Utilizing Marketing Principles in Collegiate Football Recruiting

Matias Cerda Honors Thesis Undergraduate in Marketing Advisor: Dr. Richard Lutz April 16, 2012

Abstract: College athletics has transformed from a set of recreational sports to a multi-billion dollar industry with the advent of television contracts, school trademarks, sponsorships, and ticket sales. As a result, the process for recruiting top high school athletes is more competitive than ever before. It is vital that collegiate coaches are able to attract top high school athletic prospects to attend their schools so that their athletic programs can shine in the national spotlight. A university’s ability to market its athletic program to a high school senior can be very difficult when there are 335 other Division I universities attempting to sell their schools as well. This thesis examines how marketing principles can be successfully executed during the recruitment of a top high school football prospect by university athletic departments. It explores athletic programs that excel at recruiting high school football stars, and delves deeper into how the University of Florida’s football program maintains such a high caliber recruiting class year after year from interviews with its players as well as with the university’s Director of On Campus Recruiting, Brendan Donovan. In addition, current trends in the collegiate football recruiting process will be discussed in detail along with the advantages and disadvantages of marketing to high school athletes. This thesis argues that marketing plays an integral role in the recruitment of athletes for intercollegiate athletics. Those collegiate coaches who utilize unique marketing tactics have an important advantage in the process of selling their schools to top high school prospects. Table of Contents

I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………....… 2 A. Purpose………………………………………………………………….…………… 2 B. Recruiting Athletes vs. Recruiting Employees………………………….………...... 4 C. Definitions…………………………………………………………………………… 5 D. History of College Athletics and Recruiting……………………………………….... 6 E. Anatomy of the Recruiting Process………………………………………………….. 7 II. Utilizing Marketing Principles In Recruiting………………………………………..... 9 A. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning………………………………………….... 9 B. Creating a Unique Brand For Collegiate Athletic Programs……………………...… 12 C. Integrating Promotion Into Recruiting………………………………………………. 13 1. Personal Selling…………………………………………………………………….. 14 2. Strategic Advertising……………………………………………………………….. 15 D. Recruiting Expenditures of Elite Collegiate Athletic Programs…………………….. 17 E. Recruiting Insight: University of Florida Football Players & Director of On Campus Recruiting, Brendan Donovan……………………………………………… 18 F. Current Recruiting Issues……………………………………………………………. 21 1. Recruiting Violations………………………………………………….…………….. 21 2. Financial Inequality…………………………………………………………………. 22 3. Paying College Athletes…………………………………………………………….. 23 G. Advantages of Marketing in Recruiting…………………………………….……….. 24 1. Relationship-Building………………………………………………………….….... 24 2. Communicating the Value Proposition………………………………………….….. 24 3. Evaluation of Recruit Fit…………………………………………………………… 25 H. Disadvantages of Marketing in Recruiting…………………………...…….………... 25 1. Manipulation of High School Recruits……………………………………………… 25 2. Financial Inequality Among Football Programs………………………………….…. 26 3. Recruiting Clutter………………………………………………………………..…... 27 III. Conclusion and Recommendations…………………………………………….….... 27 IV. Bibliography/Appendices…………………………………………….…………...... 30

Introduction

Purpose

Every university’s athletic department strives to be one of the few schools that end up in a top recruited high school football player’s consideration set. As a result of the recent transformation of intercollegiate athletics from recreational to a multi-billion dollar industry, universities and their respective athletic departments must now compete even more ferociously for these top football stars. The result of enticing highly recruited athletes to attend their school is that the stars will shine on the field, bringing positive publicity to the university. In fact, athletic success is generally thought to benefit schools in two ways: by increasing donations to the school and by increasing the pool of applicants for admission (Piccinini, 25). Therefore, as competition for top athletes intensifies, and as challenges associated with recruitment increase, universities must develop and employ recruiting strategies based upon attributes that student-athletes identify as important to their decision-making process (Judson, James, and Aurand 23-40).

Marketing is a vital component of the recruiting process for universities and their coaches.

Those coaches who understand the importance that marketing has on a recruit’s decision-making process will be much more likely to connect with, and most likely win over, the desired athlete due to the hard work that is required to learn about what athletes want in their collegiate experience. Each high school recruit is a unique individual. Therefore, each of these highly sought-after recruits is a target market of one for universities to approach. Collegiate athletic programs will benefit their recruiting effectiveness by making use of the fact that there is an

2 advantage when they cater to the individual needs of each recruit, rather than using the same tactics on every desired athlete.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how top universities successfully apply marketing principles during the recruitment of a top high school football prospect. It is very interesting to approach the recruiting process by taking an in depth look at the considerable amount of marketing that is utilized by today’s most successful collegiate football programs as well as how recruits respond to these marketing strategies.

This paper will provide a basic comparison between the recruiting process used by university athletic departments and businesses, including the history of the practice and how marketing techniques have changed over the years as a recruiting tool within intercollegiate athletics. Then it will examine a detailed explanation of the recruiting process, describe how certain marketing tactics are tied into the recruiting process of top recruits, present which universities consistently dominate at marketing toward high school football recruits, and further explore the financials of these top universities’ marketing and recruiting expenditures in comparison to less successful athletic programs. Additionally, this paper will provide insight from interviews with both players and the Director of On Campus Recruiting for the University of Florida football team to compare their responses on the importance of marketing during the recruiting process as well as what they believe to be the most important factors in addition to their decision-making unit that influences recruits to decide on a particular athletic program. Next, it will detail current trends of marketing in the recruiting process for universities as well as mention advantages and disadvantages of marketing toward high school athletes. Finally, this paper will conclude that recruiting and

3 marketing to high school athletes coincide to a large extent, and that university athletic programs can positively impact their recruiting effectiveness by engaging in similar detailed marketing tactics mentioned throughout the paper. It will recommend guidelines for ensuring that intercollegiate athletic programs integrate a detailed marketing strategy in order to effectively recruit top athletic prospects.

