Football Recruiting at University of Chicago

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

Hope this helps parents and student going into the college football recruiting process.

First, we matched our son’s athletic skills to the Ivies and D3. University of Chicago, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Washington & Lee, Pomona, and the NESCAC—Williams, Middlebury, Amherst & Tufts—made the D3 list. Ivy & NESCAC restrict NCAA playoffs for football teams. This is a big turn off as every student athlete should be given right to compete for NCAA championship. Schools like Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt & Rice were too high athletically and did not make our list.

Result: Our son committed to the University of Chicago 2021 class.

Candidate profile: He is an all-state player from a strong football program that sends about a dozen players off each year to play to college football. ACT 32, grades in the low 90’s range, medium number of AP/Honors. Faculty elected him to one of the most important school leadership roles.

High School profile: Rigorous day school with above average academics. Generates approximately 40 recruited athletes per year across all sports. College placement skewed as so many recruited athletes place into the top USNWR ranked colleges and universities for sports.

Chicago Football Recruiting Process:

Chicago was different than Ivies & D3’s in some ways.

It was standard in that Chicago staff made initial contact at a summer showcase in person and confirmed broad athletic and academic fit. Head Coach kept in contact during senior season via email initially, and then via phone calls.

However, our son asked Chicago Coach if he could give him a “pre-read” by submitting his test scores and transcript. A pre-read gives the recruit an idea if admissions will accept the recruit if the coach decides to support your son.

Chicago coach politely declined pre-read request. He explained Chicago requires the entire application (marked early action) to be submitted before giving recruits a pre-read. By contrast, the Ivies and other top D3 programs simply required transcript and test scores to give pre-read and make an offer. The Chicago application takes substantial time and there is an application fee (which they will waive if you ask). The essays for Chicago require serious work as they are “quirky”.

Once Chicago gave a pre-read” our son and family were invited to a two-day official visit. The includes presentations about the university, football program, academics, financial aid as well as a tour. About 15 recruits & families attend each official weekend. The history of Chicago football as a founding member of the Big Ten, multiple National Championships, and Heisman Trophy winner make for a nice presentation. Similar to Harvard in terms of leather helmet glory football stories.

Chicago claims to lead the USA in combined Nobel Prize and Heisman winners—fun urban legend point, but the recruiting pitch quickly turns to the U Chicago academics legends like Einstein, Fermi, and Friedman vs. the history of big time football.

The best part of official visit came from current player panel. They described having 6 figure plus job offers from top firms. It was humbling as many of the parents in attendance commented our incomes levels not being as high as these Chicago varsity football players. Coach explained 100% of Chicago senior football players have substantial job offers, or medical, law, or graduate school acceptances. The players spoke about why they see MIT as a peer school intellectually. Williams and Amherst really not discussed as a comp. Ivies a little bit, mostly Columbia and Harvard.

The boys then spent the night with their hosts (members of the team) and went to parties. It was finals week so nothing crazy. The football fraternity house is being 100% renovated, and beautiful. The players described substantial use of Chicago’s major attractions from a culture, dining, and sports point of view. Safety was discussed. Surprisingly, U of C has the second largest private police force in the world (to the Vatican) and Hyde Park is totally gentrified now. The new Obama Library is transforming another campus border on Lake Michigan. This was a very pleasant surprise as safety turned into a non-issue.

The next morning there was a coaching staff and parent’s Q/A that took place without the boys. Simultaneously the boys had a large team breakfast with their hosts.

After the breakfast “offers” were made. Certain players were not made offers, even after coming out for the official visit and going through the entire process described above. Not getting an offer also happens at Ivies and is a regrettable part of the official visit. The Ivies pay 100% for the family’s air fare and hotels for these official visits regardless of financial need. Chicago will pay if need is demonstrated I believe.

Our son was one of the recruits to receive an offer. The next steps were 1.) he accept and convert application to ED from EA and 2.) wait for the admissions office to issue him a “likely letter”.

Within a week our son committed by placing a call to the head coach and accepting his offer. Even at this point the Coach at all times emphasized that “nothing is official” until the likely letter is posted. Coach emphasized admissions was the final decision maker. The likely letter was posted to the admissions site within 24 hours as promised. This happened before the ED notice date.

Another contrast to the Ivies/other D3’s related to ACT scores. Chicago & MIT seemed pretty strict and as though they get the academic cream of crop. On the other hand, Williams would go as low as 26 on ACT for a top recruit, Brown 27, and Columbia & Harvard 28.

Only Chicago required application to be filled out before issuing “offer”.

