Episode #145: Dr. Bob Dranoff on Recruiting

The Commissioner's Take on Recruiting: Fit, Expectations, and the Division II Reality | Bob Dranoff (Part 2)

 In Part 2 of this conversation on the Significant Recruiting Podcast, Matt Rogers is joined by Dr. Bob Dranoff—long-time athletic director at Molloy University, former administrator at St. John’s University, and recently retired commissioner of the NCAA Division II East Coast Conference—for a realistic look at college recruiting.

This episode focuses on what coaches, families, and recruits often misunderstand about opportunity, scholarships, and fit—particularly at the Division II level. Drawing on decades of experience, Dranoff explains how recruiting decisions are shaped by enrollment needs, institutional priorities, finances, and leadership philosophy, and why assumptions don’t always align with how rosters are actually built.

They also discuss changing family expectations, the pressures facing coaches, and why transparency and honest conversations matter more than ever in today’s recruiting environment. While Division II may not be the right athletic fit for every student, it can be an excellent academic fit for many—and understanding that distinction is critical.

This episode is especially valuable for:

• Student-athletes navigating recruiting decisions
• Parents trying to understand the process realistically
• Coaches building rosters and managing expectations

🎧 Audio: https://coachmattrogers.com/podcast/

📺 Video: https://youtube.com/@CoachMattRogers

For more recruiting resources: 

📘 Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes
https://amzn.to/3LMRRjk

📓 The Recruit’s Journal (sport-specific editions)
https://coachmattrogers.com/journals