Recruiting Athletes vs. Recruiting Employees

Before moving forward in examining how collegiate athletic programs utilize marketing techniques to recruit top high school athletes, let us consider how this paper can be applied to a business that is recruiting employees of its own. Attracting high-performing applicants is a critical component of personnel selection and overall organizational success (Chapman et al,

928-944). Just as collegiate athletic programs seek out the top recruits who can have a substantial impact on their teams, companies engage in the same process in order to fill open positions within their organizations. Often, companies battle for the same candidates when seeking to hire top executives, similar to how dominant football programs battle when recruiting high school athletes. According to a study by Chapman et al, it has been found that there are six broad factors typically examined as predictors of applicant attraction: job and organizational characteristics, recruiter characteristics, perceptions of the recruitment process, perceived fit, perceived alternatives, and hiring expectancies (Chapman et al, 928-944). Although recruiting top athletic prospects is not perfectly comparable to companies recruiting new employees, Chapman’s six significant predictors of applicant attraction also have a similar impact on the recruiting process of high school athletes.

4 Companies use various techniques to attract highly sought after candidates with realistic job previews, promising generous pensions, promising a certain level of control in a company, etc.

In comparison to businesses and their recruitment practices, collegiate athletic programs also target the recruits that they deem most valuable. The collegiate athletic programs attempt to attract the most valuable recruits through the use of marketing tactics ranging from an official visit on campus to putting the recruit’s name on one of the university’s football jerseys to show the recruit just how good they look in the school’s colors. This paper will now focus on the recruitment of high school athletes by collegiate athletic programs, and explain how the use of marketing tactics may impact the overall process.

Definitions

In collegiate athletics, the NCAA defines recruiting as any solicitation of prospective student- athletes or their parents by an institutional staff member or by a representative of the institution’s athletics interests for the purpose of securing a prospective student-athlete’s enrollment and ultimate participation in the institution’s intercollegiate athletics program (NCAA, 2012). This paper focuses heavily on the recruitment of top high school football players by collegiate football programs.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) defines itself as a membership organization composed mainly of four-year higher education institutions and collections of institutions known as conferences. Representatives from those institutions and conferences create

NCAA rules and policies. The NCAA is composed of three membership classifications:

5 Divisions I, II, and III (NCAA). This paper will primarily focus on Division I universities because of their prominence in marketing toward top recruits.

The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is the top level of college football, composed of 120 members (i.e. universities). The FBS divides its members into twelve regional conferences

(Wikipedia, 2012). However, these twelve conferences are becoming less regional and more geographically dispersed throughout the United States. FBS members consist of those schools that consistently recruit top prospects from around the U.S. This paper primarily refers to FBS schools when discussing college football recruiting.

History of Collegiate Athletics and Recruiting

The landscape of collegiate athletics has seen its fair share of change since the first competition held in 1852. On August 3, 1852, the first intercollegiate event was held as a two-mile regatta race between Yale and Harvard on Lake Winnipesaukee (Harvard). Harvard was victorious in this historic race, and gave birth to a growing national desire for additional intercollegiate competitions.

The recruitment of athletes for intercollegiate athletics has experienced much reform since the establishment of recruiting rules in the early twentieth century. When the Intercollegiate Athletic

Association of the United States -- the ancestor to the modern NCAA -- published its first manual in 1906, the rules governing recruiting were crystal clear -- it wasn't allowed (Staples,

2008). Collegiate athletics was initially believed to serve as an amateur level of sports, where any form of compensation to athletes would be unethical. However, many universities exploited

6 the system and found ways to pay their players. Countless universities ignored the established rules on recruiting and became very creative in their methods to sway athletes their way.

Marketing tactics became prominent during the early twentieth century as coaches began to compete with each other for the best recruits without getting caught by the Intercollegiate

Athletic Association of the United States. As a result of this fierce competition between universities, leaders of the five-year-old Southeastern Conference voted in December 1935 to allow schools to pay tuition, room, and board for athletes (Staples, 2008). The Southeastern

Conference’s vote to allow athlete compensation shook the structure of recruiting in intercollegiate sports, eventually to the point where the NCAA voted to allow the recruitment of athletes as well as the use of athletic scholarships in 1951 under NCAA President Walter Byers.

Anatomy of the Recruiting Process

The recruiting process for college football is a very fast paced and rigorous event for high school football athletes. Over the last few years, many NCAA Division I universities have begun offering athletic scholarships to progressively younger student-athletes. Today, it is increasingly common for high school sophomores to receive such offers, and a few institutions have pursued and even received commitments from seventh and eighth graders (Yen, 585-615). During this time, a high school athlete must first register with the NCAA Eligibility Center to validate their status as an amateur athlete. The next step that is involved in the recruiting process for high school athletes is to create a video with a compilation of impressive highlights in high school football games. This video is then sent to college coaches and recruiters of the universities that the high school player is most interested in playing for. It is crucial for athletes to be pro-active in getting their name, academic scores, and athletic achievements in front of coaches by their

7 sophomore year in high school.

