Questions to Ask NCSA Recruiter
Twenty questions for a sales call with NCSA or any paid college recruiting service: what the fee covers, contract and cancellation terms, how coaches actually see a profile, and which parts of the work you could do yourself. Written for families deciding whether to pay.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What is your role: do you work with athletes day to day, or is your job signing families up?
Why ask it
Recruiting services use different people for selling and for coaching, and the person on this call may not be the one you would work with. Knowing which you have changes how much weight to give everything else they say.
What exactly is included in the fee, itemized, and what costs extra?
Why ask it
Ask for the list line by line: profile, video editing, coach outreach, evaluation calls, camps, tournament exposure. Anything described as included but not itemized tends to reappear later as an upgrade.
What is the total cost across all the years we would use this, and how is it billed?
Why ask it
Monthly figures sound modest and multi-year totals do not. Ask for the total, the billing schedule, whether it renews automatically, and whether the price changes after the first year.
Is this a contract with a fixed term, and what does canceling involve?
Why ask it
The cancellation process matters more than the headline price. Ask whether you can stop mid-term, whether you owe the balance, and whether cancellation has to be in writing by a certain date.
Is any of it refundable if we get nothing out of it?
Why ask it
Most services do not refund for lack of results, and that is worth hearing said plainly rather than assumed. If a guarantee is offered, ask what specifically triggers it and who decides.
Which parts of this could we do ourselves for nothing?
Why ask it
A candid answer here is a good sign, because most of the core work is free: emailing coaches, registering with the eligibility center, filming games, attending camps. What you are buying is help and organization, not access.
What do you do that my high school or club coach does not already do?
Why ask it
In many sports the club coach already has the relationships that matter, and coaches often prefer hearing from them. If your coach is active in recruiting, the value of a paid service drops sharply, and a straight answer will acknowledge that.
How many athletes does the person assigned to us work with at once?
Why ask it
This is the single best predictor of how much attention you will actually get. A number in the hundreds means templates and automated messages, which you can send yourself for free.
Will the same person stay with us throughout, and what happens if they leave?
Why ask it
Turnover is common in this business, and a relationship with one helpful adviser is often what families are really paying for. Ask what the handover looks like and whether you get any say in the replacement.
When you say coaches see the profile, do they search for it, or do you send messages?
Why ask it
These are very different products. A searchable database depends on coaches choosing to use it; outreach depends on whether the messages get read. Ask which mechanism actually produces contact in your sport.
Can you show me a message you would send a coach on our behalf?
Why ask it
Ask to see the real thing, and ask whether it comes from the athlete's address or the company's. Coaches learn to recognize bulk messages, and an email from a service can carry less weight than a short one from the athlete.
For my sport and my numbers, what does a realistic outcome look like?
Why ask it
Bring your times, stats or video and ask for a level: which divisions, roughly how many programs. Vagueness or flattery here is the most common warning sign on a call like this, and a useful adviser will name a range you may not enjoy hearing.
How do you define success, and what counts in the numbers you quote?
Why ask it
Percentages depend entirely on definitions. Ask whether a success means a scholarship, a roster spot, any college contact, or committing anywhere at all, including places the family could have reached alone.
Can I speak to two families in my sport and region who used you last year?
Why ask it
Ask for contacts rather than testimonials, ideally athletes at your level rather than the outliers on the website. Reluctance to connect you with anyone is more informative than any success statistic.
Do college coaches pay you, or have any commercial relationship with you?
Why ask it
How a service earns money determines whose interests it serves. Ask who pays whom and whether any program has a paid arrangement, and treat any suggestion that a coach owes them a favor with caution.
What will you need from us in time, video and travel?
Why ask it
The fee is rarely the largest cost. Camps, showcases, travel and filming add up faster, and some plans assume attendance at paid events. Ask what the year actually costs including all of it.
What happens to our profile and video if we stop paying?
Why ask it
Ask whether the video and the contact list are yours to keep and export, or whether they live inside the platform. Losing three years of material at cancellation is a real cost that never appears in the sales conversation.
How does what you do fit with the recruiting rules and calendar for my sport?
Why ask it
Contact rules, dead periods and eligibility requirements differ by sport and division and change over time. Someone who cannot describe the calendar for your sport accurately is unlikely to be worth what they charge.
If we do nothing today, what do we lose?
Why ask it
This tests the urgency directly. Real deadlines exist in recruiting; discounts expiring at the end of the call are not among them. A pitch that collapses when you ask for a week is telling you what it was worth.
Can I have all of this in writing, including the price, before we decide?
Why ask it
Ask for the terms, the itemized services and the cancellation policy by email. Anything that cannot be put in writing is not part of what you are buying, and reading it away from the call is where the real decision gets made.
Assessing a paid recruiting service
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the call
Work out your own numbers first: times, stats, video, grades, test scores, and an honest sense of which division level they fit. Families who arrive without that get an assessment from someone selling a subscription. Set a budget beforehand and decide, out loud and in advance, that nobody signs anything on a first call. Have the athlete on the call as well, because the questions about time and travel land differently when the person doing the work is listening.
What is already free
- Registering with the NCAA Eligibility Center or the NAIA equivalent, which you do yourself either way.
- Emailing coaches directly. A short note with position, graduation year, key numbers, academics and a video link is the standard approach and works from the athlete's own address.
- A highlight video, which can be filmed and edited on a phone. Coaches care about the footage, not the production.
- Coach and program lists, which are published on athletics websites, along with rosters showing exactly which positions and graduation years each program is filling.
- Your own club or high school coach making a phone call, which in many sports carries more weight than any service.
Sales pressure to expect
- A free evaluation that arrives as a compliment. Praise is not a market assessment and costs the company nothing.
- Pricing that expires at the end of the call. If the discount cannot survive a week, treat the whole offer accordingly.
- Being told your athlete has been identified or selected. Ask by whom and on what basis, and ask how many other families got the same message.
- Urgency drawn from the recruiting calendar. Some of it is real; ask which specific date applies to your sport and division and verify it independently.
- Talk of relationships with coaches. Ask for a named program and what that relationship actually consists of.
Deciding
What a service cannot do
No service creates demand. Coaches recruit athletes who can play at their level, and paying for exposure does not change the times, the film or the grades. If a program has no need at your position for your graduation year, nothing on a platform will alter that.
When paying can make sense
The honest cases are structural rather than athletic: a sport with no club infrastructure where you are, no coach who does recruiting, parents who do not have the time or the written English to run outreach themselves, or an athlete who needs someone other than a parent holding them to a weekly schedule. Those are organizational problems and a service can genuinely solve them.
Compare against the same money elsewhere
Price the subscription against two camps at target schools, a season of club fees, a good video, or travel to one showcase where coaches from your level attend. Direct contact with coaches who are actually watching usually beats a profile.
If you do sign
Start with the shortest term available, put a date in the calendar three months out to review what has actually happened, and keep your own copy of every coach contact and every piece of video. Judge it on replies from coaches, not on activity inside the platform.