College coaches look at thousands of potential recruits every year. They start by collecting names of athletes to evaluate by using high school coach recommendations, all-state/conference lists, and testing results from combines. Coaches evaluate those athletes by reviewing highlight tapes and transcripts in order to narrow the list to players that fit their recruiting needs. The recruits that make the cut are put on the “Recruiting Board”. These are the athletes that a program wants to spend time recruiting.
Each position on the roster that needs to be filled has its own Recruiting Board. There are limited spots on each of the college rosters and a limited amount of scholarships available each year. As a result, the athletes on the Recruiting Boards are ranked. The rankings determine how much time a program will spend recruiting the athlete and ultimately which athletes are offered a scholarship.
Figure 1 - Sample Recruiting Board