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The way Brandon Sizemore figured it, his basketball career had come to a near-perfect, albeit unwanted, ending.

The recent Newport graduate, a scrappy sparkplug on an overachieving team, had helped the Wildcats to an improbable run to the state tournament at Rupp Arena.

But he was 5 feet 9 and the squad’s sixth-leading scorer. His name wasn’t on recruiting watch lists, and college coaches hadn’t come to see his games. “I thought that was it,” Sizemore said. “Then this kind of popped up.”

Sizemore will attend NAIA Georgetown College in the fall on a partial basketball scholarship. He’ll face an uphill climb for varsity playing time on a huge roster that features several former NCAA Division I players.

And he’s not alone. Every year, small colleges add more roster space on more athletic teams to attract more students and more tuition money to their campuses. As a result, high school students have more opportunities than ever to play college sports, sometimes regardless of their skill level. It’s an option for many. But according to experts, students and their parents must enter the small-school recruiting process with open eyes.

According to a recent NCAA study, the association’s member schools are adding nearly 8,000 athletes every year. According to another NCAA study, from 1982 to 2007 the number of Division III athletes increased from 85,521 to 158,621 – a growth rate of 85 percent.

Most of the increase has come at the smallest schools because they have little to lose and much to gain. Division III schools can’t offer athletic scholarships. They field a variety of teams while spending relatively little. Those teams bring exposure – as well as millions of dollars in tuition – to the schools’ typically small, private and expensive liberal arts campuses.

Similarly priced and sized NAIA colleges are in a comparable situation but do offer athletic scholarships.

What small schools find in the recruiting process, according to experts, are students and parents who are willing to go to any lengths for a college athletics experience.

“The parents – even if they’re smart – they’re lambs to slaughter,” said Tom Elias of College Prospects of America. “Kids are emotional. They pick a school because of the color of the uniform or because the coach is nice or the other guys in the cafeteria say it’s a cool school. Meanwhile, the parents are looking at an expense of $20,000 to $40,000 per year for four years. Maybe that school gives your kid $1,000 and you can put in the newspaper that Johnny got a scholarship. But all of a sudden the parents are getting a loan for $19,000 a year.”

Some coaches say that for some seniors, the allure of calling oneself a college athlete – along with the pomp and circumstance that surrounds their decision – directly affects their futures.

Conner athletic director Tom Stellman said as recently as 10 years ago his school would hold one or two “signing ceremonies” a year. They usually were held when a highly recruited Division I athlete signed his or her national letter of intent. Now, he says, Conner averages 40 ceremonies a year. Sometimes the athletes are going to college on scholarship. This time of year, when Division III schools are landing commitments from students, many are not.

“Our policy is supposed to be one group (signing) in the winter and one in the spring,” Stellman said. “But everybody wants their own. We need to do them all at one time, as a team. It used to be more about team, not the individual. It just kind of evolved that way. … It’s out of hand.”

How out of hand? Roster numbers tell the tale.

Lindsey Wilson, an NAIA program in Kentucky, had 33 players on its men’s basketball roster last year. Rio Grande, an NAIA program in Ohio, had 30. By contrast, NCAA Division I schools such as UC, Xavier and Kentucky carry about half that many players.

Brescia, another NAIA school in Kentucky, had a 46-player baseball roster last year. That’s 13 players more than last year’s College World Series champion, LSU.

NCAA Division III football power Mount Union started the 2008 season with 215 players, including an 84-player freshman team. Meanwhile, Division I programs are allowed just 85 total scholarships.

Local Division III schools Thomas More and Mount St. Joseph started their football programs in 1990, partly to increase the schools’ enrollments. After struggling early, both programs have been nationally ranked in recent years and maintained rosters between 90 and 120 players..

Mount St. Joseph coach Rod Huber said building a program is a process – one that places a premium on numbers.

“When we were 0-10, we took anybody who would walk and chew gum,” he said. “… I tell kids all the time, if you really love this game, there’s a Division III program for you. It might not be Mount St. Joseph. But there are places out there, like we were 10 years ago, that are just looking for bodies – anybody who wants to play.”

Even at elite small-college programs, the numbers game is evident.

Harrison graduate Steve Strassell was a standout pitcher at Division II power Tusculum (Tenn.) College. He arrived on campus in 2004 to find a 51-player roster that included 27 pitchers.

