Episode #171: Mike McFarland on Recruiting

🎙 Division II Recruiting: The “Sweet Spot” | Dr. Michael McFarland

In Episode #171 of the Significant Recruiting Podcast, Matt Rogers continues the conversation with Dr. Michael McFarland, Athletic Director at Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg, to break down what today’s recruiting landscape really looks like for student-athletes and families.

Dr. McFarland shares why NCAA Division II is the “sweet spot”—offering the right balance between academics, athletics, and overall student experience—and what recruits must understand to navigate the process the right way.

This episode is packed with practical advice on communication, follow-up, and making informed decisions in a rapidly changing environment shaped by the transfer portal, roster limits, and increased competition.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

•  Why Division II offers a powerful balance for student-athletes 
•  How the transfer portal is impacting recruiting decisions 
•  Why recruiting is now a 4-year relationship, not a one-time decision 
•  The importance of communication, follow-up, and “call to action” 
•  What recruits, parents, and coaches often misunderstand about the process 
•  How to evaluate “fit” beyond just level, money, or prestige

Learn more about Dr. McFarland:  Click Here 

Transcript

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On the latest edition of the Significant Coaching Podcast, the recruiting focus presentation of the coach, Matt Rogers YouTube channel, available audio only everywhere you get your favorite podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. This week we dive into part two of our conversation with Dr. Michael McFarland, athletic director at Commonwealth University Bloomsburg, formerly Bloomsburg University, and we shift the focus to recruiting. Building off his recruit, retain, graduate philosophy. We break down what today's recruiting landscape really looks like for student athletes and families from why division two can be the sweet spot to the impact of the transfer portal to the importance of communication and follow up. This is practical real world advice you can use right now from one of the top athletic directors in the country. For more tools, resources, and guidance on your recruiting journey, please visit coach matt rogers.com. You'll find everything from the significant recruiting book. To the recruit specific journals and opportunities to connect directly with me to schedule your family's recruiting evaluation. Alright, let's dive into part two with Dr. Michael McFarland. Okay. Welcome back to the Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm here with Dr. Michael McFarland. We just had a great conversation on coaching and building an athletic department that's dynamic and healthy and the kids have ownership as much as the coaches. So it was great. So if you didn't hear it, go back and listen to part one. Mike, I want to jump into recruiting with you. Where does division two fit into this world of athletics that we live in? You know, I, I mean, I, I always think back to some of the early NCA Division two stuff, you know, the life in the balance, right? Yeah. And that mantra that we've had and make it yours. And, um, I look at division two as the sweet spot. You can come in, you can be an athlete, you're gonna be a student, you're gonna be part of the fabric of the institution. You're gonna do community service. You're gonna be engaged in all of the right things. To what I say to a lot of parents and a lot of recruits as they come in, is you're coming to our campus as a young man or young woman, and have been brought up to be who you are today. Our goal is to make you walk away from here even better, and to provide those tools. And, and I feel that the division two landscape gives you that. It gives you that on all fronts, whether it's from the academic standpoint and the faculty caring, whether it's not that faculty don't care anywhere, everybody cares. I, I get that. But from that landscape, to me, division two is a home run. Not to use an athletic term with it, but it's really about the right. Balance and that balance of being able to compete academically, compete academically, and be successful in athletics. That's a great way to put it, because it's, it's really the centerpiece of all education. But what we're dealing with at the division one level, and, and you know, we just saw, what was it, 1100 Division one men's basketball players just jump to the portal on day one. The facts are saying that maybe 380 of those kids, maybe a third of those young men will get a job at the D one level if they leave. Right? Right. So two thirds of those kids going in the portal either gonna quit or they're gonna have to go down. Right. How do you talk to your coaches? Because I know you want them to be the CEOs of their program. I know you want them to have that freedom and flexibility to run the program the way they they see