After these preliminary steps by the player, position coaches will contact prospective athletes that they believe are worth taking a look at. Position coaches and sometimes head coaches will perform an “evaluation” of the high school athletes that they deem as a potential fit for the university’s team. An evaluation is defined by the NCAA as an activity by a coach to evaluate a player’s academic or athletic ability; this would include visiting the player’s high school to watch them practice or compete (NCAA Recruiting, 2011). If the coaches are satisfied with the evaluation of a prospective athlete, then they will begin to contact the high school student and attempt to build a relationship with him and his family. Position coaches play a vital role in the relationship building process with recruits. The position coach must be able to convince the recruit and their family that the university’s athletic program and academics are a perfect fit for the recruit. This is often the most important step in the recruiting process for athletic programs to create the most favorable impression on top recruits.

After forming relationships with the athletes and families, college coaches invite the top recruits to attend their university’s summer football camp to further evaluate the players. For example, the University of Florida holds an event every summer for top sophomore and junior high school prospects. Top prospects from around the country are invited to showcase their football skills and go head-to-head with each other. One of Florida’s 2012 commits commented on the

University of Florida’s 2011 Friday Night Lights, "Just playing inside that stadium under the lights was a dream, I had to slap myself to make sure it was real. I did that a few times.” Friday

Night Lights is an effective method for top football prospects to get a sense of what each athletic

8 program has to offer. Junior day is another event where top prospects that are currently in their junior year of high school are invited by a university’s coach to visit the school, receive a tour of the facilities, meet the coaches, and learn more about what the school has to offer.

One of the last chances that an athletic program has to impress top recruits is with the “official visit.” The NCAA defines an official visit as any visit to a college campus by a prospective student-athlete and their parents paid for by the college. The college may pay the following expenses: Transportation to and from the college, room and meals (three per day) while visiting the college, and reasonable entertainment expenses (NCAA Recruiting, 2011). During their senior year in high school, recruits take official visits to the athletic programs that have offered them a scholarship and where they are most interested in playing. The NCAA allows five official visits, only one per institution. After taking up to five official visits, recruits must wait until

National Signing Day to sign a binding National Letter of Intent for the school that they decide to accept a football scholarship from. The National Letter of Intent is a binding agreement by a prospective student athlete to attend the institution full-time for one academic year (National

Letter of Intent). National Signing Day is held on the first Wednesday of February, where top high school football stars hold televised press conferences on ESPN to announce where they have decided to play football. The final signing date that high school recruits can sign their

National Letter of Intent to play college football is April 1st of that year.

Utilizing Marketing Principles in Recruiting

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Collegiate football coaches and recruiters spend considerable amounts of time researching and evaluating the vast number of talented high school football stars from around the nation. Unlike

9 most companies, the universities and coaches are trying to sell their football program to a very narrow segment of individuals. The first step for these collegiate football coaches is to divide the market of high school football stars into various segments. These segments can be a combination of items based on position, overall skill, perceived value to the team, grade point average, football intuition, an ability to improve at the next level, and many other types of possible attributes.

Once the collegiate football coaches determine how they will segment the pool of potential recruits, the coaches target the players that they feel will be the best fit for their individual programs. This phase requires the most research by the university coaching staff because they must be able to determine which high school football players will have the greatest impact on their team, or “product.” The product of the university is constantly growing and developing as the players train to improve their skills on the field. Therefore, it is critical for the coaches to focus their time attracting only those recruits that will add value to their teams. As a result of the significance of the targeting stage for college coaches, they attend national combines, where the top recruits that they are interested in attend to showcase their talent. These combine events are held by Nike, Under Armour, ESPN, Gatorade, and many other sponsors to give a chance for the nation’s top high school players to impress the collegiate coaches and scouts by showing them that they will add substantial value to a university’s football team.

The ultimate, and most crucial, step of the S.T.P. marketing strategy is for the collegiate coach to position his football program to high school recruits in a way that convinces the athletes and their families that the school’s “product” provides the best opportunity for their futures. Some

10 concerns, such as the desire for quality and value, can be addressed by the product or service a company provides. But the company, product, or brand image---often the pivotal factor in a consumer’s choosing one company or brand over another, regardless of quality and value considerations---is an emotional matter. It is an opinion or preference based on feelings. Such feelings are influenced or affected by the company’s overall positioning (Marconi, 2002).

Positioning a university and its football program to a high school senior requires that collegiate coaches form a personal relationship with each recruit and his family. The coach must then determine what factors the recruit holds most important in his decision to choose which school is the best fit. In addition, it is vital for college coaches and recruiters to determine each recruit’s decision-making unit in order to understand who is most influential in the athlete’s final decision.

During this relationship-building process, the college coach adopts a marketing orientation, where he spends most of his time listening to the recruit to learn as much as possible in a short period of time so that he can later attempt to sell what the recruit wants. Once a coach determines what factors are important to the recruit, he will be able to successfully position the university and athletic program in a way that he is sure the recruit and his family will be most satisfied with.

One example of a very successful positioning technique was The University of Florida football team’s self-proclaimed title as the “Fastest team in America.” Former University of Florida football head coach Urban Meyer labeled his team as the “Fastest team in America” in order to gain national acclaim by stating a unique position against competitors. Today, University of

Florida head coach Will Muschamp has positioned his football team as a blue-collar defensive team. By positioning a team, recruits become aware of what type of culture each program has to offer. This is similar to a company positioning itself in a certain way. For example, Google

11 positions itself as a company committed to innovation and creativity, which it reflects in its company offices. In the same way, successful athletic programs possess a certain culture and a sense of identity that recruits are able to distinguish.

Creating a Unique Brand For Collegiate Athletic Programs

College football programs around the U.S. are in a constant battle to differentiate their school in a way that effectively attracts future top recruits. As a result, athletic programs have recently engaged in unique tactics in order to create a brand for their universities. For example, Boise

State has emerged into the national spotlight due to the unusual blue turf in their football stadium, commonly referred to as “smurf turf.” Boise State has attracted a substantial amount of attention among recruits nationally in large part due to the blue turf in addition to the team’s recent success.