“When you’re a senior in high school and you’re being recruited, sometimes you can get a sense for how competitive it’s going to be,” he said. “You have schools come in and say, ‘We really want you, but we’d really like you to walk on and then earn a scholarship.’ You kind of get the feeling that they’re thinking, ‘Hey, worst-case scenario, we have one more body on campus paying tuition.’ ”

To that end, the athletic departments at many smaller schools assign each sport an enrollment goal – a number of roster spots each coach should fill to increase or maintain the size of the student body.

The policy has worked at Lindsey Wilson, where athletic director Willis Pooler said enrollment goals and the addition of several sports have raised the number of the school’s athletes from 400 to 700 in the last seven years.

“One of the things that athletics bring to the table from an enrollment standpoint is you’re bringing in students who might not have otherwise looked at your school,” said Pooler. “That’s important. We look at that when we look at what programs we want to offer. We also just started a nursing program. We try to attract students in all kinds of ways.”

Lindsey Wilson uses JV teams to develop varsity players and add enrollment.

“For some students, it’s just participatory,” said Pooler. “For others, it’s a way to get into the varsity lineup. … But we’re not taking people who have no business playing. They’re at least JV-level athletes coming in.”

And when it comes to NAIA programs like Lindsey Wilson, many of the JV players receive athletic scholarships. According to NAIA rules, JV scholarships don’t count against the program’s scholarship limits. So even JV recruits often receive thousands of dollars worth of incentives to continue their careers.

Cooper High School senior Shumekia Overstreet is one of those players. The undersized center, who averaged 2.0 points and 2.9 rebounds for a fledgling program that went 11-16 this past season, recently signed with Midway College. The NAIA school’s annual tuition is $24,000. After grants and academic money and $11,000 in athletic money, she’ll pay about a quarter of regular tuition.

“I was stunned (by the scholarship offer),” said Overstreet’s mother Darla. “… When she first mentioned she wanted to play basketball in college, I said, ‘Ummm, Shumekia, I don’t know.

“But she loves the game. Even if she doesn’t get a lot of playing time, she has a core group of people that she can bond with and turn to. That’s important in college.”

Brandon Sizemore, the Newport grad, will have plenty of teammates to turn to. Georgetown had 33 players on last season’s varsity and JV teams. He said he knows he’s entering the program as a JV player – the JV and varsity practice separately and play different schedules – but he hopes to crack the starting lineup.

Georgetown coach Happy Osborne wouldn’t comment about Sizemore’s future or the inner workings of his program, but it’s obvious Georgetown isn’t the only side benefiting from the arrangement. Sizemore, who landed on Georgetown’s radar after Newport’s athletic director sent out a recruiting questionnaire on his behalf, wanted to go to Georgetown even before Osborne contacted him. He said if he keeps his grades up, after grants and scholarships, he’ll pay only $2,000 of the school’s annual $35,000 tuition.

“Money would have been the only reason why I couldn’t have gone there,” he said. “I’m not the richest. Coach Osborne told me he’d see what he could do, and they came back with a great offer.”

The challenge facing small-college coaches is projecting how high school seniors will develop while giving them a fair assessment. The coaches then must decide how much scholarship money to give the player, or in the case of Division III coaches, whether or not to invite him or her to join the team. At times, it becomes an ethical dilemma.

“There are schools that bring 20 or 25 kids in as freshmen, and then the kids show up and all of a sudden they get cut,” said Mount St. Joseph men’s basketball coach Larry Cox. “The creed I try to tell our coaches: Never recruit anybody who we don’t think can ever be anything more than a JV player after two years.”

The onus, according to high school coaches, should be on the recruits. Many tell players and their parents to research the schools interested in them. Go to their games; ask to see their practices; talk to the players. Compare your skills to theirs.

Ryan Vogel is doing just that. The recent Silver Grove graduate plans on attending Thomas More in the fall. He also would like to play on the Saints’ JV basketball team. So he spent the weeks after his senior season playing in open gyms with Thomas More players to find out if he could compete.

Batavia graduate Justin Lowe said he wished he’d had that same mentality when he enrolled at Thomas More in 2000. Lowe was part of a 15-player freshman class for the Saints basketball team. But he quickly learned why some small schools bring in so many players. He received enough money in grants and academic scholarships that during his freshman season he paid only room and board. By his sophomore year, he was on academic probation. Without the academic scholarships, he owed full tuition. On top of school and basketball, he took a job at CVS before leaving school.

Lowe, now 28, still owes approximately $30,000 in student loans.

“I wanted to stay in school, but there was really nothing else I could do,” he said. “There’s school and there’s sports. But at the end of the day you have to pay your bills. I’m still happy I went there. I just wish I would have had my head on right.”