fit. How do you talk to them about the portal in a healthy way? So retention continues to grow at your school, or at least maintain'cause it's hard to grow anymore than what your school is doing and keep the grades where you want them. What do those conversations sound like? Well, you know, a, a lot of it for me starts at at the, at the start, right? And it starts with when that coach first comes in, how are you gonna build your team? Yeah. Right. And let's, let's learn together what are important to you. There are some coaches who, you know, every year it's all freshmen coming in. I'm not even gonna look at the portal. There's some coaches who are, I need that quick fix. Yeah. Well, the quick fix, guess what? In a year he or she may go anyway. Yeah. And now you're quick fixing again. Yeah. So what is that right balance for you and inside your program? And I try to get that from them. And then I try to remind them. Because there's a lot of times when a coach will say, I'm not gonna go with, um, you know, X, Y, ZI, I wanna make sure that I'm bringing in all young men or young women, first year students, and then all of a sudden, maybe a couple decommit for whatever reason, or come and, and decide it semester. Maybe college wasn't for them or they do wanna move on, and then they go, well, now I need to fill that hole. I need to, and now I'm gonna go into the portal. So as I tell'em, you know, a lot of it is what is your preference and how are you gonna build in general? The thing that, you know, people can love or hate the portal. I, I, I won't necessarily go into that. What I will tell you is, you know, it's kind of one of those things for me, if I'm gonna make a commitment to you, I hope that you can continue to make that commitment. Yeah. And a lot of it, and I talk to coaches when they come to me and say, I'm interested in maybe this position. I say, well, what about your current student athletes? How are they, because you may, they've committed to you. Is that a better opportunity? And you know, people will always say the grass is always greener on the other side. Sometimes it is many times as the numbers and some of the data shows, it's not necessarily maybe the same. Well, I think you're doing a great job with your students and your coaches and I'm sure your staff of just asking that question, you know, it's easy to see how great things might be going on over here. Sometimes we have to look within to say, well, things are pretty good here too. You know? Right. We're, you know, let, let's talk about our positives. Let's talk about our strengths. You know, and, and maybe there's some, there's some growth there. Like you said, what, what can we improve on? Right. So I think, and, and Matt, honestly, I mean, sure everybody wants more budget money, right? I mean, there's not a program. I want more scholarship money. I need more opportunities. I need a better locker room. I need the, the arms race is there, it's gonna be there whichever level you're at, right? Unless, unless you're redoing everything every year, you're not gonna be at the top of that. Yeah. What we try to do is we try to sell. Look, we've got amazing facilities. We're constantly, you know, our athletics department has a 25 year master plan. How are we going to hit what we need to do? What do we need to improve on? We have amazing donors who support us and support us in the way, some of them, really simple. I'm gonna support scholarships. Some come to us and say, what does it, what do you need? What's your highest and greatest need? That's what it's like to be a husky. And that's what we try to say, Bloomsburg, we care about you. We, we care about your experience. We want you to come and have a, an amazing experience. Graduate and walk away. And when you graduate, keyword graduate, we don't want you to go and transfer. Sure. You might. That's okay. Retention rates, things like that. They may be changing. Graduation rates may be changing. That's gonna be nationwide because of now that flexibility. What we hope is that we're showing enough love on the front end that that young man or young lady says, I'm really having a good experience. If there's a coaching change, I get it. If every kid decides they, he or she wants to go somewhere, whether they're following their coach or other, that's understandable. But if we still have the same coach and we're hitting all of the reasons why you chose our campus. What do we need to do to keep you on our campus and it's become anymore? I recruited you in year one. I'm recruiting you in year two. Year three. In year four. That's right. Oh, by the way, the graduating class from year four, I've gotta now replace them too. So now I'm recruiting new, but I'm re-recruiting every kid on my team, and that's almost in every sport, which is becoming a little more difficult. But I feel our coaches are amazing. I feel they do great things and. Doing what they do on a daily basis helps to retain those student athletes. I love it. All right. Let's