A growing trend in college football that athletic programs are implementing to enhance their overall brand is in the development of eccentric uniforms. Within the past couple of years, bold, flashy uniforms are the latest craze to attract recruits. Schools from all over the country such as

Oregon, Boise State, Oklahoma State, Washington State, Maryland, Stanford, TCU, and Georgia have entered a new era where outlandish football jerseys are being used to rebrand the universities in an attempt to lure young recruits. The University of Oregon created the first major uniform buzz in college football in 1998 by unveiling a vivid color scheme and dropping the

Donald Duck-like logo in favor of the stylized ‘O’ (Newcomb). In fact, the University of Oregon wore a different uniform combination for each of its fourteen games this past season as a result of strong support from a long-time booster and Nike chairman, Phil Knight. “It is brand

12 marketing in its simplest form, and the target consumer here is an 18-year-old kid,” says Paul

Swangard, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon”

(Kaufman). The amount of buzz and excitement that the introduction of eccentric uniforms creates among recruits and the media is very powerful. Rebranding an athletic program through the introduction of trendy uniforms allows those programs that are not relevant in a recruit’s consideration set to emerge into the national spotlight. It is no coincidence that Oregon has risen to great success over the past ten years. Oregon’s changing look coincided with its rise to national relevance, then prominence. The Ducks reached the National Championship game last year with a roster bolstered by recruits drawn to Oregon’s flashy brand (Helfand). Most recently, the University of Maryland wore arguably the most eccentric jersey yet in order to grab national attention. Nate Pine, the University of Maryland’s deputy athletic director for external operations, commented on their decision: “We are rebranding and made a bold statement. The amount of buzz it generated was surprising. Anecdotally, we have gotten a lot of very positive feedback from recruits in the area. They like that we’re doing something innovative” (Kaufman). Overall, the movement towards offbeat uniforms by athletic programs has been very successful in gaining attention from top recruits. It is very likely that this trend will continue to grow within the next three to five years as more athletic programs attempt to gain national prominence in the recruiting realm.

Integrating Promotion Into Recruiting

As an athletic program is active in the recruiting process for top high school prospects, the four

P’s of marketing must not be overlooked. However, of the four P’s, promotion is by far the most crucial step when selling to a recruit. Due to the modernization of communication technology,

13 there has been a shift in the typical interaction between a recruit and college coach. Before the

1990’s college coaches would either call the home phones of recruits he was interested in, or he would visit the recruits in their hometowns. Today communication has become much more complicated with the advent of cell phones, e-mail, video chat, and social networking websites.

Personal Selling

Successful collegiate football programs promote their schools to recruits through the use of personal selling and advertising. Personal selling is such a crucial factor in the relationship- building process between coaches and recruits. Often, the position coach will take the time to visit top recruits in their hometowns to meet the recruits and their families in order to form a close bond with the recruit’s decision-making unit. Building relationships with recruits and their families by visiting them in their hometown is the most effective marketing technique that a coach can utilize. A recruit is most likely to choose to play for the university where he feels most comfortable with the coaching staff due to the establishment of trust over time. Although the world of recruiting is becoming more reliant on technology, nothing compares to an old- fashioned home visit for recruits.

Another form of personal selling that is very effective in marketing an athletic program to recruits is the official visit. During the official visit, recruits and their families are able to receive a tour of the athletic facilities, meet the coaches, and learn more about what the school has to offer. The official visit is also an opportunity for the coaches to pull out every trick in the book they have that will influence the recruits in their direction. The University of Oregon is very successful at winning over recruits during their official visit. Oregon’s coaching staff takes their

14 recruits on a tour of the Ducks’ state of the art facilities, including a luxurious $3.2 million two- story locker room which has three 60-inch plasma TVs, internet ports and private ventilation systems in each wood-paneled locker (Kaufman). While in Oregon’s magnificent locker room, the coaches suit up the recruits in Oregon’s eccentric uniform and play the game day music as if they were ready to run out onto the field. Atmospherics within Oregon’s official visit are a vital tool used to impress recruits. In a similar way that theme-based restaurants such as Planet

Hollywood attempt to impress their customers with an unforgettable interactive dining experience through the use of atmospherics, the University of Oregon attempts to impress its top recruits and their families with a top of the line football experience in the same manner. This marketing tactic used by the University of Oregon is very effective in the personal selling of their athletic program to recruits and their families.

Strategic Advertising

Athletic programs that consistently lead the nation in recruiting also engage in promotional activities through the use of strategic advertising. In addition to the typical phone calls, emails, and direct mail pieces sent to recruits, recently social media has had the largest impact on promoting a university’s athletic program. Social media has irreversibly transformed how recruiting works in college football. For coaches, it's another medium to contact, recruit and gather information about players. For players, it's a way to get recruited, control the message and interact with fans and other recruits at unprecedented levels (Trotter). However, with social media, not only are coaches advertising and communicating with recruits, the recruits are also advertising their own self-image in terms of their character through public tweets and Facebook statuses. The NCAA limits how many phone calls coaches can make to recruits. Text messaging

15 is banned altogether. Social media, meanwhile, is far less regulated (Trotter). Therefore, social media is now the primary method of communication between coaches and the players they recruit. However, a great debate has emerged whether social media communication between recruits and college coaches needs to be regulated by the NCAA in the future.

