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-athlete