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Do you want to play college football? It is the dream of thousands of high school players every year to make it too the next level.  There are over 306,000 senior high school football players every year. Of those only 17,500 on average will make it to the NCAA. That number includes all freshman from DI, DII and DIII. Less than 6% take the step and play in college. That number may seem low and it is.

The main reason high school players don’t play in college is simply because they don’t want to. That means if you have the desire and a little talent, you will be able to find a college to play football at.

If you just want to play in college, enjoy your social life and have a great overall experience, DIII is the place for you. Those football players who want to play in college and earn a scholarship are up against serious competition. There are 85 scholarships in NCAA DI, 63 in I-AA and 36 at DII colleges.

To compete for these and play college football you need to have a recruiting system that you are willing to put time and effort into. There is no easy way to play college football, you have to work. Those football players who put the same effort into their recruiting as they do on the field, as the ones who get invited to camp.

You can also walk-on at all NCAA football programs. What you want to be is called a “preferred walk-on.” This means you go through the recruiting process the same as you would when seeking a football scholarship. If you are not offered a scholarship by the college of your choice, you can ask to be a preferred walk-on and get invited to camp. You will have all the same privileges and access as a scholarship athlete does, but will be paying 100% until you become a contributing player.

Here are 5 quick tips to play college football:

1. Start the recruiting process early: While it is never too late to start technically, those football players who start before their Senior year have a much higher success rate.
2. Get good grades: Even though the NCAA Clearinghouse minimum can be met by anyone with a high school diploma, 50% of DI programs can’t get you past admissions without a 3.0 GPA.
3. Get great film: Make sure you get a copy of every game tape. Even if your coach films the games, give him a blank tape to make a copy. You will need these when making your personal recruiting packet.
4. Take the extra steps: Are you lifting extra during the off-season and in-season? Are you doing extra conditioning and speed work outside of practice? Putting in a few extra hours a week will show during games and is what separates scholarship from walk-on.
5. Communicate: Tell your high school coach you want to play in college. Call college coaches and tell them you want to play for their program. If college coaches don’t know about you and don’t know you are a player, they can’t recruit you.

To play college football you need to put in effort, both on and off the field. Off the field in the classroom and towards football recruiting. With a solid recruiting plan you can beat out the competition and find a great college football program to play at.

CLICK HERE to get the recruiting system that has showed over one thousand high school football players how to play college football.

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If you want a college athletic scholarship then don’t wait any longer. You must start today. Learn how to choose the right athletic conference for your talents and have a successful recruiting season ending with a scholarship offer.

CLICK HERE to see the college athletic scholarship recruiting guide that will show you how to earn the athletic scholarship you deserve.

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It is not easy to get a football scholarship to play in college. You are competing with thousands of other high school seniors all with the same goal as you. You must be able to separate yourself from your competition and gain a recruiting edge. The margin of those who sign a scholarship and those who don’t is very slim.

Here are 5 Tips that will help you increase your chances for a scholarship:

1.      Start early. Gone are the days of waiting until your senior season has ended and waiting for a couple of college coaches to contact you. Successful players are now starting in their sophomore and early in their junior year.

2.      Attend summer camps and combines. By selecting the right camps and combines to attend you can go from high school athlete to college recruit in one day. Not all camps and combines are created equal so make sure you choose ones that will maximize your exposure and recruiting potential.

3.      Get the best academic grades and test scores possible. Colleges keep raising the minimum that they will grant waivers for athletes. If you graduate with under a 3.0 GPA, you just shut the door on 50% of NCAA schools. It is never too late to increase your grades so make it a priority now.

4.      Play multiple sports. College coaches like to see football players who excel in other sports like track, wrestling, lacrosse, baseball and basketball. Athletic diversity shows true raw athletic talent and can make up for minor deficiencies on the football field. Football is a sport where specialization does not matter as much as raw athletic talent.

5.      Do it yourself. Handle the recruiting process yourself. This shows much more initiative than a player whose family pays a recruiting service to fax out online profiles and make a fancy highlight tape. College football coaches evaluate much more than your athletic ability. Determination and initiative show a lot towards whether the high school athlete will be a success in college.

There are many other little details that go into making a successful recruiting season. The most important is having the desire and wanting to play in college for the right reasons. If you have a solid strategy for recruiting, you can earn a football scholarship and beat out the thousands of other athletes all fighting for the same spot.

CLICK HERE if you have the drive and determination it takes and truly want a football scholarship.

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