flip the switch a little bit. Let's give some advice to, to kids that are going through this journey. They're 16, 17 years old and they're, they're planning on playing in college and wanna play in college. We talked about call to action in your class that you teach. Yes. How important is it for that 60 and 70-year-old that there's a call to action when they reach out to your coaches or any college coach and say, I wanna be recruited? How important is it that call to action to get something back from those college coaches, whether it be feedback or, Hey, are rosters full or you don't fit us? How important is it for kids to be asking for those things? I I, it, it has to happen, right? Um, on any given day, there's recruiting services out there. There's, you know, I get 15 emails a day. I get emails, Hey, coach, I'd love you for you to recruit me. And I'm going, well, last I checked. I wasn't coaching this sport, this sport or this sport. Right? It's that personal connection. It's the follow up coach. I sent you an email a week ago. I, I just wanted to check in, make sure you saw it, make sure that you had an opportunity. And are there any questions? I'd love to come visit campus, right? I say all the time. What is our parting way? What is our close, you know, closing a deal, doing something like that. How are we going to reconnect? Matt, you know, you and I get off this call right now. I'm gonna say, Hey, when can we talk again?'cause I had a great conversation with you. That's what those young men and young women 16, 17, 18, need to be doing because there's other people vying for the spot. It's a, it's a lot like trying to go for a job. I still remember early in my career, I'd apply for a job and if I just sent my resume and never contacted them. They, they didn't really know that maybe I was interested that follow up call, Hey, did you receive my materials? Is there anything that I can answer for you now? Or is, am I too early or too late in the process? Right? The same goes with recruiting because you need to sell yourself. To that coach as much as the coach wants you. And I say that when, when we have recruits on campus and I have the pleasure to speak to parents and to the, to the student. I say, as much as you're here and you're here because we're interested in you, I want you to be interested in us.'cause this is a relationship we're creating, right? This is what we're doing together. Because most campuses across the world, right, all have a business major. All have an English major if that's what you're choosing. Right. Some are better than others. Absolutely. But we can provide that great academic experience. How can we mirror with the athletic experience? So ask questions, learn, but make sure that when you're asking those questions, it's not where am I gonna play?'cause it's more than just that. It's, it's, it's perfect advice. What do you tell your coaches who are getting 200 emails a week? Maybe 40 voicemails. They're trying to run their program, trying to deal with their kids on campus, trying to deal with the 200 other recruits they might have on their list. What's the conversation in terms of being accountable for those kids that are reaching out to you to ask for a little bit of something, feedback a absolutely, and I think it's important to, to, you know, me personally, I acknowledge every email I get. Yeah, it may take me three or four days, but I'm acknowledging it. Even if it's someone sending, now, there's a lot of spam things that we all get that we leave on the table. What I try to tell our coaches is even if your roster is full, even if you're at a spot where you're not recruiting or you know, in some sports it's time-based, right? Swimming in track and I can look at the numbers and say, here's where you would be. Yes, it takes a couple extra minutes. That young man or young woman deserves that same idea. You know, I'm one that even if I'm hiring a coach, we're reaching out to everyone who's in the pool and saying, Hey, sorry, you know, it might be a generated form that goes, yeah, but it might be also a personalized phone call. And you're always gonna get the, well, what could I have done better? Is there still another spot yet? Those are some tough questions to answer, especially, you know, to have recruit who's 16, 17, 18, who. They're the best on their team and you know, so I, I try to tell my coaches if you can please at least respond, acknowledge thanks for your information. We'll keep it on file. It could be something as simple as that because again, nobody likes to go unanswered. And I tell, I tell a lot of people this, if you don't answer a question, even if it's, I don't have that answer, let me get back to you. That's a lot better than not answering it. Because many times people will make that assumption that the answer is exactly what I thought it was gonna be, right? And now that perpetuates maybe a negativity or a bad rumor or a bad issue when it's really not bad. My roster's just full. And it's a lot