Colleges and universities send cards and letters of interest to prospective athletes. They do this in every major sport, i.e., football and basketball. They’re major sports because the latter two bring in the big bucks to academia. In case you didn’t know it, the monies generated from packed football stadiums and sold out basketball arenas goes into a treasure chest that’s divided between salaries in both academics and athletics. More money means more pay.
State schools receive money from their respective states, as well. That’s all part of the budget. Back to letters of interest.
From personal experience, I can tell you that an average high school athlete in football, basketball—and to some degree baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, track and field—will receive anywhere from five to ten letters or cards of interest at the end of their junior or senior years. If the letters come at the conclusion of a sport during an athlete’s senior year, figure on the “athletic scholarship” being a possibility. If the five or ten letters come after a junior’s season has concluded, there may—although remotely—be a shot at an athletic scholarship. The latter is true if the athlete goes to one of the school’s sport camps. (It’s through camps that college coaches can evaluate athletes.)
There’s a better chance at an athletic scholarship if an athlete is “invited” to a sport camp, and that most definitely occurs anywhere from an athlete’s sophomore to junior years of high school. The Ivy League schools aren’t exempt from sending out letters or cards of interest. Been there, seen that.
In fact, one major instance had an area athlete contacted by several of the east coast prestigious universities. Ivy League schools, incidentally, don’t give athletic scholarships. They only give academic scholarships and grants. Still, since Harvard wants to beat Yale every year, and Princeton wants to beat Brown—or visa-versa in those match-ups—they do send out letters and cards of interest.
Interestingly enough, the schools of U.S. Presidents and millionaires actually did try to lure “student-athletes” from the Midwest for awhile. The reasoning had something to do with allowing youngsters from the prairie states to experience the culture and whatever that is supposedly part and parcel of Ivy League tradition.
