Rivals’ $499 scouting service raises a trust question Florida recruiting fans shouldn’t ignore

We interrupt the #RespectOff that Florida fans and Ole Miss are having this week, and we turn our attention to something we here at Hail Florida Hail don’t have respect for:

Rivals.

Specifically, a new pay model Rivals has rolled out. 

For the low, low price of $499, high school athletes can now essentially bump themselves to the front of the line with Rivals and get “Evaluated by Rivals Scout.” Included in the service is a scouting report, a grade, film evaluation, and more.

Not to crush the dreams of anyone trying to be a Gator, but please proceed with caution if one thinks this is the magic ticket to playing in The Swamp.

Florida prospects need to stay far away from new Rivals service

After Awful Announcing reported on this new service, Rivals CEO Shannon Terry took to X to defend the practice:

“1.04M kids played HS football last season. About 6,600 held a Rivals star rating… roughly 0.6%.

That's not a talent gap. It's a capacity gap. Our scouts have always focused on FBS prospects, and FCS, D-II, NAIA and D-III kids rarely get their film watched.”

And let’s pause right here.

They may not get their film watched by you, but let’s not pretend that no one is watching their film if they meet a certain threshold. College coaches will watch your film if you meet certain metrics.

But it doesn’t matter whether it's a player trying to get noticed by Florida or someone just looking for a chance at the NAIA level; all these programs look fo baseline combine metrics. If you are a 5’8” DB who runs a 5.12-second 40-yard dash, almost every program in the country is going to send your film straight to trash before they ever open it.

“But Ben, what if there is a kid who is fast but doesn’t have access to a combine camp?”

You know virtually every high school in America has track and field, right?

Let’s be clear too, this isn’t some new idea that Rivals is trotting out. Recruiting services have existed for years across almost every sport under the NCAA banner. And virtually every college coach in America will also tell you not to waste your time with these services. 

And even though Rivals claims this is geared more toward lower levels and isn’t geared toward Power Four prospects, let’s explore this hypothetical rabbit hole:

A player gets graded as a three-star prospect. They pay the $499 and “upon further review,” they magically become a four-star. Now that prospect uses the leverage of being a four-star to drive up his NIL value as fans from the outside start engaging in a bidding war because all they focus on is the stars.

Think we are being crazy? Matt Freeman is a national recruiting analyst who said he talked to some Power Four GMs and noted what one anonymous GM had to say:

"They’re just trying to make money on the dreams of the players who wouldn’t get recruited anyway. Are there now more spots for FBS teams to take players? No. They’ll just rank more players who paid for it, but the opportunities don’t expand. The number of scholarships given out by programs remains the same. Excited for the meltdown because On3 is a market driver for NIL and this opens the door for families to pay them to rank them higher for more NIL." 

We here at Hail Florida Hail have always tried to watch film on prospects that Florida is interested in, and if you have followed our content over the years, you know we will compare our own notes with the rankings that all the services have.

But with this new pay model, we feel like we may have more and more moments where our evaluation doesn’t fit the narrative that Rivals wants to pump out.

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