Belt Tightening in College Recruiting

From everything I've been reading lately, this is the topic du jour. When the NYT tackles it, you know it's for real. The gist of it is that with the economy in the slumps, college programs are allocating less resources for recruiting, so coaching staffs, and recruits both have to be more resourceful in finding each other.

As a recruit, you can't control what the coaching staff does but you can control what you do. You should assume that it will now be harder to be found and/or seen because there is less money for programs to get out there. But you should also assume that their needs haven't decreased--just their budgets. Your job is to work even harder to get your information into the hands of anyone you might be interested in. Get good quality video and post it on one or more of the websites that maintain recruiting info for student-athletes. Send a separate copy to a handful of the coaches on your A-list. Send a well written and personal letter to these coaches, directing them to where they can find your video and stats posted. By personal, I mean tell them enough about you to get them interested, and mention enough about what you know about their program (and how you would fit well into it) so they know you've done your homework and are really interested in them. Everyone wants to be wanted--coaches are no exception.

The opportunities are still out there, you just may have to work a little harder to make sure they find you.