Factors that Impact the Successful Recruitment of Student-Athletes in Collegiate Athletics: A Synthesis of the Research Literature

In the world of intercollegiate athletics, the successful recruitment of student-athletes is essential to the prosperity of athletic programs. Coaches and recruiters spend countless time and resources recruiting the student-athletes that best fit their program, which makes efficiency in their process paramount. Each student-athlete is looking for something different, and it’s up to coaches to attempt to uncover what is important to each athlete they’re recruiting so they can attempt to tailor their efforts to that student. The purpose of this synthesis was to determine the most important factors student-athletes consider when making their college choice. The literature used for this synthesis was collected using a number of searches on the EBSCO academic search complete database. Each of the 10 articles selected for the critical mass were peer-reviewed, and answered at least one of the research questions. Once selected, the articles were described and synthesized. There were a number of results that pointed to trends in the importance of certain factors during recruiting based on demographic information such as gender, ethnicity, and size of school. The factors that influence a student-athlete’s college choice process almost always involve a combination of athletic and academic-related factors. Many of the studies, however, had contrasting results, signaling recruiting preferences may be largely unique to each individual athlete.