In addition to traditional advertising by collegiate athletic programs, they have also taken unusual approaches to appeal to recruits. The University of Oregon is a prime example of an athletic program that has engaged in unconventional advertising campaigns to promote their product to a desired target market. Between 2001 and 2006, the University of Oregon spent a total of $435,000 to place billboard advertisements for their football program in Times Square of

New York City, downtown Los Angeles, and Eugene, Oregon (Fernas). Oregon’s heavy billboard advertising for its football program was the first of its kind by any university athletic program. The billboard advertising was considered a great success as the University of Oregon began to win an increasing number of recruits from California and the east coast since 2001.

One additional approach taken by the University of Oregon to promote their football program to recruits was more creative than any previous recruiting ploy. Back in 2005, Oregon football coaches enlisted students to design custom comic books for the Ducks’ top twenty recruiting targets. Each comic portrayed the recruit as a hero who leads the Ducks to a national title.

Oregon sent each prospect one page per week during the recruiting period (Staples). The comic books led to great recruiting success for the Ducks, landing several stars. However, the NCAA banned Oregon’s comic book recruiting strategy in 2006 because only material created by coaches could be mailed to recruits (Staples).

16 Recruiting Expenditures of Elite Collegiate Athletic Programs

It is evident that there is tremendous financial growth within the college football industry due to its commercialization within the past two decades. For example, the University of Alabama and

Louisiana State University each earned an $18,000,000 bonus after qualifying for the 2011-2012 season Bowl Conference Series (BCS) National Championship. As a result of the NCAA’s tremendous financial opportunities, recruiting top athletic prospects has become a major priority for collegiate athletic programs.

Universities with the top football programs in the nation understand the importance that marketing holds during the recruiting process, and their numbers back them up. Collegiate athletic programs that made the list of the top 25 highest recruiting expenditures during the 2008 season include: Florida (7th, $1,468,044), Auburn (8th, $1,468,044), Texas (13th, $1,291,852),

Oregon (18th, $1,141,377), LSU (24th, $1,078,187), and Alabama (25th, $1,029,523) (ESPN

College Sports). Of these noted top 25 athletic programs with the highest recruiting expenditures out of 120 total universities, it is not coincidental that the eight BCS National Championships between 2004 and 2012 have been won by Florida (twice), LSU (twice), Alabama (twice), Texas, and Auburn. After evaluating the relationship between recent recruiting expenditures and national champions, there appears to be a positive correlation within the past eight years among the amount of money that a collegiate football program invests in the recruitment of top high school football players and the success that the football program has in the following two to four seasons.

17 Recruiting Insight: University of Florida Football Players & Director of On Campus

Recruiting, Brendan Donovan

As part of my research for this thesis, I interviewed one former and seven current University of

Florida football players. Each interview consisted of four questions that can be referred to in appendix A titled “UF Player Interview Questions.” I also interviewed the University of

Florida’s Director of On Campus Recruiting, Brendan Donovan. Brendan’s answers to the five questions asked provide insight into a collegiate football program’s attempt to sell their school to recruits. The five questions I asked Brendan can be found in appendix B titled “Interview

Questions: Brendan Donovan.”

After conducting a total of eight interviews with current and former University of Florida football players, I gathered some interesting feedback regarding the recruiting process from the perspective of a high school football recruit. The most important factors that were noted to guide the players’ decision-making process when choosing which university they wanted to play football for include (in order of times mentioned): family atmosphere, coaching staff, playing time, school reputation, proximity from home, and academics. The individuals that were most commonly listed as a part of the players’ decision-making unit include (in order of times mentioned): father, high school football coach, mother, and pastor. The most common responses concerning how the University of Florida’s football staff differentiated its program against competing universities include (in order of times mentioned): “the coaches created a family atmosphere, we have a chance to win the national championship every year at UF, and UF allows us to receive a high quality education and play for one of the best teams in the nation at the same time.” After interviewing these eight players, I found it interesting that almost each individual

18 was guided by different factors in their decision-making process regarding where to play football.

It is also interesting that almost each of the eight players listed the same individuals who were a part of their decision-making unit. This information can be valuable to a college football coach in order to understand that high school recruits have diverse interests that they want a collegiate football program to satisfy. The information is also helpful in showing coaching staffs that the majority of recruits are supported by similar individuals in their decision-making unit, such as their parents, high school football coach, and pastor.

Brendan Donovan currently holds the position of Director of On Campus Recruiting at the

University of Florida. He has worked in college football recruiting at Notre Dame, Rutgers, and currently the University of Florida. When asked how he attempts to sell the University of

Florida’s football program to recruits in a way that differentiates itself from other top football programs, Donovan mentioned “it is very important to sell our university step-by-step. First, it is crucial to discover what factors are most important to recruits. From my years of experience, most recruits are looking for a family atmosphere that provides stability as well as trust in both the coaches and players.” However, Brendan realizes that “different recruits have different selling points. Some recruits want a campus with pretty women, while others want a top education. However, it is important to me not to bash other schools to recruits when attempting to sell our school to them. Instead, I like to use factual evidence to put the University of Florida out in front for recruits because in the end, you can only sell the truth” (Donovan).

The selling points that Brendan uses to set the University of Florida apart from competing football programs include beautiful weather year-round, tradition at the Swamp, top academic

19 programs, premier university support for all sports teams, top nutrition department in the nation, and a gorgeous campus including wildlife such as gators. When asked whether the University of

Florida recruiting staff searches for those individuals who are a part of each recruit’s decision- making unit, Brendan said “getting a kid on campus is the most important thing to do. It allows us to talk to players and find things out about every player and who is most important in helping them make their decision. My staff writes up a report for each player that visits our campus that lists everything about the player and the individuals who they brought along.” However, according to Brendan, “it isn’t one person who is always the influencer; it changes throughout the recruiting process.”

