Player guide

45 prompts for college athletes and recruits

Recruiting runs on guesses: who needs a [position], whether a coach plays freshmen, whether the depth chart clears in two years. None of that has to be a guess — it is all sitting in rosters, staff directories and box scores. Swap [Team], [Coach] and [position] for yours and paste the question straight into magisterial.

Coverage: Rosters, staff directories and season stats cover NCAA D1, D2 and D3 plus NAIA and JUCO across soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, football and track & field, men’s and women’s. Roster-turnover, class-year and coach-career questions run everywhere. Play-by-play detail — shot charts, timing splits, game-state questions — is NCAA-only. Prompts marked Player plan use automated coach outreach, which is part of the $2.99 Player plan.

Where you actually stack up

Your line, put next to the people already getting the minutes — not next to a leaderboard.

  • 01

    I'm a [position] who put up [your stat line] last season. Where would that rank on [Team]'s roster?

  • 02

    Show me [Team]'s depth chart at [position] last season — who played, how much, and what class year they were.

  • 03

    What percentile would my stat line be among every [position] in [Conference] last season?

  • 04

    What does a median starter at [position] in D2 actually produce over a season — not the leaders, the middle?

  • 05

    If I put up my exact numbers in D1 instead of where I play now, where would I rank?

  • 06

    Which players in the country had a season closest to mine last year, and what programs are they at?

Read the roster before you commit

Class years and depth charts tell you how long the wait is. They are public and they are in the data.

  • 07

    Who is graduating off [Team] at [position], and how much production leaves with them?

  • 08

    Break [Team]'s roster down by class year — is this a young team, or one about to turn over?

  • 09

    How many players does [Team] carry at [position], and how many of them actually saw the field?

  • 10

    Which of [Team]'s starters last season were freshmen or sophomores — how long is the line in front of me?

  • 11

    Where does [Team]'s roster come from? Break it down by home state and by previous school.

Find the programs that need you

An opening is a roster fact, not a rumor. Go find the holes.

  • 12

    Which teams in D2 and D3 are graduating their starting [position] with no experienced backup behind them?

  • 13

    Find programs whose entire [position] group is juniors, seniors and grad students.

  • 14

    Which teams in [Conference] got the least production out of [position] last season?

  • 15

    Which programs within 250 miles of [City] have the biggest hole at [position] next season?

  • 16

    Which teams lost the most total production to graduation and departures over the last two seasons?

Scout the coach

Playing time is a pattern. Three seasons of rosters will tell you what a campus visit will not.

  • 17

    Does [Coach] play freshmen? What share of [Team]'s minutes went to first-year players in each of the last three seasons?

  • 18

    How many of [Team]'s starters over the last three years were transfers, and how many were recruited out of high school?

  • 19

    Trace [Coach]'s career — every program, every season, and every move up or down a division.

  • 20

    What was [Coach]'s record at each stop, and did the program get better or worse after they arrived?

  • 21

    Do players leave [Coach]'s program at an unusual rate? Compare [Team]'s year-over-year roster turnover to the division average.

  • 22

    What share of freshmen who arrive at [Team] are still on the roster as juniors?

  • 23

    How long does [Coach] usually stay in a job before moving on?

  • 24

    How many players has [Team] added from the transfer portal each of the last three years, and what happened to them?

Transfer math

Where players like you actually land — and what happened to them after they landed.

  • 25

    Which programs took in the most transfers over the last three seasons, and what divisions did those players come from?

  • 26

    Which teams historically take transfers who were producing at my level before they moved?

  • 27

    Where do players who leave [Team] end up — same division, a level up, or a level down?

  • 28

    Show me players who moved from D3 to D1 in the last three years, and what they had done before the move.

  • 29

    What did [Team]'s last five incoming transfers do in their first season there — did they start, or did they sit?

  • 30

    Which JUCO players stepped straight into four-year rosters last season, and what did they put up once they got there?

Know your level

What the next rung up actually asks for, in numbers.

  • 31

    What did it take to make All-Conference at [position] in [Conference] last season?

  • 32

    How many freshmen started at [position] across all of D1 last season?

  • 33

    What is the statistical gap between an average starter at [position] in D1 and one in D2?

  • 34

    Which conferences are deepest at [position] right now — not just the best team, the whole league?

  • 35

    Which D2 and D3 programs played the toughest non-conference schedules last season?

The staff, and who to email

Half of getting recruited is sending the right message to the right person at the right moment.

  • 36

    Who is on [Team]'s staff, how long has each of them been there, and where did they come from?

  • 37

    Which head coaches took over a new program this year and are rebuilding a roster from scratch?

  • 38

    Which coaches moved up a division this offseason — who is recruiting with a bigger budget than last year?

  • 39

    Which coaches are actively recruiting my profile type right now, and draft the intro email to them.Player plan

  • 40

    Find every head coach in D2 and D3 whose team is graduating their starting [position], and write them an intro email that leads with my numbers.Player plan

Build the case

Context is the difference between a stat line and an argument. Bring the context.

  • 41

    How many players in my division made All-Conference at [position] last season, and what did their seasons look like?

  • 42

    How did my team's strength of schedule compare to the rest of the division — and what do my numbers look like adjusted for it?

  • 43

    How did I perform specifically against the best teams on my schedule last season?

  • 44

    Which of my games were against nationally ranked opponents, and what did I do in them?

  • 45

    Show my season-by-season progression — is the trend line going up, and by how much?

Ask one about the program you want

magisterial answers from the same rosters, staff directories and box scores these prompts were built on — for every NCAA, NAIA and JUCO program in the country.

Open magisterial