Heavily used by coaches in the mid majors, D2, and D3. He actually got a lot of attention from schools we never would have considered. He eventually went to a school that reached out to him via NCSA (he was a dual scholarship athlete in swimming and water polo). One thing that is helpful is being able to compare yourself to other recruits and commits in the class. My daughter was a bit higher profile and had more specific opinions on where she wanted to swim in college. After going through the process with my son, we understood it all much better the second time around.

My two older soccer-playing sons had NCSA accounts (offered for free as part of tournament registrations with their travel clubs) that I would identify as being marginally useful. We never paid for any of the "premium" services but I think they did have some interactions with a few programs as part of their recruiting experiences that may have been related to it. IMO fieldlevel.com is a bit more valuable from a soccer perspective. We didn't shell out any $$ for that profile service either. But my second born did get quite a bit of contact from programs at all levels from it. Both are places where kids can upload videos. If they can accumulate some decent/impressive highlights then they might be somewhat useful. But as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, most programs have definite algorithms in place that guide their recruiting efforts which have no obvious connection to these kind of sites.

I don’t know what division you are looking at but lower 2 and most D3 just use sports to stay afloat. Kinda like travel ball. Everyone wants to say that they are their child plays college ball. Look at the roster numbers definitely

...10 year old Johnny's parents he's going to be their meal ticket. Granted...he's somebody's meal ticket, just not the parents. ;-)

...from your money. I'm assuming based on your other posts this is related to soccer. Here's my take. 1) HS team doesn't really mean squat. The club team team is what matters. What level are they playing? What connections does the club/director/coach have? What are they doing to help showcase their players (showcases, tournaments, etc). 2) Be your own advocate. Get an idea of what is realistic (D1...P5 vs the rest), D2, D3). Reach out to coaches directly, especially if they're going to be at a specific showcase. Have a film. I'm mixed on college ID camps. I think they can be beneficial at the smaller/local level. I think most P5 D1 ID camps are more of a money grab unless they're specifically inviting/encouraging you to attend one.

If a kid is really interested in playing a sport in college, he's already doing the things he needs to do to "get noticed" (camps, clinics, showcase events, etc.). They have a free account with very limited features, and they'll try to sell you the whole package. No harm in doing the free account, but the paid service isn't going to do anything that doesn't happen organically or that you can't do on your own. IMO, your mileage may vary...

When we were at that stage with my son, we had two family members in a position to offer excellent advice. One was a D3 head coach (volleyball), one was a D3 football defensive coordinator. Both advised against it and said their schools/programs do not use those types of services. We had already arrived at that conclusion, but validation is nice... My son was not exactly a "blue chipper", and did not do any paid recruiting service...but he was contacted by at least 30 college coaches (D1-NAIA, all across the country) with a "form letter" type email, and at least 10 by direct personal contact. ** Edited by JoesterVT at 8/5/2025, 1:08:34 PM