ACS Athletics Sponsoring Free NAAC Convention Registrations!
As the 2010 NAAC Convention Title Sponsor and Official Technology Consultant, ACS Athletics is proud to announce that it will sponsor one free NAAC Convention registration per month leading up to the event. To be eligible, you must be a NAAC member and have registered with NAACConnect.com. Winners will be selected each month via a random drawing by NAAC staff. If you have not registered, please visit http://www.NAACConnect.com to sign up and become eligible to win!
Our January winner is Carolyn O’Connell of Loyola University Chicago. Congratulations Carolyn!! ACS Athletics is also excited to announce that Zachary Pendelton of Weber State University and Kate Charipar of the University of Utah are the big winners of a free NAAC Convention registration as part of a separate promotion in November. Congratulations to Zachary and Kate!
Don’t delay in registering for the NAAC Convention being held on June21-22 at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, California. Future winners of the drawing who are already registered for the convention will have their registration payments refunded. Visit http://www.NAACConnect.com today!
Student-Athlete Life-Cycle Management Challenging for NCAA Division III Institutions
Although each division within the NCAA has its own unique identity, one common theme exists among them all: The ability to properly manage information related to the student-athlete life-cycle. The student-athlete life-cycle begins when the student-athlete is being recruiting by the institution and continues until he or she graduates, and managing this information is especially challenging in NCAA Division III.
The challenges begin during the recruiting process and often involve the interaction between the athletics department, admissions and financial aid office. “Communication is often the most pressing and constant challenge,” said Travis Feezell, a former Division III athletics director. “The crux of the challenge is that you are working often with three ‘independent’ but mutually dependent offices on campus. Each has its own mission and duties, and yet they rely on one another, particularly for information on individual student-athletes, to fulfill those things. It’s tough stuff.” Chris Martin, Commissioner of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, echoed those sentiments. “The biggest challenge seems to be coordinating the various recruiting efforts across the various offices,” Martin said. “Ensuring that campus offices such as athletics, admissions and financial aid are communicating about various students is essential in recruiting success.”
Another challenge for Division III institutions during the recruiting process is developing a unique brand via marketing efforts and effectively building a “pool” of prospective student-athletes (PSA’s) that will be easily integrated into the institution. “Because of the tuition-driven nature of some institutions, the roster size rather than the competitiveness of the team is most crucial,” Feezell said. “And if this is the case, then building an appropriately sized pool of potential recruits is even more crucial. How do you appeal to a pool of this size? How do you make that pool ‘come alive’ and apply to the school? How do you differentiate yourself from others in the same boat? And ultimately, how in fact should you build that pool?”
Feezell also indicated that once student-athletes enrolled and began attending classes, coaches access to information was limited, as providing access to student-athlete information often also provided access to non-student-athlete information. Creating a central location for coaches, athletics department staff members and campus administrators to access critical information can alleviate these day-to-day challenges. “Technology (could provide) a central holding place of information that allows interested parties to access and input information … it should be a ‘one-stop’ shop in this case, the place EVERYONE goes to,” Feezell added.
Martin agreed, adding, “Any system that allows coaches and recruiters to streamline the recruiting process would be helpful and will continue to assist in the recruiting process. Technology certainly can play a big role in allowing various campus entities, such as admissions and athletics, to be more efficient in their communications and marketing for PSAs.”
With the ACS InControl Baseline system for NCAA Division III institutions, coaches, admissions and financial aid directors will have the ability to effectively and collaboratively develop recruiting campaigns and manage prospective student-athlete information in order to meet institutional initiatives. Once the prospective student-athlete matriculates to the institution, all of the information collected during the recruiting process is carried over to the student-athlete database as the life-cycle continues. ACS provides technology solutions and integrates all of the critical student-athlete information into one platform which may be accessed by any designated user. From this integrated platform, all recruiting and student-athlete information is maintained and updated over the course of the student-athlete life-cycle, creating a complete record of all activities associated with that individual. Further, with the ACS InControl software suite, student-athletes may complete and submit required NCAA and institutional forms electronically through a secure password-protected portal. Not only does this reduce the need for paper, save time and improve communication, the collected data may be used to create various reports for use by the institution in identifying recruiting trends, demographics and much more. Finally, for institutions looking for a higher level of integration, ACS Athletics offers an application programming interface (API) for InControl. This capability allows the athletics department to share data with other on-campus systems, helping to improve efficiencies and communication among all stakeholders across campus.
For more information, please contact ACS Athletics at (800) 343-6220 or sales@acsathletics.com.