easier to say, my roster's full based on a roster cap, or whatever the situation may be. Right. Well, at least as a student athlete, they know to move on. It's their energy can go to other places now. You know, and, um, I tell, I tell, I tell kids that, you know, a victory is Yeah. They wanna recruit you. Yeah. A victory is they give you feedback and tell you something to work on, but a victory is also our roster's full, or, Hey, we're not gonna recruit you'cause. Now you don't have to waste your time anymore. You know, you gotta look other places. Right. And man, I think it's important'cause it goes both ways. Yeah. If a student athlete, all of a sudden I commit to Mat University, I better tell Mike University that I'm not coming. That's right. Because that coach is still holding on hope. I really want this person on my team and I might be building something around. Well now there's other people in that list. Yeah, who that co coach could go after and they're still holding out hope because maybe you're, you know, the, the term ghosting, right? I love that when a coach comes in, oh, Matt ghosted me for the last week. I don't know if he's coming or not. I'm gonna probably tell you he may or may not. Sometimes it ends up that you still do and you still make that connection. And, sorry, I've been out of pocket. I couldn't do it. As much as the coach needs to do that, that incoming recruit student athlete needs to try to do the same, because like I said, when they come to our campus, we have'em here because we have an interest in them. Yeah. And we want them to have that equal interest. And if the interest doesn't wane and we're not going to see eye to eye on whatever it may be, then let's mutually agree that we're not for each other. Right. And tell each other, it's a hard conversation, don't get me wrong. It's a hard conversation for a coach. And I think, I think, you know, to many student athletes, you're, you're the big fish in the little pond on a lot of campuses, high school campuses, right? Mm-hmm. And you're being told, well, maybe. Maybe your time needs to be better, or I already have someone who can score 30 goals in a season. You're, you know, that's great, but you know, we're gonna pass on you right now. Keep us in mind. That's a hard conversation for a coach to have too, and that grace that from both sides is really important. Let's, let's, let's finish by kind of bridging that gap between high school and college. Give some advice to the high school coach, the high school ad, even the parent. That's going through this journey with our student athletes. What can they be doing to help support healthy recruitment, conversation and communication? What, what can they be doing a little bit better? I. Well, I, I think, again, I think it's having those open and honest conversations. Right. Um, and by that I don't mean, you know, are you really a Division one student athlete or a division two student athlete, or that, that's not what I mean. I mean, where would you like to be going? Right. There's some student athletes who play it, you know, in a I A Schools Division two, division three. Division one because they want the major. Right. And so I know if I don't get in here, maybe I'm not gonna be an athlete anymore. That's a legit conversation to have. And there's nothing wrong with a coach or an ad, especially reaching out to a coach to say, I have someone, I don't know if you had an opportunity to look at him or even would be interested in him, because that coach may say, I didn't even know about your student, who might not, you know, maybe they reached out to him and the student had it. I, I had a great one where one of our alums contacted me and said. I have a nephew and he wants to come to your school. And I said, oh, that's fantastic. He said, but the coach won't return a call. So I walked down the hall of the coach, I had the kid's name and I said, coach, is this name familiar? He goes, yeah, this kid hasn't responded to me for three weeks. Uh, you know, so again, that open, transparent communication. I was able to then turn around and tell our alum and say, let's have a conversation with the kid. Next thing you know, they had a conversation that kid's coming to school here. Right? Because they finally connected. Yeah. Why they didn't connect. Immaterial. Yeah. The issue is making sure that we have those open and honest connections. It could have been something that that kid really didn't want to,'cause mom and dad went there, aunts and uncles went there and they're just, you know, placating those parents to say I'd really, I really have an interest in. So I think it's important. I think coaches can help and, and, and have that understanding, but also know that. You know, many institutions, depending on the sport, depending on the gender, depending on some of the other elements, budget and other, they may have caps and they may be forced caps. Where I, I, I'm at my max and that's okay. Not the, not what anybody wants to hear, but