OfferPath vs. NCSA
$79 once, printed on the page. NCSA is $500–$4,200 a year.
These are different products and you should know which one you are buying. NCSA is a recruiting network with an advisor attached, sold over the phone. OfferPath is the school list, the coach's direct email and a board to track it, and your family does the work. If you want someone making the calls, buy that instead — this page will not talk you out of it.
| NCSA | OfferPath | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $500–$4,200 a year, quoted on a call | $79 one time, printed on the page |
| Pricing transparency | Sales-gated — you get a number after a conversation | On the homepage and on /pricing |
| Model | Exposure: your profile sits in a network coaches may search | Direct contact: you email the coach yourself |
| Who the coach sees | A recruiting network he gets mail from all year | Your son, from your own address |
| Where the school list comes from | Their network and their advisors | Measured roster departures at his position |
| Ongoing cost | Annual, per athlete | None. No subscription, nothing to cancel |
| Can they promise an offer | No, and be careful of any service that implies it | No, and we say so on the homepage |
When NCSA is the better buy
If nobody in your house has the time to send twenty emails and follow up on them, or you want a person to call when you are stuck, an advisor earns the fee. We would rather say that than take $79 from a family it will not help.
When this is the better buy
If you are willing to send the emails yourself, everything else is information: which of 743 programs are realistic, which of them lose a player at his position before he arrives, and who on that staff actually opens mail. We measured 59,346 college players to work the first part out. It costs $79 once.
Questions
Is OfferPath a cheaper NCSA?
Cheaper, yes — $79 once against $500–$4,200 a year. But it is also a different job, and you should know which one you are buying. A full-service recruiting service is people: an advisor, and your athlete's profile inside a network they market to colleges. OfferPath is the information those people would be working from — which programs are realistic, which of them lose a player at his position next year, and the coach's own email address — handed straight to your family so you send the messages yourself.
Why is it $79 when NCSA is $500–$4,200 a year?
Because you are not paying for people. The expensive part of a recruiting service is staff time; the part that actually moves a recruitment is knowing which programs need his position and who on that staff to write to, and that is data. We built the data once and charge once for it.
Do coaches take a family email seriously?
A short, specific email from an athlete with film gets read. That is the whole reason the templates exist and why the family sends them rather than a platform — a coach opening mail from a service he gets mail from every week is a different situation than a coach opening mail from a kid.
What if I have already paid for a service?
Then you already have exposure and you may not need this. Run the free Eval anyway to check the division read against what you were told, and only buy if the school list adds something you do not have.
Start with the free part
The Eval is free and takes two minutes with no account. Run it before you spend money with anyone, including us.