Tags: department communication, Division III, student-athleteUniversity of Akron Holistically Solves Athletics Department Process Challenges
With today’s college athletics departments having so many moving parts, administrators are continually challenged to manage basic processes and communications with coaches, student-athletes and other stakeholders. In the good ol’ days, the entire athletics department staff was usually housed in one facility and was composed of a few dozen employees. When issues arose, you walked down the hall and chatted over a cup of coffee. Each administrator wore several different “hats” and work life was much simpler.
Today, athletics departments are much larger, staff may be scattered in several facilities and the day-to-day processes are much more complex. The stakes are much higher, as well. Information must be immediately accessible so that good decisions can be made quickly. Coaches need marketing and branding assistance and predominately depend on email campaigns to keep up with literally thousands of prospective student-athletes. The expectation to monitor recruiting and student-athlete activities continues to grow stride-for-stride with the size of the NCAA rule book. The consequences of not meeting such expectations can cost institutions hundreds of thousands of dollars and damage reputations.
In response to these challenges, the University of Akron is taking a holistic approach to improving the day-to-day operations of the athletics department. This past summer, Akron partnered with ACS Athletics and implemented a department-wide technology solution to improve efficiency and communication in the areas of recruiting, compliance monitoring and student-athlete information management. Kevin Klotz, Akron’s Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance, indicated that during the last five years, facility expansion created physical barriers to performing at an optimal level. “We knew we needed a solution that would allow us to seamlessly move information from one office to another in a timely fashion. We believe we have found such a solution with ACS Athletics,” Klotz said.
In addition, Klotz indicated that his coaches were searching for a, “better way of doing things,” as it relates to completing required paperwork. “They (coaches) were spending too much time completing forms, which they knew needed to be done, but (the process) ended up being repetitive because they were transcribing (recruiting information) from their own files to our forms,” Klotz said. From a coach perspective, Klotz indicated that some of the key features of the ACS InControl system include the ability to have the entire recruiting database at their fingertips, the automatic logging of phone calls, not having to sit down at the end of each month and fill out extra forms and the proactive notification of a potential violation when making recruiting telephone calls.
One of the first ways in which Akron realized the benefits of ACS InControl was to use the system to administer student-athlete participation forms. The compliance office sent email notifications to current student-athletes and incoming freshmen with instructions to log into a secure ACS Athletics student-athlete Web portal and complete the required forms. Over 6400 forms were submitted online, which saved the athletics department significant time and the cost of using paper. Further, in the event issues are identified via the information submitted on any of the forms, the appropriate institutional administrators can begin to resolve such issues prior to the student-athlete arriving on campus for the beginning of the term. Faster completion of these forms allows beginning-of-the-year student-athlete meetings to be more educationally focused and interactive.
The InControl system has also greatly improved compliance functions. Klotz noted that benefits were realized almost immediately. “We’re already spending much less time having to review every phone call, contact and evaluation,” Klotz said. “We also have the ability to mark the prospect’s signing date within ACS, which automatically adjusts the recruiting rules to the prospect’s new status as a signee. When a coach calls a prospect after they have already signed, my office doesn’t have to go back anymore and try to remember whether or not it is permissible to call this prospect more than once a week. You have no idea how much time we have already saved, which allows us to spend that time doing other things which will benefit our coaches.” Klotz also noted the benefits of using the recruiting rules engine to evaluate 100% of all Bylaw 13 recruiting activities, as opposed to only spot-checking. “We spend less time monitoring those activities because the system automatically approves activities that clearly fall within the rules. When we have to follow-up on an issue, it’s a focused follow-up.”
In addition to improving the recruiting and compliance processes, Akron has also improved efficiencies in student-athlete roster and records management by providing coaches and other stakeholders online access to critical roster information. “ACS allows us to produce an easy to read active roster in a matter of minutes which has greatly increased our ability to keep people informed of who is and is not on our teams – particularly at the beginning of the semesters when a lot of students are being added and deleted from the rosters,” Klotz said. Klotz also praised the system’s ability to track student-athlete complimentary admissions and cross-check student-athlete countable athletically-related activity logs. ACS InControl allows coaches to input student-athlete hourly participation logs for online submission to the compliance office staff, which then requests verification directly from student-athletes using the secure online portal. This eliminates the need for coaches to track down student-athletes to obtain verification signatures and allows student-athletes to submit confidential comments to the compliance office.
To further expand their holistic approach to software automation, The University of Akron is in the process of adding the ACS Athletics equipment inventory tracking software module. This integrated component will connect equipment operations with the official rosters while giving them the tools to track all issued, on-hand, and ordered inventory down to the penny.