I think that that's what really is helpful to us in, in the administrative side. And I will reach out to any of my coaches at any time and say someone has reached out to me. I get a student athlete from a high school who sends me an email and I, I'll send it back to the coach and copy the coach in and say, Hey, coach, just wanted to let you know this young man and young lady's reaching out. Please get back to him. Right. Yeah. That's great. I follow up to make sure, did you at least give that the courtesy of a response? Yeah. Um, and that's where so much of it is. It's that response and sh and acknowledgement that yeah, there may not be a spot for you. There may be a spot for you. You know, at the end of the day we, we have to always be considering our reputation and you know, you don't respond to a couple calls, you don't recall, respond to a couple emails, you miss a meeting. You know, you blow somebody off, maybe even unintentionally, and all of a sudden you've got a hurt reputation with the high school coach or with that school now, or with that athletic director. And now that it's affecting your ability to recruit that program later on, maybe. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that happens, a that happens more than, you know. Yeah. And it could be something as simple as an email typed in wrong and the coach never gets it. That's right. Um, and it could be both ways, right? It could be either way. So I think it's, it's important to have those open dialogues as open communication pieces. But I also think that there, you know, there's nothing wrong with reaching out. I haven't heard from you. Please. Even if, and, and, and I tell a lot of people this, um, you know, I mean, a lot of my friends, um, you know, may have a son or a daughter who's trying to become a college athlete. I say, make sure that when you're reaching out to that coach, you're, again, you're, what's your call to action? Do you have a spot on the program? I'm interested, yeah. Am I behind? Am I too early? Am I too late? Um, I chuckle now because, uh, a good friend of mine, his son is a, a se incoming senior this coming fall. He said, am I too late in the recruiting process? I said, you might be for some schools. Yeah. But for others you better jump on it and here's how. Right. Um, because again, it's kind of that timeline. Where are we? Some of my programs are done recruiting for 27, 28 already. We haven't even really identified. Now, a student may fall off the earth and say, oh, I decided, you know, whatever, who, and we may end up with an extra slot, but at that point in time, we may have already told 15 other people that we're full. So it's a tough thing. You know, I, I, I always tell people communication is a two way street, and if we're not doing it, yeah. And it's one thing to communicate, it's another thing to have communication. I think you and I have talked about this for over an hour now, in, in some shape or form. How important is to reiterate, you know, you talk athletic director language and division two language all the time, and I talk recruiting all the time and sometimes I forget, I gotta go back to the basics about, hey, division one and division two coaches, they sometimes will look at a seventh, eighth, and ninth grader. Sometimes they'll, they'll know what their class is gonna be two, three years in advance. So if you start as a junior, senior. It may be too late. Right, right, right. And, and we, we forget about some of those things that are just a common part of our life. And, you know, and, and, and again, some, some high school students, you know, I always tell everybody, make sure you get into the clearinghouse. Make sure you're registered with the NCA. Are you taking enough core classes? You know, that's the big one. If you think you wanna be an athlete. I don't care if you, and you're in your eighth, ninth grade years, you better make sure that your school knows what classes I need to be taking. That's right. Because the last thing you wanna do is get to your final year. Realize, uh oh, I don't have everything. And now maybe not be eligible to play. That's right. Not for anybody's fault other than maybe you didn't take that English course your sophomore year that you needed to get a a core course. That's right. Whatever it could be. And, and those are the things that I think are important that I tell people all the time, look at this information. It's out there, it's published. This should not come as a surprise that this is what you need. And you know, you have to kind of, when they're here, you know, it's the same idea. Once you're here, you need to be eligible. If you're not eligible, you're not helping the team. You're more hurting the team and your teammates. And you gotta start that younger, I've been on these panels and I know you've had, you've been on a lot of'em too, where a parent will ask, what do I need to get into D two? And I go, if you, that's the way you're thinking. You're already failing because you need