When families ask, “What does it mean when a college coach asks for your transcripts,” what they typically want to know is if the coach is interested in their recruit. The good news is, in most cases, coaches asking for a transcript indicates they are interested.

Here are a few reasons why college coaches might want to see a transcript:

• They want to make sure a recruit is on track to be academically eligible. For DI and DII schools, athletes must meet or exceed the NCAA academic requirements, which includes having the correct number of core courses and the appropriate GPA in those courses according to the sliding scale.
• The coach is checking his or her transcript to see if the recruit is eligible for an academic scholarship. If they do have the grades for an academic scholarship, it means the coach can save some of their athletic scholarship money to attract more recruits. Many coaches have limited budgets, and the more academic money recruits can get, the farther they can stretch their athletic scholarship dollars.
• The coach wants to see how the athlete has improved academically over time and what classes they have taken. Maybe a recruit has a lower GPA, but he or she told the coach they are working on improving their grades. The transcript will show the coach that they have — or haven’t — been making an effort.

Athletes' grades have a huge impact on their recruiting and on the college admissions process overall. In most cases, coaches can’t afford to spend time recruiting an athlete who’s not going to be academically eligible. They risk that athlete not being able to keep up with the college course work on top of athletic responsibilities — or the athlete not being eligible even before getting to college.

In other words, a strong transcript with solid courses and a good GPA can be the difference maker early on in an athlete’s recruiting process.