How Important are Grades in the College Recruiting Process?

Your academics might be the single most important thing when it comes to college recruiting and trying to land an athletic scholarship.

There are certain things coaches look for in recruits: are you athletic, are you coachable, are you the right height/weight, do you have good speed, etc. The list goes on and on.  Coaches might be able to look past a few flaws in your game if they see a certain quality they really like. College coaches are good at what they do, and they believe they can “coach a kid up” if need be.  But, a coach cannot train a player to have better grades and therefore, grades are the only thing a college coach will not look past. You either have bad grades, decent grades, or good grades; if your grades are bad, you run a huge risk of jeopardizing any scholarship offers. When a coach recruits a player with poor grades, the coach runs the risk of not getting the recruit into the school and, if the recruit is accepted but the poor grades continue into college, the coach runs the risk of having an ineligible player.

Because of the risk-factor, college coaches don’t want to deal with athletes that have bad grades.  There are plenty of high school recruits out there with good grades that have similar playing abilities the coach would much rather run the risk of taking.

Just as having bad grades makes you less attractive as a recruit, having good grades makes you more attractive.  Good grades means you are less risky when it comes to being and staying eligible.  College coaches want athletes that can graduate and boost the team GPA. Having good grades not only indicates you are intelligent, but you are able to manage your time wisely which can correlate with the player’s ability to be coached and master the playbook.

Most people don’t realize that recruits can get athletic and academic scholarship money.  College coaches can offer a recruit with good grades a better academic package to save money on their athletic scholarship budget.  College coaches really like having the option to combine scholarship funds and free up athletic money to bring in more talent.

Your grades can also increase the number of schools that are recruiting you.  For example, division three programs do not offer athletic scholarships to high school athletes.  A division three school can only offer academic scholarships.  With good grades, you increase the chances of getting scholarship money to a program that doesn’t offer athletic money.

When do these grades matter? They matter all four years of high school! Even freshman year GPA is very critical. Having it at a high point starting out will help three years from now when colleges begin to put them under the microscope. It is easier to maintain a high GPA than it is to chase grades.

All in all, grades are extremely important to college coaches. After all, this is college and you are a student-athlete—education always comes first.