to be thinking, I need to get, I, I need to think about the highest level I can get my kid.'cause every GPA point is worth a couple thousand dollars. Every a CT point's worth a couple thousand dollars. So I need to be thinking, how do I set good routines to make sure my academics are strong in my house? And that way we don't have to worry about D 2D one NAI.'cause they're all different. Yes, but it, it all comes down to am I shooting for the best or am I shooting for the minimum? Well, and, and again, you know, everyone wants to say, at the end of the day, I have an athletic scholarship. Right. I'd rather say I have an academic scholarship. I mean, I still laugh, you know, my college coach told me I had to have a 3.0 to play for him. I had a 3.0. I wish he would've said you needed a 4.0. I would've been a lot smarter. Right. That's right. It's, it's that whole idea of. I want to be the best I can be. And if I would've come outta high school with the best grades possible, now my academic money's a little bit more now my athletic money could even go further. Yeah. And it doesn't matter then where you're going and you know, it's the same as I tell a lot of graduating students and student athletes especially, you know, if they're grade point average is really, say they're at a 2.9 to a 3.1. Well, what do you wanna do? I wanna go to grad school. Well, you know, most grad schools have grad assistantships and you need a minimum of a 3.0. You better get your grades up, right? And then they're going, whoa. Oh wait, what? It's like they're starting over back in high school and remembering those lessons. But, you know, academics are, are so, so critical and important that if you're, again, if you're not taking care of that, you're definitely not taking care of the athletic side. And a lot of coaches look at that and they'll say, if you're, if you're a suspect academically. Are you gonna still be able to be with me and retain and graduate and move on? Um, and that's what's really key. Such a great message. Uh, Mike, it it's, it's been a joy. Um, I do hope we get to have many conversations down the road'cause I've learned so much and I'm, I'm so thankful for you and that you're in this world. You were built for this. Bloomsburg is lucky to have you. And, and, and I'm, I'm gonna be lucky to call you a friend from here on out. One last piece of advice for our listeners as they're, they're going down this journey to college. Anything that you want to throw out at them? I, I think, and, and again, I said this with my own kids when they were choosing college, is make sure it's somewhere you want to be. Yeah, right. It's one thing to chase the dream. I'm chasing the NIL money. I'm chasing the, you know, I wanna play at the top level. I want to do this, I wanna do that. But do you really want to be at that institution? That's right. It doesn't matter what that institution is, right? Do they have the right academics? Do they have the right things? And, and then the other piece of it is, is, is also equally as important. A coach may not be there in a year or two years or three years. And if you're playing going to a school based on a coach, please go to the school too. Also, I should say. Because you have an academic, uh, side that you want, you have teammates that now can become lifelong friends because the coach may not be here. It could be for any host of reasons. Same as another student athlete may not be on that same team with you in the future. So those are two, I think, important things that I even told my children and uh, you know, when they were choosing where to go to college is you can love the coach and want to go because of the coach, but make sure that you also like the school. Because it's not all about the end of the day. I chose this school because it's the highest level of the highest of the highest. It's, I chose the school. It's gonna be a great marriage between academics and athletics, and I'm gonna have a great experience. Thank you for everything, uh, Mike, and, and we'll be cheering for Bloomsburg and, and, and all the Huskies. Good luck this spring. Thanks for having me. It's been great. Really appreciate it. What a great conversation with Dr. Michael McFarland. There's so much to take away from this, especially the idea that recruiting is not a one-time decision. It's a relationship that requires communication, honesty, and follow through on both sides, whether it's understanding your fit, asking better questions, or simply having the courage to follow up those small actions matter. More than most people realize and more than the advice you hear online. If you're a recruit or a parent or a coach, this is where the process becomes real. It's not about chasing something that just looks good. It's about finding the place that's right for you and committing to it the right way. As always, you can find more recruiting tools and resources@coachmattrogers.com to help guide your journey. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.