Informed Athlete LLC (www.informedathlete.com) provides guidance and answers questions that high school and college athletes, parents, and coaches have about college athletic recruiting, eligibility, transfers, and scholarships. Rick & Julie Allen founded Informed Athlete in 2008 to help families of student athletes who have the athletic skills to compete at the collegiate level, but often struggle through the recruiting or transfer process and make mistakes that cost a lot of money or result in an athlete quitting their sport before they have reached their full potential.

“You need to transfer if you want to get more playing time.”

That’s the last thing that a college athlete wants to hear from his or her coach. Sometimes transfers are initiated by the athlete, but many times they are initiated by the coach.

Throughout the years, I have encountered many different reasons for athlete transfers including coaches moving to another school, athletes wanting to move closer to home, athletes desire to switch schools, or because their scholarship has been reduced or cancelled.

November is an exciting time for those high school seniors (or junior college athletes) who have been recruited by an NCAA Division I or II athletic program and have been offered an athletic scholarship to continue participating in their sport in college. These athletes will have an opportunity to sign a National Letter of Intent [...]

One of the most important decisions that a college athlete recruit will make is which college scholarship offer to accept.  The best way to learn about a college or university and the baseball program, that you are interested in or that that is recruiting you, is to visit campus.  From the standpoint of NCAA rules, [...]

Summer is a very important time in the recruitment of high school athletes by college coaches. Participation on summer teams, in summer individual competition, or in summer camps and clinics are an opportunity to be seen by college coaches as you are participating in your sport. This has become more evident over just the past [...]

While some people believe that college athletes who receive athletic scholarships receive “full-ride” scholarships, the truth is that no athletic scholarship covers ALL of the costs of attending college, and that athletes in the majority of sports programs receive “partial” athletic scholarships.  A “full” athletic scholarship covers the following costs of college:  tuition, certain course-related [...]

Question: My daughter is participating on the volleyball team at a Division II college as a walk-on. The coaching staff did not recruit her. She now desires to transfer to a college closer to home that is in the same conference as her first college and join their volleyball team. Her current coach won’t give [...]

“Stressed Athlete” recently sent me this question: “I called and left a message for a college coach asking him to call me back because I have some questions about their program, but he has not returned my phone call. Does this mean they are not interested in me?” Answer: If the coach has already called [...]