Rivals was the internet’s main character last week.
The high school recruiting media company launched Rivals Recruit — a service where high school football players and their families can pay $500 to be evaluated by Rivals scouts, but with no guarantee of being ranked or, really, anything beyond going through the process:
Game film review
Conversations with athlete’s coaches
Scouting report
Grade and projection
Rivals says the platform is "designed to expand the recruiting radar” and give players who are fits to play at the FCS, Division-2 and -3 and junior college levels “the opportunity to be seen, professionally evaluated and discovered.” The company added that “ratings, rankings and stars are earned, never bought."
The announcement was widely panned on social media as many accused Rivals of exploiting athletes and families. The reactions — albeit anonymous ones — reported from college coaches and personnel officials were indifferent at best with some calling it a cash grab and others claiming they are less likely to recruit athletes who pay Rivals.
Rivals/On3 founder and CEO Shannon Terry initially defended the move with some painful AI slop. He then followed up with a more substantial, seemingly human-produced response that touted Rivals’ scouting and said the platform will “address an underserved area of the market."
The issue here is not so much that Rivals is charging money for recruiting exposure, but that this sounds like an underwhelming product.
This is not a Perfect Game showcase where athletes receive instruction and know college coaches are in attendance. Or testing services like Curve Sports or MPI Sports that have relationships with coaches and offer validated metrics with tangible value that inform development.
Rivals will watch film and talk to the high school coach before producing an evaluation that might cross a college coach’s desk. And there is no information offered about how credentialed its scouts are. Rivals said it’s $500 because of the work that goes into the scouting, not because the work is necessarily being done by former college and pro staffers.
Even a trumpeted success story does not fully add up. Rivals said a sophomore QB from Virginia paid for an evaluation and ended up getting a scholarship offer from Tulane as a result. But the kid had an FBS offer before then and a half-dozen appearances on Power Four campuses scheduled.
Bottom line: No talent ID system is perfect but the American football recruiting machine is pretty well-oiled at this point. The business model would be enterprise deals with every college program in America and free evaluations for athletes and families if Rivals was truly addressing a glaring market need. A handful of kids may benefit from it, but it will not move the needle at all for most.
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