Due to the emergence of new media such as texting, Facebook, and Skype, Brendan touched upon how he and his recruiting staff have transitioned these methods of communication into recruiting. “It is very interesting because we are not allowed to text recruits, yet we can tweet or make a statement about a kid online. Some kids love it and some kids hate it. I usually prefer those recruits who refrain from the new media outlets because they tend to be more down to earth kids who I would want on my team. Recruiting sites blow up the kids’ heads like they are gods. Another problem with the emergence of the Internet is that fake journalists will write articles skewed to what their fans want to read. However, negative thoughts of online media aside, social media makes it much easier on me because I can find out more about the kids through their posts online, who they speak to, and the type of mannerisms they display”

(Donovan). The most important qualities that Brendan Donovan and the University of Florida look for in potential recruits are physicality and character.

20 “At the end of the day, I ask myself who is a champion for our program? Then, I go after those recruits who I believe will add the most value to the University of Florida’s football program”

(Donovan).

Current Recruiting Issues

Recruiting Violations

Existing NCAA regulations admirably try to curb the worst excesses of recruiting, but member institutions have vigorously exploited loopholes to do the very things the NCAA has tried to stop

(Yen, 585-615). With the inception of the Bowl Championship Series and the auxiliary pressures to record quality wins in both the Harris Interactive Poll and computer rankings, the level of competition among BCS conferences has increased. This increase in competition has heightened the frequency of both secondary and major recruiting violations among BCS conference institutions since 1998 (Clark, 1999). For example, in 2010, the NCAA declared that University of Southern California (USC) running back Reggie Bush was given rent-free housing provided by a sports marketer as a recruiting benefit. As a result of this major recruiting violation, victories were erased from USC’s record, including a national championship, Bush was stripped of his 2005 Heisman trophy, the USC football program was banned from two years of post- season play until the 2012-2013 season, and the school lost twenty scholarships over these two years. This penalty was one of the harshest given in modern times by the NCAA (Browning,

2011). Another recent major recruiting violation was Cam Newton’s pay-for-play scandal with

Mississippi State University, where Newton’s father sought a payment of about $150,000 for

Newton to play for the university. Cam Newton ended up playing for Auburn where he led his team to a national championship and won the Heisman trophy, leading many to speculate

21 whether Auburn paid Newton’s father since he chose Auburn over Mississippi State University.

These two major recruiting violations follow the findings of Clark and Bautista. According to the results of a study by Clark and Bautista, where national championships are won, major recruiting violations are likely to follow (Clark, 1999).

Financial Inequality

An issue that has intensified within college football recruiting is the inequality of financial resources among collegiate football programs. The gap between the haves and the have-nots appears to be growing. The largest reported amount of revenue generated by an athletics program was $138.5 million, nearly three times the median of $45.9 million. A shocking reality is that a newly released NCAA report shows that just 14 of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools made money from campus athletics in the 2009 fiscal year (Associated Press). As a result, there is a growing disparity among FBS football programs in terms of financial resources that are available for recruiting. In 2009, Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, and Tennessee were among the select group that made money (Associated Press). These five universities have won a combined seven football national championships in the past thirteen years.

It is apparent that the football programs with the most financial resources have a significant advantage in their ability to attract recruits with lavish recruiting trips and state of the art facilities. Recruiting success is closely related to which university athletic program spends the most resources on recruiting. However, a third variable may explain why those universities that spend the most on recruiting are also most successful in winning top recruits year after year.

Football programs that possess a sufficient amount of financial resources are most likely big-

22 name universities that top recruits are already interested in playing for due to their historical success and prestige among college football fanatics. As a result, it is important to note that this big-name factor may also have an influence on a recruit’s selection process when choosing which university to attend.

Paying College Athletes

The question of whether universities should pay their revenue-producing athletes has become a current hot issue within the world of college athletics. Collegiate football players help generate hundreds of millions of dollars for their university’s athletic program, yet receive no payment in return except for a possible scholarship.

One view on this matter is that paying players out of individual athletic department budgets is beyond impractical; it's probably not feasible. Because so many athletic departments run at a deficit, it's difficult to make the case that schools should pay regular salaries to athletes (Wilson,

2011). An alternate view on the matter of paying players is that those athletes who play for a revenue-producing team deserve to be compensated for a portion of the revenue that they earn the athletic program (Wilbon, 2011). However, paying players based on their ability to produce revenue for their team could result in immense individualism within team sports. Every football player is likely to attempt to be the star player and do what is best for himself rather than what is best for their team. Paying collegiate athletes would ultimately change the recruiting landscape, as top recruits will decide to attend the schools where they can earn the most financial compensation rather than where they can have the greatest impact as a team player. In effect, top recruits are likely to attend the handful of dominant universities that are able to provide the

23 greatest pay-for-play amount, resulting in an even more uncompetitive athletic atmosphere. The

NCAA is still in discussions on the topic of paying collegiate athletes in an attempt to develop a model that is fair and effective.

Advantages of Marketing in Recruiting

Relationship-Building

College football recruiting is extremely fast-paced and competitive in nature. As a result, the difference between a recruit choosing one university’s football program over another may depend on which coach developed the strongest relationship with the recruit. One of the most critically important, and yet frequently overlooked, aspects of personal selling is creating a solid foundation of trust and rapport (Boe, 2004). The relationship-building process between college coaches and recruits is a mutual process. Recruits become more familiar with the coaching staffs as well as what benefits each university has to offer. College coaches are able to build relationships with each recruit’s family members and others in the decision-making unit, learn more about each recruit’s interests, and gain a solid understanding of what each recruit values most in his decision-making process.

