NCAA Recruiting Info at a Glance

PuckProspect.com

• Division I college hockey coaches are not allowed to initiate contact with prospective student athletes until June 15th of their sophomore year in high school. That means they cannot reply to emails, text messages, or return phone calls prior to that date.

• Prospective Student Athletes may contact college coaches as often as they like prior to and after June 15th of their sophomore year, but in order to sp. However, contact is to be made only by phone or face to face on campus.

• College hockey coaches spend a tremendous amount of time and energy scouting and recruiting potential student athletes. If you play for a competitive midget minor, midget major, junior, or high school team, and are an elite player, there is a good a chance that the college coaches know about you. It is suggested that you make a list of the schools you are interested in and visit their respective websites and team pages. Most college hockey teams have a recruiting questionnaire on their team website and it would be beneficial to fill out a questionnaire for each school that you are interested in.

• If a college coach thinks you are physically and mentally prepared for the challenges of college hockey then they will have you come to college straight from high school. College coaches will sometimes recommend that a player take an extra year, following his graduation from high school, to play junior hockey so that a player can mature both physically and mentally prior to jumping into the college game.

• An official college visit is a 48-hour, expense-paid visit. An official visit cannot be taken until the first day of classes of the prospective student-athlete's senior year in high school. A student athlete is allowed five total official visits but only one per school.

• An unofficial visit is paid for by the student athlete and can last any length of time. There is no limit to the number of unofficial visits a student can take. During an unofficial visit the coaching staff may meet with a prospective student athlete and provide him with a tour of the campus and facilities.

• In order for a prospective student athlete to be academically eligible to play in the NCAA he must have graduated from high school, fulfilled a core curriculum of at least 16 courses, and met a minimum index score that combines standardized tests scores (SAT, ACT) and GPA. A prospective student athlete should regularly meet with a college counselor, provided by their high school, in order to ensure they meet these requirements. All certified high school college counselors should be familiar with the necessary steps and minimum requirements set forth by the NCAA.

• If you play a junior A hockey game after your 21st birthday you will lose one year of NCAA Division I athletic eligibility, leaving you with three years eligibility remaining.

• Signing a contract with any professional team that includes Canadian Major Junior teams (CHL) results in the loss of NCAA eligibility even if you never play a game for that team.

• Prospects can attend one, 48-hour, expense-paid visit per professional team. The 48 hour period begins when you arrive at the team's facility and ends exactly 48 hours later. While in attendance the team can supply you with expenses that include travel, hotel, food, equipment, and all costs associated with practice and off-ice training. You must leave the facility once the 48 hour time period has expired in order to receive an expense paid return trip home.

• Prospects can remain longer than the 48-hour period provided the Prospect themself pays the cost of all expenses incurred, including cost for the return trip home, following the initial 48 hour time period.

• If a prospect is invited to a team's main camp and if the team covered expenses at the rookie camp then the prospect must cover their own expenses at the main camp in order to remain eligible for NCAA hockey. Prospects are only allowed to accept one 48-hour expense paid visit/tryout per CHL team.

• While in attendance at a CHL camp/tryout, a prospect may not participate in any scrimmages or exhibition games against outside teams. Prospects may participate in an intra-squad scrimmage (i.e. a red and white game).

• Prospects cannot accept jerseys, hats, t-shirts, or any material benefits from professional teams without paying for them. The options the prospect has are: Mail the items back or send payment for the items received and request a receipt. If the value of the items is less than $100 you also may make a payment to a charity equal to the amount of the items you received.

• A family advisor can be a helpful and informative resource, but it is not necessary that you have one unless you are a player who is projected to be drafted in the NHL. If you are going to make a decision on an advisor we recommend you interview at least a few different advisors and as a family decide who you feel most comfortable with.

• NCAA regulations allow student-athletes (or prospective student-athletes) to take part in one testing or tryout session per NHL team, at the team's expense, for up to 48 hours. An exception is if a player has taken part in the NHL Draft Combine or the NHL Research and Development Camp. These events are considered tryouts for all 30 teams. A player could participate in another tryout beyond those events, but would need to pay his own way.

• NCAA players may attend NHL summer development camps, or prospect camps, but must pay their own way, for example, transportation, lodging, food, etc.

• An athletic scholarship is financial aid from a university or college based in any degree on the athletic ability of the student-athlete. Athletic scholarships are formalized by entering into agreements called "National Letters of Intent," which is a written agreement between the institution and the student-athlete.

• The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is the name of the document that formalizes an athletic scholarship. It is a binding agreement between a student-athlete and a university in which the university agrees to provide athletic aid in exchange for the student-athlete's agreement to attend the university for one academic year.

• A 'verbal commitment' is a non-binding agreement between a prospect and a coach to attend that coach's institution.

• An athletic scholarship provides funds for tuition and fees, books, room and board, and certain other expenses. The only required expense that a full athletic scholarship cannot cover is transportation to and from campus.

• Athletic scholarship agreements may be made for anywhere from one to five years.

• Signing a National Letter of Intent, even for a scholarship promised for four years, commits a student-athlete to that school for one year.

• Most scholarship agreements made for one season are almost always renewed annually. They are very rarely cancelled and never for on-ice performance.

• Athletic scholarships may not be reduced or cancelled year-to-year based on your ability or performance, because an injury prevents you from participating or for any other athletic reason.

• If you are receiving an athletic scholarship, the scholarship may be reduced or cancelled only if you:

- render yourself ineligible for NCAA competition;

- misrepresented any information on your application, letter of intent or financial aid agreement;

- commit serious misconduct which warrants a substantial disciplinary penalty; or

- voluntarily quit the team for personal reasons

• Universities are permitted to grant 18 "full" scholarships and typically carry 22-26 players, so not all are on full scholarships. Most NCAA teams have some players who receive only a portion of their expenses in athletic scholarship (i.e. partial scholarship) and some players who receive all otheir expenses in scholarship (i.e. full scholarship).

• Financial aid is a grant from the university that is not based on athletic ability or participation on an athletic team.

• Financial aid can be granted for tuition and fees, room and board, books and transportation.

• Financial aid varies between universities. It is typically calculated based on the student and his parents' ability to contribute to the cost of post-secondary education. This is determined by evaluating the current savings and expected earnings of the student over the summer and the student's parents' overall wealth (i.e. earnings, savings, investments, etc.). Based on these types of criteria, the institution makes a judgment on the amount that the student and parents are able to contribute toward a university education. In theory, any shortfall between the expected contribution and the expected university expenses is covered by financial aid.

www.ncaa.org