Football has become America’s national sport. Perhaps the only one that could probably compete for this title is basketball. Because of this, most colleges are willing to invest in their football players in the form of tuition fee grants.

However, being able to get a college football scholarship is very hard as the process is very competitive. With up to 1.1 million football players from high school hoping to get one, there are only at most 184 scholarship grants available for college football players. Unfortunately, the actual available slots go lower than this if you would consider that there are already senior college players who had already availed a scholarship.

It is therefore a must that you should set your sights on an athletic scholarship early on. Hone your skills so that you will be able to be noticed by the recruiters. Furthermore, make sure to keep your grades high as almost all of the colleges require a certain GPA to qualify for their football program.

The best part of availing a college football scholarship is being able to get a college degree for free while playing the sport you love. So get in the huddle and blitz your way to that college diploma.

The truth of the matter is that most will not, but don’t let that stop you from doing your share when trying to receive one. College football scholarships are not just for the best high school players. It’s just too few of those players out there and available to go around.

During college football recruiting, college scouts are also looking for players that are good, but has the potential to be great, once in their system. My brother and I were Blue Chip Athletes coming out of high school so we know what it takes to go through the college football recruiting process, and receive football scholarships. Believe me, it is a process.

Do you have what it takes to play college football? Consider the following…

1. Passion. Do you eat, drink and live for football? You better, if you want to survive at a Division I school.
2. Ability. If your ability level is pretty high, talent and skill drills will be force feed to you. You must have the ability to quickly learn offensive or defensive (depending on your position) schemes and more importantly, have the will to perform every day.
3. Mindset. College for a student athlete is a grind, but your mindset will become your greatest competitive advantage if it’s well trained. You must be able to balance your social life, team mates, living arrangements, intense football schedule and your work. Thinking of work;
4. Grades. Be sure you know the NCAA Eligibility requirements for freshman student athlete for the school you are looking to attend. You will be required to attend classes’ everyday and maintain at least a good enough GPA too remain eligible for the year, every year. Many schools have discipline rules in place just in case your grades become an issue.
5. Exposure. When college football recruiting starts, will you be ready to market yourself? With thousands of high school seniors seeking college football scholarships, it’s not too rare that some athletes that have the ability to play Division I end up not receiving any Division I football scholarships.

Each college has a limited amount of football scholarships available and a limited amount of time to give them out. They can not possibly know about or recruit every athlete in the country.

Therefore, sometimes, you must make first contact. We tell high school football players all the time that, college coaches must know who you are before they can recruit you. We were fortunate enough coming out of high school to not have too worry about exposure. We played in a big time conference and against some of the best players in the state of Missouri.

But what really mattered was our commitment towards achieving our goals. How committed are you to playing college football on a full-ride football scholarship? These are just a few tips you need to consider but the most important thing is to set a goal and to do everything in your power to achieve it.

During college football recruiting, don’t expect scouts to come and knock on your door; (unless you are ‘blue chip’) be prepared to take some action. When talking with college scouts, be sure you have a list of questions that you would like to have answered.

Don’t allow the scout to ask all the questions. Remember, you want to be sure the schools you are seriously considering is a good fit for you.

Some questions you might consider asking are;

1. How often during the week is tutoring available and is it mandatory for all student athletes?
2. What is the graduation rate of your athletes?
3. When is an athlete allowed to live off campus?
4. How do I fit into your plans for the up coming season?
5. How many players at my position are you currently recruiting?
6. How many verbal commitments have you received from players at my positions?
7. Are you planning to be the head coach for the next four years?
8. How many college football scholarships do you have left to offer?

Questions like these give you great insight to the expectations on student athletes off the field, rules and regulations and the coaches’ plan. College football scholarships are easier to receive if you dominate on every single play.

Many of you will begin to receive letters and phone calls from coaches starting next month. Does this mean you are being recruited for a college football scholarship? Yes and No. The mailing of letters and initial phone calls is just the start to a long exhaustive recruiting season by football coaches. Colleges will mail our thousands of letters and questionnaires to players of every caliber. We have heard of players receiving dozens of letters, but not so much as a phone call after that.

Coaches and especially the Graduate Assistant coaches (each team has two) as tasked with calling up to 100 to 200 players a day. From the coaches perspective they want to start with as large of a recruiting base as possible by contacting literally thousands of players. If you make the inital screening you will be asked to send in a tape for review. Rest assured, all tapes are screened. Coaches can make a decision to see more, pass on you, or place you in a potential pile within minutes.

We have a detailed strategy in our book how to deal with these letters and phone calls to help navigate the recruiting game. It can be hard to tell who is actually interested in you and who is merely making contact to build a base. During the month of August you should be making your initial recruiting list of 50 to 100 schools that match your academic and athletic profile. Begin making contact with coaches in September and mailing out your recruiting packets. The real rush of college football recruiting starts in late October. It is best to make contact early to beat out the thousands of other high school players who want the same college football scholarship.