As a recruiting expert using College Pipe, you have access to powerful tools to help manage and place your athletes efficiently. A core feature is the "Athletic Level," a critical assessment designed to streamline the college recruitment process. This guide explains what the athletic level is, how it's determined, its key purposes, and how its visibility is managed within the system.
The athletic level within College Pipe is your assessment, as the recruiting expert, of an athlete's current skill and potential relative to the landscape of college athletics. It's not a general evaluation but a specific categorization that aligns with the competitive levels of universities, which College Pipe has already analyzed and categorized. College Pipe utilizes a five-category system for these levels:
Top Ranked: Generally corresponds to the highest level of college play, including approximately 70% of NCAA Division I programs, along with top-tier programs in NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, and JUCO.
Excellent: Typically aligns with NCAA Division I programs that may not be in the absolute top tier, along with some of the strongest and very good NCAA Division II programs.
Very Good: Represents a competitive level found in many good NCAA Division II and NAIA programs, plus many competitive NCAA Division III and JUCO programs.
Good: Primarily associated with NCAA Division III, weaker NAIA, and JUCO universities.
Competitive: Also largely corresponds to NCAA Division III, weaker NAIA, and JUCO universities.
It's important to understand the distinction in how athletic levels are determined within College Pipe:
University Athletic Levels: College Pipe internally calculates and assigns an athletic level to universities. This is based on objective data points such as the university's governing body (NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, JUCO), conference strength, team historical performance (win-loss records), appearances and performance in national competitions, and national rankings where available. College Pipe uses these factors to categorize the general competitive standard of each university's athletic program.
Athlete's Athletic Level: As the recruiting expert using College Pipe, you are responsible for assessing and assigning an athletic level to each of your athletes. You make this assessment by evaluating your athlete's abilities, performance statistics, potential for growth, and overall fit within the competitive standards defined by College Pipe's university athletic level categories. When you select a level like "Excellent" for an athlete, you are making a professional judgment that their current skills and potential align with the competitive level of universities categorized as "Excellent" by College Pipe.
The athletic level you assign to an athlete serves several crucial purposes within College Pipe:
Targeting the Right Universities: By accurately assessing an athlete's level, you can more effectively identify and focus your recruitment efforts on universities that are a realistic athletic match. This saves time and resources by directing communication and outreach towards programs where the athlete is most likely to compete successfully.
Driving the Personal Fit Score: The athletic level is a primary component in College Pipe's calculation of the "Personal Fit" score for each athlete-university combination. This score, often displayed as a star rating, provides a quick visual indicator of how well an athlete's athletic and academic profile aligns with a specific university's requirements and competitive level. A precise athletic level assessment leads to more accurate personal fit scores, providing valuable insights for both you and potentially the athlete.
Managing Athlete Expectations: The Personal Fit score, influenced by the athletic level, can be a valuable tool for managing an athlete's expectations about potential collegiate opportunities. By seeing their compatibility rating with different universities, athletes can gain a more realistic understanding of where they athletically fit within the college landscape.
It is essential to remember that athletes using College Pipe do NOT see the specific "Athletic Level" you have assigned to them (e.g., they will not see "Very Good" displayed on their profile). This assessment is an internal tool for your use as the recruiting expert.
The only way the athletic level's impact might be visible to the athlete is through the resulting Personal Fit score. You have control over whether or not your athletes see these personal fit star ratings. You can turn the athlete's access to the personal fit score on and off in the settings for each individual athlete. Even if you enable the personal fit view for an athlete, they will still not see the specific athletic level you assigned, only the resulting compatibility score.
By thoughtfully assessing and utilizing the athletic level feature, you leverage College Pipe's analytical capabilities to make informed decisions, streamline the recruiting process, and guide your athletes effectively towards collegiate athletic success.