When asked whether there were any challenges associated with convincing the athletics department staff to adopt a holistic, technological approach, Klotz indicated that once the administration had the opportunity to see the value in implementing the ACS InControl system, it paved the way to earn support from decision-makers outside of the athletics department, specifically, Information Technology. “We arranged for the Vice-President for Information Technology and his staff to observe a webinar with ACS Athletics. They came away very impressed with ACS Athletics and further pledged their support of the system and implementation.”
ACS Athletics hosts informational webinar announcing the new InControl Baseline bundled package.
Presenters:
Bo Kerin, Collegiate Athletics Consultant; Regional Director of Sales
Kevin Bresser, Vice-President of Sales
Dates:
Monday, November 16th – 1:00 – 1:45 PM Central Time (To register for this session, click here)
Tuesday, November 17th – 10:30 – 11:15 AM Central Time (To register for this session, click here)
Mark your calendars! ACS Athletics will conduct two Webinar presentations to introduce the recently released InControl Baseline, a standardized technology solution for student-athlete records management, forms, recruiting, compliance monitoring and student-athlete life-cycle management. The presentation will provide a comprehensive overview detailing the following features of InControl Baseline:
Centralized Student-Athlete Records Management
Coaches and staff are constantly frustrated and confused when it comes time to find critical student-athlete information. InControl Baseline has taken an industry best-practice approach to consolidating critical student-athlete information related to eligibility, academics, admissions, sports medicine, roster management, employment, housing, and much more. InControl Baseline will reduce the duplicate spreadsheets and emails that typically litter the athletic department by having information in one location.
Student-Athlete Communication
InControl Baseline will allow coaches and approved department staff to quickly communicate with student-athletes through email, text messaging, and mail-merge capabilities. Whether it’s a slight change to a practice schedule or an important emergency notice, InControl will allow your athletics department to communicate with your student-athletes with a push of a button.
Student-Athlete Forms
InControl Baseline will allow your department to shed the piles of paper collected from student-athletes, and the system frees these student-athletes from the burden of completing information in duplicate copy. InControl Baseline has helped coaches and compliance reduce the time spent in beginning-of-year team meetings by having all forms completed well before student-athletes arrive at the team meeting.
Complimentary Admissions
Through their secure web-based portal, student-athletes can submit their complimentary admissions guest list and request tickets for an entire season at one time, if deemed appropriate by the department.
Practice Logs
Coaches and staff can submit practice logs for Countable Athletically Related Activities (CARA) online. These logs can be sent for student-athlete review and approval through their secure web-based portal. Compliance can then approve logs through the online system.
Recruiting
Recruiting is critical to the success of any athletic department. The top programs in the country are implementing the InControl suite specifically for the powerful and unique recruitment management tools. Coaches have the ability to manage their PSA data, access the information via their Blackberry/iPhone/Smartphone, send and manage email campaigns, tile prospects through recruiting depth charts, log compliance activity and more.
Compliance Monitoring
InControl is the leading software suite to collect and, more importantly, analyze Bylaw 13 recruiting activity. Coaches will have the ability to log phone calls through the Blackberry/iPhone/Smartphone application. The system proactively reviews each prospect’s previous recruiting activity and compares it with the NCAA rules and recruiting calendars. On the spot, your coaches will be alerted if that call would result in a potential violation. The system will analyze all recruiting activity and report any potential violations.
ACS Athletics employs a holistic approach in developing technology solutions for athletics departments of all types and sizes. Please join us on and discover how ACS Athletics can help your athletics department maintain a recruiting edge, meet industry standards in compliance monitoring and institutional control, and increase efficiency in managing the student-athlete life-cycle.
We hope you will join us to learn more about the new InControl Baseline bundled package!
Sincerely,
The ACS Team
(800) 343-6220 x302
8213-A Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 204
Austin, Texas 78757
Funding Technology Solutions for Your Athletics Department
In an effort to increase efficiency, improve recruiting efforts and maintain compliance with NCAA rules, athletics departments are turning to technology solutions to meet these standards. Progressive, cost conscious athletic departments are now looking to transform their athletics business processes, making communication and information delivery more automated and collaborative. Increased efficiencies means athletics departments can get more productivity out of the staff they already have in place. When athletics administrators and coaches engage in evaluating these solutions, funding is a primary concern. In many instances, individual units of the athletics department are free to explore ways in which to operate more efficiently, but are then responsible for identifying the funding method. For revenue sports, this does not always present much of an obstacle, but for non-revenue sports and other areas within the athletics department that are not self-sustaining, the challenge is much greater. Generally, funds will have to be reallocated from an existing budget line item, such as salaries, travel or other services that may affect the well-being of student-athletes. When this occurs, the institution is too often forced to choose between cutting one area or project to fund another, selecting a technology solution that is inferior or does not meet the needs of the department or sport, or abandoning the technology solution altogether. So, how does an athletics department fund a technology solution without detracting from other areas?
