Your Complete College Recruiting Plan
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136 evaluation guides across 20 sports and 4 divisions
Every recruit eventually asks the same question: what is the coach actually looking at? The honest answer is that it depends on the sport and the level. A Division I water polo coach watching a center is weighing inside position and the ability to draw exclusions. A Division III cross country coach is weighing your progression curve and whether you can handle higher mileage. The word "evaluation" covers both, but almost nothing about them is the same.
These guides break it down one sport, one gender, and one division at a time. Each page covers the factors coaches weigh, the order they weigh them in, what they look for at your specific position or event, and the habits that quietly move you up or down a board.
Broad tendencies across divisions. The specifics differ by sport, so your sport's page is where the real detail lives.
| Division | What tends to get weighted most | Where recruits make up ground | Room for projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCAA D1 | Performance against strong competition. Coaches want to see what you do at national events and against opponents who can match you, not production against a soft schedule. | Measurable results at recognized events, and film that shows you affecting games rather than just appearing in them. | Least |
| NCAA D2 | Present ability plus a clear runway. Coaches want tools close to the D1 range with an obvious reason to believe you keep improving. | Consistency over a full season, and a trajectory that points up rather than one standout performance. | Some |
| NCAA D3 | Fit as much as talent. With no athletic money in play, coaches weigh academics, whether you genuinely want that school, and how you would take to their development model. | Academic strength, real interest in the program, and evidence that you improve when coached. | More |
| NAIA | Upside and availability. Smaller staffs see fewer recruits in person, so what you send them carries more weight than at other levels. | Strong film, direct outreach, and being reachable and responsive when a coach follows up. | Most |
Pick your sport, then the division you are targeting. Reading across two divisions is often the fastest way to see what you would need to change to move up a level.
Knowing what coaches weigh is step one. The Pathley Recruiting Plan measures you against it: 20 to 25 best-fit colleges in your sport, per-school fit analysis, position roster analysis, coach emails written around your profile, and a full recruiting timeline. Delivered in 24 hours.