Communicating the Value Proposition

Collegiate football coaches are similar to salespeople as they attempt to market their university’s football program to top recruits. During the recruiting process, coaches are able to meet face-to- face with recruits and engage in personal selling as well as learn more about what exactly each recruit and his family are looking for. Many salespeople mistakenly think "selling is telling" and, accordingly, guess at what might be motivating a client and then filibuster based on that

24 assumption. But the best ways to build business rapport are to ask skilled questions that uncover the client's motivations and values and to let the client do at least half of the talking. Start by asking what is important to the client in selecting a product or service provider (Rosenthal, 2011).

As collegiate coaches begin to understand what factors are most influential to each recruit’s decision, then the coaches are able to more effectively position their football program in a manner that satisfies the recruit’s wants and needs.

Evaluation of Recruit Fit

In addition to high school recruits being able to evaluate what benefits each university has to offer, college football recruiting allows college coaches and their staff the chance to evaluate attitude and perceived fit of each athlete for their program. Not every top football recruit tends to be an individual who college coaches would want to represent their university. Therefore, the ability of college coaches to build personal relationships with recruits leads to less of a chance that the coaches will choose an immature recruit who can create a bad reputation for the university.

Disadvantages of Marketing in Recruiting

Manipulation of High School Recruits

“Over-signing” is a practice that has gained a foothold at several major collegiate football programs across the country. Over-signing is a tactic that ensures teams that over-sign will always be able to fill out their 85-scholarship allotments, provided they are willing to betray players who have committed on the promise of a scholarship offer (UWIRE, 2012). A recent example of over-signing was between the University of Alabama and two recruits in an

25 unfortunate situation. In January 2012, Alabama received commitments from two players over the allotted scholarship limit. As a result, Alabama revoked without warning the scholarship offers of two recruits just days before National Signing Day. These two recruits had been committed to Alabama for months, and were forced to find another school that would offer them a scholarship only days before National Signing Day. It’s a simple sign of the power that oversigning-prone coaches can wield to manipulate their recruits (UWIRE, 2012).

Other forms of manipulation include football programs promising recruits playing time that they will never really see, as well as using women as recruiting “hostesses” during an official visit to the university. The use of female hostesses with top recruits has resulted in a recurring recruiting violation at the University of Colorado where various hostesses alleged that recruits sexually assaulted them during recruiting parties where alcohol was present in 1997 and 2001. Even in those cases where no explicit sexual encounters occurred, one could still infer the possibility, if not the probability, that some high school athletes might see the gesture as another benefit for signing with a particular team (Hickson and Roebuck, 82).

Financial Inequality Among Football Programs

As previously mentioned, there is a growing disparity among those universities that have plentiful financial resources and those that are losing money year after year. A result of this financial inequity among collegiate football programs is that the same few universities are able to spend considerably more money to sway recruits their way, taking recruits away from smaller, less profitable programs. Therefore, it is likely that the largest football programs will be most

26 successful in their attempt to market themselves to the top recruits in the nation, leaving little talent left for other universities.

Recruiting Clutter

With 335 Division I universities promoting their athletic programs, it becomes extremely difficult for many programs to make their way into the consideration sets of recruits. Often, recruits are most interested in playing for a historically successful university’s team and will fail to focus on smaller schools where they may have a better chance to develop into dominant players and team leaders. There is even an excessive amount of marketing clutter among the top football programs in the nation. The top football recruits in the nation usually receive offers from between thirty and forty football programs around the nation. Therefore, these top recruits are unable to carefully evaluate each university, and instead choose a handful of programs that they are interested in without even considering others. Clutter within the recruiting world of college football is currently at its worst due to the tremendous growth of college football, requiring universities and their respective athletic programs to compete even more ferociously for top football prospects.

Conclusion and Recommendations

After reviewing the literature regarding the practice of utilizing marketing principles during the recruitment of high school athletes, it is apparent that certain marketing tactics are very effective at landing top recruits. When a university’s football program is able to properly segment the top recruits in the nation, decide which particular recruits to target, and position its program through the use of personal selling and strategic advertising, the school’s football program is taking the

27 most effective first steps by utilizing marketing principles in the recruiting process. Creating a unique brand is a marketing tactic that has been very successful for collegiate football programs in recent years. Collegiate football programs that have developed their own unique brand images have benefited as a result of differentiating themselves from other competing universities in the recruitment of high school prospects, standing out because of their eccentric jerseys, national championships, playing style, fan base, field color, or some other unique attribute.

A conclusion that is possibly the most important finding of this paper is that the optimal marketing tool that can be applied to the recruiting process is to make personal visits to a recruit’s home in order to form a solid relationship with the recruit and his decision-making unit.

Although the financial costs of recruiting are significant for collegiate football programs, it can be concluded that a team’s success will provide overwhelming benefits to the university in terms of financial rewards by the NCAA after qualifying for a bowl game, signing television contracts, increasing sales of team apparel, increasing donations, and increasing the pool of applicants for admission to the university. Additionally, it can be concluded that there appears to be a fairly strong correlation within the past decade among the amount of money that a collegiate football program invests in the recruitment of top high school football players and the success that the football program has in the following two to four seasons.

In order to ensure a collegiate football program is effective at recruiting, the following guidelines are recommended. Collegiate football programs must place great importance on developing a strong personal relationship with recruits and their decision-making units. After deciding which recruits the coaches want to target, they must visit the recruits and learn as much as possible

28 about each recruit’s interests, what values he wants in a football program, and anything else that may prove beneficial to eventually win over the recruit. Additionally, collegiate football programs must adapt to the modernization of communication-technology. The NCAA rules on communication through social media between coaches and recruits are far less restrictive than rules regarding both phone and personal contact. As a result, social media usage allows coaches and recruits to communicate quite often, and should therefore be taken advantage of by football coaches in the recruiting process. Another tactic that has leveraged teams with little funding into the national spotlight is the implementation of upbeat marketing practices such as wearing futuristic uniforms for a nationally televised game or having a field consisting of blue turf.