The Chicago coach was direct and honest. He is the former Associate Head Coach at Dartmouth. He moved back home to take Head Coach job at Chicago as he is a Midwesterner. He recruits from all over the country, with a large Texas and California and Illinois contingent. Next year Chicago is moving into a new league to cut down on overnight travel for academic reasons. Chicago will play in the Midwest Conference, and the winner gets an automatic bid into the NCAA playoffs. Chicago will continue to play out of league rivalry games vs. Washington University in St. Louis and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I would not be surprised to see Chicago in NCAA playoffs as several recruits turned down Ivy offers, and some even had preferred walk on status to schools like Northwestern. The power of that USNWR #3 ranking is really attracting great players and this top notch Coach is a great recruiter.

Key advice: impress the coaches at summer camps, develop solid “highlight tape” during junior and senior seasons, and of course maintain the highest possible test scores and grades. Chicago has second highest SAT/ACT scores in the USA. My guess is Chicago may be able to recruit a 28 ACT so long as he is a potential star and there are enough 35 & 36 ACT football recruits to balance the team average.

Football Player Graduate Outcomes: The University of Chicago outcomes presentation was off charts. The jobs. and medical, law and graduate school acceptances really impressed the recruits and parents. We found the outcomes presentation to be more impressive than the Ivies and Williams, and equivalent to MIT.

Summary: All of these schools generate excellent outcomes for the football players. University of Chicago impressed us the most. World leading economics department was the tie breaker. Finally, the lack of NCAA playoffs at Ivies and NESCAC was a turnoff to our son. I am sure, however, if your son is accepted into any of these top schools (and a dozen others not discussed here) he will be given a true gift in life that he should cherish.

2

Hello! Thanks for the very detailed and informative post. I, myself, played football throughout my four years of high school. However, I’m not talented/big enough to be conventionally recruited by any means. Do you know if there is anyway to walk on to the team if I’m accepted despite this? If there is a walk on process, then I was wondering whether contacting the coach at this point would have any impact on my admissions decision? Thanks again!

3

I assume they allowed you to pay the deposit when you got the letter as well. By depositing very early signed athletes end up getting housing priority. Or else they are just given priority outside the deposit system. But my son’s friends who are signed athletes got exactly what they requested for housing.

4

The recruiting portion of the U Chicago football program is the only part phase we have experienced so far. So i can not provide any first hand guidance with regards to walk ons. That said, as a general rule, i would advise you this way: 1.) always keep admissions and coaches advised of your interests. Be enthusiastic and concise when communicating. 2.) recruiting is not always efficient, and walk ons have an impact at all levels of college football. For example, turn the TV on this weekend and i am sure there will be a walk on contributing to major D-1 teams the are playing in bowl games. Maybe that can become your destiny:)

5

yes they have about 2 or 3 walk ons in each class on the team

6

Welcome and congratulations. UChicago is an excellent program and your son will earn a world renowned education and have fun doing it. The coaching staff is a class act as I am sure you are aware.

My son and the rest of the family spent the entire summer attending camps from NU to the Ivy’s on the Eastcoast. He was blessed to field a dozen or so offers from Tier 1 and top Tier 2’s, Patriot, etc. MIT, Harvard, NU and UChicago were his shortlist.

The Ivy’s use a band system and depending on their team performance the prior year can dip into much lower standardized scores. MIT and UChicago have a much stricter admission process.

Was incredibly powerful to hear the Econ majors all had IB/Consulting offers prior to the start of their senior year. No other school even broached the subject.

Not sure if you caught the discussion about the study abroad that is paid for and encouraged along with the intern/externships. Many of the Ivy’s and Patriot league schools frown on it due to spring ball.

Again congratulations. As a parent it’s a difficult but rewarding process and I wish your son and family the best.

7

@BronxBorn Thank you for the incredibly detailed post! I went to UofC for grad school, its a great place.

I wonder if you could share some information about your son’s football related activities in the summers leading up to the actual recruiting. Which camps/showcases did he attend? Did he do any skill related activities? Anything else you think was helpful?

Also, what position and size is your son?

Thank you!

8

Sure. During the summer before senior year he attended the New England Elite Football Camp and certain Ivy League and academic D3 camps. While at these schools, we took the time to tour the campus on our own, but we rarely had the time to take official admissions tours. Lots of time and money invested, so please plan them carefully. We found the use of AAA or USAA discounts for motel costs to be the helpful in keeping costs down

It was at New England Elite that my son became aware of Chicago, and vice versa. I think this camp is well worth the money and time and the reason Chicago and my son found each other. Of the Ivy Camps, Harvard was the best one we attended because Coach Murphy was very conscientious to make sure every camper was given the time to carefully introduce themselves to each and every college coach in attendance. As you may know, the Ivy Camps also have about 15 academic D3 coaches scout the combine. Harvard does not, however, have Yale’s coach at the camp, but would have MIT, Williams, and Washington & Lee. Harvard did not just provide enough time to say a pithy, “speed dating” hello but rather a well-organized way for a young man to make an impression. Each school was given a station and players waited on line to speak to the schools of interest.

