The new rules affecting college sports have caused a complete shift in the power of D1 recruitment, now allowing the highest paid college athletes to earn upwards of $1 million. Only recently have athletes been able to profit from sports after high school in similar ways to professionals. Due to the new concept of name and image likeness, or NIL, college varsity athletes can profit from their name or picture. These students can earn money from brands paying for endorsements, promotion of products and selling merchandise that contains their name. However, before athletes can make million dollar deals, the journey begins with being recruited.
In order to be qualified for NIL, athletes must first be scouted and recruited by colleges. The recruitment process can be lengthy and involves sending emails to various coaches, using social media, and making sacrifices. Senior athlete Addie McCullers signed and committed to play Division 1 softball at the University of North Carolina on November 13. McCullers began playing softball at age four and instantly fell in love with the sport. Her recruitment process started early. “Probably around 7th grade is when I first started communicating with colleges,” McCullers mentioned. This entailed sending emails and reaching out asking coaches to come watch her travel games. “My coach would have us send out at least 20 emails a week before every tournament just to get those coaches out there and let them know,” explained McCullers.
The sacrifices made by these athletes are often overlooked. Junior year was the biggest recruitment year for McCullers, particularly that summer. “My junior year I was home for four days that whole summer.” She went from tournament to camps and back to tournaments. “It was just softball, softball, softball, [but] I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.”
For junior Connor Salmin, the recruitment process didn’t start quite as early. Salmin plays football as a wide receiver and competes in track and field as a 100- and 200-meter runner. He has gotten offers from multiple universities and collegiate programs for both sports. The process began through contact and connections with football coaches, beginning in winter of his sophomore year. “Football recruitment has gotten pushed really early compared to other sports,” Salmin stated. A few schools offered him the opportunity to play both track and football. However, his eyes are dead set on one sport: “Football. I mean every football program asks if I wanna do both…already playing football is a lot.” Salmin’s track recruitment opportunities have also been heightened due to his talent between the lines as a football player. “I’ve talked to the track coaches [because of] connections that I’ve had through football,” Salmin explained.
The use of social media in recruiting has also skyrocketed, giving athletes a whole new way to promote themselves to coaches and enhance their own brand. Both these athletes agreed that social media was one of the biggest parts of being recruited. “The whole point of social media is to get yourself out there, get your name out there,” McCullers explained. Utilizing media was pivotal in getting her name out there. She explained how she began promoting herself by, “sending emails, sending videos of myself playing, making Twitter posts [and] tagging college coaches so they’d see what I was doing every weekend.” Salmin also uses Twitter for football to share his highlights. “Coaches will see things happen on Twitter and they’ll look at your film, reach out and stuff like that. My Twitter has all my football stuff on it. I post everything on there.”
The introduction of NIL policies marks a shift in the landscape of college athletics. The possibility for profit has made it so collegiate athletics are beginning to mimic professional sports. NIL is opening many opportunities for students in high school and beyond to make money and create a brand for themselves. In the future, if you see a Woodgrove alum’s last name on a jersey being sold, it could very well be from a NIL deal.