First, evaluate what is being spent on existing software within each individual unit (e.g., football, track, volleyball, compliance, equipment operations) in the athletics department. For those areas that do not employ a software program in daily operations, consider calculating the number of person hours required to maintain appropriate record-keeping, compliance monitoring, recruiting records, equipment inventory and student-athlete information. Follow that exercise by estimating the number of person hours saved by implementing a technology solution in that area. Once the cost of existing operations is determined, consider a holistic approach to a technology solution, whereas, each area improved by implementing such a program is responsible for only a small portion of the total cost.
The ACS InControl product suite provides a department-wide technology solution for all types of athletics departments. In addition, the system helps athletics organizations reach their peak productivity and increase institutional control by automating and enhancing inefficient, paper-driven processes. Coaches maintain a recruiting edge through use of branded email templates, a comprehensive prospective student-athlete database and more efficient record keeping. Through the use of the recruiting and team manager modules, coaches will no longer need to submit recruiting logs or playing and practice season hourly summaries, as this information is entered directly into the system for review by the compliance office. The compliance module contains a rules engine which evaluates recruiting activities in accordance with NCAA rules in real time. Student-athlete forms are pushed directly to the student-athlete for completion prior to beginning of the year team meetings, which saves time and paper! This information is then permanently stored in the student-athlete’s individual system file. Equipment inventory can be electronically tracked so as to reduce the potential for increased costs due to lost or stolen equipment.
This is only a snapshot of the services the ACS InControl product suite provides and with the release of the new “Baseline” product, athletics departments have an affordable solution to address the day-to-day challenges of tracking hundreds of student-athletes, thousands of activities and tens of thousands of records, all of which may be accessed with a few clicks of the mouse.
“Instead of adding more people, athletic departments are adopting ACS InControl™ to help their current staff perform at a higher level,” said Kevin Bresser, Vice President of Sales, ACS Athletics. “It’s exciting to be in a position to offer performance improving solutions that are both budget and environmentally friendly.”
“The mass of paperwork is too much for stakeholders like coaches and compliance administrators to wade through,” said Phillip Engle, President, ACS Athletics. “Through partnerships with the top collegiate athletic programs across the country, we know firsthand that ACS InControl™ helps coaches and administrators do their jobs more effectively, giving their teams and athletic department a competitive advantage.”
Finally, by absorbing the cost of the ACS InControl product suite across the entire department, the effect on individual sport or unit budgets in minimal. In the long run, the system will actually lower operating costs and reduce inefficiencies that stifle productivity by transforming and automating athletic business processes.
For more information on how ACS Athletics can help athletic departments improve performance, visit http://www.acsathletics.com.
ACS Athletics
Phone: 512-343-8811×302
Fax: 512-857-0316
Blog: Tales from the Road – War Board Memories of Yore
By Bo Kerin
During a recent visit to a Sun Belt Conference school, I had the opportunity to observe Melanie Carter Cabezas, ACS Athletics Director of Client Relations, assist the football staff with the implementation of the ACS InControl Recruiting Coordinator module. In the process of observing Melanie configure viewing preferences and cell phone settings for each individual coach, I noticed the “War Board” feature she was demonstrating. During the mid-1990s, I served as an undergraduate student assistant in the University of Tennessee football office and I am very familiar with a recruiting “War Board.” During the peak of the recruiting season, coaches would provide student assistants with changes and updates to the “War Board,” and we would go into the staff meeting room between gatherings and move the tiles around to reflect the changes. The magnetic tiles included name, height, weight and a ranking and were organized by position on a very large dry-erase board.
Fifteen years later, I’m now witnessing the latest version of the “War Board” on a computer screen. Now, all it takes to shift prospects around is using a mouse to click and drag the “tile” into its desired location. In addition, the coaches have the ability to select specific information to be displayed on each “tile.” As a result, the defensive line coach has the ability to organize his prospects and include information pertinent to his position. The head coach and the recruiting coordinator have the ability to access this information collectively, which allows for more efficient recruiting organization and operations. Definitely a much improved process from the days of magnets and dry-erase boards.