Pomona (not on his original list) took great interest, and for a while a CA school was on the “long list” of consideration all due to the Harvard Camp. Also, Tufts does a great job of covering Harvard, and they really recruited our son hard for months after the Harvard Camp. Speaking of Tufts, that was one of the D3 camps attended. Also, Middlebury, Williams, and Amherst have a back to back to back camp schedule, and you literarily see campers/families driving on the road from school to school. Many families from fly to/from states came in for this three-day event, and especially from California. Really painfully expensive.

Of all the D3 camps, Tufts was far and away not only the best, but the most fun. I would guess the Tufts coach is going to begin to dominate in NESCAC—he really cares for his players, and he ran a great overnight recruiting session for his top prospects early in the Fall. He also was the best in the NESCAC at explaining and emphasizing Tufts commitment to job placement.

I would say that weight training took more time over skills work during the summer recruiting season as the camps really simulate the “skill” work and drills and tests. As for skill training prior to the recruiting summer, the FBU Camps are elite—excellent football training and excellent lectures over three days. I think the best money we spent in 9th and 10th grades. Despite expensive, worth twice the price.

Regarding size, he has had a bit of a growth spurt as he was 5-10 and around 170 lbs. as a junior and is now 5-11 and almost 195 lbs. This size makes him neither big nor small for his college football position.

Please enjoy this “journey” as it is fun and excellent bonding time with your son. It is also a chance to see some amazing schools in different parts of the country and meet nice parents on the side line. This is our last son to go through this so we will cherish the memories and look back on the trips/camps as a unique part of the overall high school and college sports experience.

Finally, a note on these recruits. I hope that academic applicants (non-recruited athletes) at schools like Chicago, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard take the time to consider the thousands of hours recruited athletes invest into their sport from 6th grade until 12th to be in a position to get a likely letter. These are all hours taken away from extra study, SAT/ACT prep, rest/sleep and socializing. The fact that these schools can field such talented teams, all while keeping their recruited athletes so close (as measured by standard deviation) to the average GPA & ACT/SAT of the non-athlete applicant pool makes me have even greater respect for these true student athletes.

I hope this helps your son and best of luck to him.

9

Just curious, did you notice any differences among the recruiting of skill position players versus linemen-types? I have seen it expressed here and there on CC that “big boys” have it easier because there are fewer of them for Division 3 football, but I am not so sure that this is not merely an opinion predicated on the assumption a kid 6’3" and 275 must be dumb.

10

Great question. I can tell you from decades of playing and coaching experience that the rarest player in football is the athletic and large (6-3 to 6-7 and 265 to 310 lb) linemen. The top high schools, colleges and NFL teams covet this body type. They are the beauty pageant winners, far and away, in our beloved sport. I would also say they are more sought after than skills players (with possible exception of QB) as the typical size of a top skill player (between 5-9 to 6-2 and between 170 to 215 lb) is a much more common body type in society. Further, players from other sports (think baseball, basketball, lacrosse, and even soccer in the early years) can be converted into a good skill position player at the college, and even pro level. On the other hand, no matter the training, diet, or workout program, a coach simply cannot create that rare size. So, in short, I would prefer to be an all-state OL or DL vs. all-state DB with the same grades and standardized test scores as I believe more offers will come to that boy. I will also say, and this is just hearsay, that the Ivy and top academic D3 programs have for years claimed that their players with the highest grades and SAT scores are their offensive linemen. If that is true, and taken together with what I know to be true about the rarity topic above, it bodes very well for any parent looking to get their big 280 lb linemen son an offer from Harvard, UChicago, Columbia, or the like.

11

It’s been a football cliche for a long time that the smartest, most intellectual players on any team are usually the offensive linemen.

12

@BronxBorn I agree completely with you from both personal experience and the most recent recruiting cycle.

13

Sports Illustrated featured UChicago Maroons football, video starting at 4:50:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/25/football-america-chicago-bears-maroons

Go Maroons!

14

Weird, I posted this 10/29/2017 but, it’s showing that I posted this on 12/29/2016:

Sports Illustrated featured UChicago Maroons football, video starting at 4:50:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/25/football-america-chicago-bears-maroons

Go Maroons!

15

@JHS - here’s an example from the current Yale team that supports that cliche:

16

In your article about football recruiting at the University of Chicago, you erroneously state that Albert Einstein had once been affiliated with this school. This is not the case. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein fled Germany, eventually coming to the USA where he was offered a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ (not affiliated with Princeton University); Einstein spent the rest of his life there, dying in 1955.