, club, video, exposure.
  5. The mistakes. What this sport’s families consistently get wrong.

Pick your sport.

  • Football →
  • Basketball — coming
  • Baseball — coming
  • Softball — coming
  • Soccer — coming
  • Lacrosse — coming
  • Volleyball — coming
  • Hockey — coming

Non-sport-specific pieces parents ask about most:

This guide was written by a Division III head coach with two decades of experience recruiting student-athletes, with input from coaches across other levels and sports. It is published for parents, not for sale. — Jeff Thomas for Parent Coach Playbook

Last updated April 2026.