High school football: Players facing scholarship crunch

They might get to see more players they like, but many college coaches have fewer scholarships to offer as many programs opt to recruit from each other rather than load up on two dozen high school players per year, a practice produced by the creation of the transfer portal in 2018 and subsequent loosening of transfer rules.

“The (power conference teams) are picking from their lower division programs, where they’ve seen a kid actually play at the Division I level,” Beavercreek coach Trace Smitherman said. “They can come over from the portal and that’s immediate success, right?

“So you’ve got to be a top 100, 150 national prospect to really get somebody’s eye. And I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think they’re taking as many high school kids because they don’t have to because they’ve got access to MAC, and Division II and those type guys.”

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A coach at another area program, who wished to remain anonymous, said a representative from an FBS program told him they might sign 10 high school players from the class of 2026 — or less — rather than the traditional 20-25.

That program is not going to go into next season low on scholarship players — it will just hope to load up on prospects from the transfer portal instead.

“You’re going to take a guy that can help you win right now,” Centerville head coach John Puckett said. “I can speculate on why, but I think the biggest thing is that college coaches know they don’t have a lot of time to develop a program, let alone develop players. They need to win right now. So what’s a better way to win right now? Go get a 20-year-old that already knows how to work as a college guy.”

He added he and his colleagues expected a trickle-down effect when the portal started to take away FBS…

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Publish date : 2025-05-19 14:05:00

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