GBMWolverine: Mailbag Question -- Michigan Football Recruiting -- Official and Unofficial Visits

Posted at 6:00am — 1/5/2011

GBMWolverine: Mailbag Question — Michigan Football Recruiting — Official and Unofficial Visits

Hi Guys,

Quick question: when a recruit visits a campus on an official visit does the school pay the athlete’s way?

Thanks,

— QR

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GBMWolverine Response:

The quick answer is yes.

On official visits the university picks up the tab for the travel plans which usually involves a plane ticket, transportation from the airport, food, a place to stay which is usually whoever is hosting (a current player on the roster) the recruit. Also we believe the officially visit is only 48 hours long so once he touches down and is picked up or arrives on campus the time start ticking for his official visit of a school. Also a recruit only gets one official visit per school and is only allowed five official visits to make his college decision.

On unofficial visits recruits are required to pay for their own transportation and all of their expenses while visiting the school. They can stay as long as they want or as short as they want because there is no time limit on unofficial visits in which a lot of times this is when family, friends, coaches, etc… Might come along with the recruit to see for themselves the school, the football program and also meet the coaches.

Now on a both unofficial and official visit the recruits are usually shown all the football athletic campus such as Schembechler Hall, the new Al Glick indoor practice facility which includes the renovated weight room which always gets you a visit from Strength and Conditioning coach. Along with taking a look at the new practice fields which includes two half grass fields along with the fiedturf practice field which is right behind the indoor practice facility.

Then the recruit will be taken over to Michigan Stadium and shown the recruiting center, the locker room, and of course the walk down the tunnel to Michigan Stadium and be able to walk out on the field.

They also like to give the recruit a little flavor of the life of a student-athlete and try and work in a sporting event if possible on his visit. Of course the biggest advantage is in the fall when a recruit can come and watch a football game in person and see how the team plays, how the fans get into the game at the renovated Michigan Stadium. At other times of the year they will use Hockey games or Basketball games to give them that same type of experience.

We have recently been hearing that the new athletic director David Brandon has told all his coaches that he will help in anyway possible as well. That he will talk with recruits if the coaches believe it would help their chances of landing the recruit. This isn’t done at all campuses, but you would have to think at Michigan with an active athletic director who just happened to play football at Michigan under Bo Schembechler along with being a highly involved and active former CEO of Domino’s Pizza that would help your chances of landing the prospect and showing him what can happen after you leave the University of Michigan.

Depending on if the student-athlete has the time on a unofficial visit they will take a tour of the campus, but a lot of times that is saved for the official visit along with visiting the student-athletes fairly new academic center which is beside Yost Field-house where they will usually meet advisers who are likely to help out the student-athletes while they are attending the university.

Usually they take a quick tour of the University of Michigan campus and go through any building the recruit might want to take a look at such as if they are interested in a certain field they will try and arrange a meeting with a advisor, a academic person who can describe what it is like to be a student at the university along with possible talking to a professors if available. Which if they are interested in business we are sure they will be taking a tour of the brand new Ross school of business building that was roughly 100millon dollars and all donated by Ross himself.

Then will visiting their coach who recruits them they are probably visits by their position coach as well if it is a different coach along with meeting as many of the players as possible to show them a team atmosphere along with how it might be for them if they decide to join the Michigan football family.

Usually at the end of the visit the recruit goes into the head coaches office and they discuss the visit, how the recruit feels about the school and get a better idea of whether or not they might land the prospect. This is a time where the recruit can get all his questions answered and see how he might fit into Michigan.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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