Finally, a collegiate football program should maintain an ethical approach when recruiting high school athletes in order to avoid a negative reputation for the university as well as future recruiting sanctions by the NCAA.

Overall, college football recruiting has developed into a booming commercial industry as a result of the sport’s impressive growth. With the proper use of strategic marketing tactics, collegiate football programs are consistently successful in their ability to attract the attention of the top football recruits in the nation.

Bibliography

Associated Press. "NCAA Report: Economy Cuts Into Sports." ESPN College Sports. ESPN, 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Feb 2012. .

Boe, John. "Building A Relationship On Trust." Agency Sales. 34.10 (2004): 48-51. Print.

Browning, William. "Worst NCAA Football Violations." rivals.com. Yahoo, 07 Jul 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2012. .

Chapman, Derek, Krista Uggerslev, et al. "Applicant Attraction to Organizations and Job Choice: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Correlates of Recruiting Outcomes." Journal of Applied Psychology. 90.5 (2005): 928-944. Print.

Clark, R. S., & Batista, P. J. (2009). Do BCS national championships lead to recruiting violations? A trend analysis of NCAA Division I (FBS) infractions. Journal of Sport Administration & Supervision 1(1), 8-22. doi:10.3883/v1i1_clark; published online April, 2009.

"College Athletics Revenues and Expenses-2008." ESPN College Sports. ESPN, 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. .

"Division I (NCAA)." Wikipedia. N.p., 03 Feb 2012. Web. 4 Jan 2012. .

Donovan, Brendan. Personal Interview. 11 04 2012.

Fernas, Robert. "Oregon's $40,000 Billboard Hits Close to Home for USC." Los Angeles Times 20 Aug 2002, n. pag. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

Harvard University. "Harvard-Yale Regatta-150 Years of Tradition." Harvard Athletics. Harvard University, 2010. Web. 10 Jan. 2012. .

Helfand, Zach. "Brand Name Uniforms Equate Style to Substance." USA Today 23 Sep 2011, n. pag. Web. 13 Jan. 2012. .

Hickson, Mark, and Julian Roebuck. Deviance and Crime in Colleges and Universities: What Goes on in the Halls of Ivy. 1st ed. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, 2009. 82. Print. (Hickson and Roebuck, 82)

Judson , Kimberly, Jeffrey James , and Timothy Aurand. "Marketing the University to Student- Athletes: Understanding University Selection Criteria." Journal of Marketing for Higher Education. 14.1 (2004): 23-40. Print.

Kaufman, Michelle. "College Football Teams Using Flashy Uniforms to Attract Recruits." Miami Herald 15 09 2011, n. pag. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. .

Marconi, Joe. Cause Marketing, 2002. Page 40. Dearborn Trade Publishing

Newcomb, Tim. "Bold, Flashy Uniforms are the Latest Craze to Attract Recruits." Sports Illustrated. 28 Dec 2011: n. page. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. .

"NLI Signing Dates for Prospective Student-Athletes ." National Letter of Intent. National Letter of Intent, 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

Piccinini, Kristy. United States Congress. Congressional Budget Office. Tax Preferences for Collegiate Sports. Washington D.C., 2009. Print. .

"Recruiting." National Collegiate Athletic Association. NCAA, 2012. Web. 5 Feb 2012. .

Rosenthal, Michael. "Selling Value." Training. 48.1 (2011): 116. Print.

"Rules and Committees." National Collegiate Athletic Association. NCAA, 17 Feb 2010. Web. 6 Feb 2012. .

Staples, Andy. "A History of Recruiting: How Coaches Have Stayed A Step Ahead." Sports Illustrated. 23 Jun 2008: n. page. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. .

Staples, Andy. "Oregon's Jonathan Stewart Comic Book." Sports Illustrated. 23 June 2008: n. page. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. .

Trotter, Jake. "Facebook, Twitter Taking Over." ESPN. ESPN, 30 Jan 2012. Web. 6 Feb. 2012. .

UWIRE. "Oversigning Persists in Recruiting Process." rivals.com. Yahoo, 03 Feb 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2012. .

Wilbon, Michael. "College Athletes Deserve to be Paid." ESPN College Sports. ESPN, 18 Jul 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. .

Yen, Alfred. "Early Scholarship Offers and the NCAA." Boston College Law Review. 52.2 (2011): 585-615. Print.

32 Appendix A

UF Player Interview Questions 1. As a high school recruit, what were the most important factors that guided your decision- making process when choosing which university you wanted to play football for? 2. Which individuals in your life had the most influence on your decision when choosing which university to play football for? 3. How did the University of Florida’s football staff convince you that their athletic program and university is better than the other universities you considered? a. If another school was more effective at selling their athletic program and university than the University of Florida, which university was it and how were they more effective at doing so? 4. Why did you choose to attend the University of Florida?

Appendix B Interview Questions: Brendan Donovan, University of Florida’s Director of On Campus Recruiting 1. How do you sell the University of Florida’s football program to recruits in a way that differentiates itself from other top football programs? 2. What are the most important qualities that you look for when evaluating top high school recruits? 3. What factors do you think recruits consider most important when deciding which university to play football for? 4. How do you and your staff search for which individuals are most influential in helping a recruit decide where to play college football? a. As a follow up question, how do you approach these influencers as a part of the recruiting process? 5. How have you adapted to the emergence of new media such as texting, Facebook, and Skype to communicate with recruits?