Transcript

0:11

On the latest edition of The Significant Coaching Podcast, the recruiting focus edition and presentation of the coach, Matt Rogers YouTube channel. Also available audio only everywhere you get your favorite podcast, including iTunes, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. I'm your host Matt Rogers, in part two of my conversation with Coach Bob Doff, longtime athletic director at Molloy University, former administrator at St. John's University, and recently retired commissioner of the NCAA Division two East Coast Conference. We shift the lens from conference leadership to college recruiting. In this episode, we unpack what coaches, families, and recruits often misunderstand about opportunity, scholarships and fit, especially at the division two level. Bob shares how recruiting decisions are shaped by enrollment needs, institutional priorities, finances and leadership philosophy, and why many assumptions families make. Don't always align with how rosters are actually built. We also talk candidly about changing family expectations, the pressure placed on coaches and why transparency and asking better questions are more important than ever in today's recruiting process. If you're a family going through the college recruiting journey, or you're an 80 looking for guidance on developing a healthy and long lasting athletics department, you can schedule a strategy session today with me@coachmattrogers.com. You'll also find recruiting advice. My blog, podcasts, books, my recruiting classes and journals designed to make college recruiting simplified and realistic for coaches, families and student athletes. Alright, let's get into it. Here's part two of my conversation with Dr. Bob Doff off. Bob, so great talking to you. I had so much fun talking about your career and the perspective of a commissioner and athletic director and how that shapes college athletics and how those people have such an impact on the coaches and the student athletes that maybe gets overseen. I want to get into recruiting a little bit with you. Were your daughters athletes. Both were high school athletes. One daughter. My older one Alex played field hockey division two field hockey at a Delphi University here on Long Island. It's a big time. She went there as a two sport athlete and ended up just for track and field and field hockey and ended up just focusing on field hockey. And, and my younger one ended up it was a pretty good athlete herself. Ended up coaching a little bit on, on the, she's a social worker. Alex, the older one is a administrator in college athletics and very cool. The younger one is a social worker, a school social worker, and she coached a little bit. But a lot of, a lot of how I looked at, or I started looking at college's, athletics came through my time with Alex. Really? Yeah. That's very cool. If let's say you're, you've got the girls are teenagers now and in today's world, what advice would you give them in terms of looking for a school for their future? Yeah. So I'm probably not gonna say anything that your previous guests have already said. So I don't have any groundbreaking stuff, but I think the first thing that you did say is always, should always be the priority. What's your goal? What do you wanna study? And let's find the best place. For you that offers a program that you think would be from an academic perspective that's gonna prepare you for your future? I think it's almost so obvious, but doesn't always happen. That, being realistic, I think about level of play is so important and huge, one of the difficult things now, I think. That's so different from when I was not a great athlete in school and I didn't have any intention of playing in college, but but as I see things progressing and how the world has moved to a, a travel team a U model and in some places, school sports have, it takes a backseat to those kind of programs. I wonder. How realistic and how, what kind of information some of these students get about their level of play. Y when they're part of a program that's the profe, where the people that are coaching them and helping and supposed to be helping them are really motivated by, how many people can they put into division one or help get scholarships or, rather than looking at what's the right fit. That's right. And I'm not, I don't wanna paint that with a broad, a broad brush there.'cause there's probably tons of people out there that are doing exactly the right thing. But it's, it is definitely different and so finding the fit. And asking and asking the questions. I, when you get onto a campus or when you're starting to really think, is this a place for me? Oh, they're interested in me. Okay, now start making sure that fit is gonna be there for you. Yeah. It's, it gets undersold, I think, how important that fit is. When you were in AD for a long time. And when you're a college ad, especially at D two level, you're not dealing with parents a ton and you hope you never have to deal with parents. But if you could give, if you could sit down parents that have that 16, 17-year-old that have that dream of playing in college and you could give them some advice, what direction would you take'em? The first thing I used to when I was an AD and even my early commissioner years, I would be asked by, local high schools or o other, college fairs to come speak about recruiting and and things like that. And one of the main things I would say is, remember this is. Not about you. This is about your child, and your child needs to do the work. Support is always important and essential. But it, your ch your child, I were, I was in situations where. A family would come to visit a campus and the parents were doing all the talking and the kid was sitting there, and I used to think to myself, this is never gonna work. So the first thing is, remember this is for your child. And that whole part about living vicariously through your child, which is a real thing in some cases, has to be set aside. Being realistic and asking the questions of where. Where my child should be. And some of that has to be asked of the high school coach and the club coaches and but also maybe trying to get assessments from other people that know, and sometimes the most valuable assessment comes from the college coach of a school that you're, that I think that you have an interest in. Do you think this, my child can the flip side of that is that, this world has changed a lot too. I would love to say that this is a buyer's market. This at this point, that families should go on campus and say, this is what I want. I expect this much playing time. I expect this much aid, or I'm gonna go to the next person. You're buying a car. To some degree coaches may. Be your best friend in that case because they need our they're, they've been told you, I've heard of stories where baseball programs are being told you need to have 50 people on your roster. I have too. Yeah. And so the coach is saying whatever it takes, if they're gonna fit into this segment and I can offer$2,500, and they're looking for that because they could say they have a scholarship and they're gonna come. I don't wanna say that coaches can be disingenuous, but I think sometimes yeah, they can be and, promises of playing time, promises of, a spot on the team. I think you have to ask questions and then also look for references and talk to other people. So it's, I think there's opportunities to, for places on teams, but you also have to make sure you're doing all your research. The other part of that though, Matt, is that, this world has changed so much too, is that, used to be the, people would say, the biggest decision that that a college a student is making in their life is where they're gonna go to college. But as we know from athletics. If it's not a good fit, you could be gone by December and playing at the, at the next place, the next year. That's right. And which, is when I think about the pressure. So the pressure on a on the family is to find the right fit to do all the self-promotion that that is needed. Have the the video available and have the information and do your research about a school that makes sense academically and be realistic. We talk we, we were saying in an earlier segment about the what does D two bring? And there's opportunities there that, you know, in, in some people's minds. I'm gonna wait and, I'm sure I'll get that D one offer and D two offers a great opportunity and as does D three. The flip side is you have coaches that need to make cer often, a certain requirement of enrollment or, it's roster size. And and so it's a game of balancing, act there too. I tell families all the time, there's gonna be coaches that are gonna come after you, but it's not gonna feel like they're coming after you. They're coming after you as a number. You talked about the baseball coach that needs 50 players'cause their president is, has setting a, an agenda of that. That baseball coach might say, I'm happy with 35. I know we're gonna win with 35. So 36 to 50, I don't really care. As long as they're good kids, they're not gonna be a pain in my butt. We'll give'em the 2,500 bucks and get'em on campus, but they're never gonna see the light of day and they're probably not gonna get coached and develop the way they could be. And if 10 of those, 10 of those kids stick around for the following year in five leave, that's the price of doing business here. That's right.'Cause I'll just go out and get another. I'll go recruit another, 20 guys next year. Yeah. It's not a, to me it's not a great system, but there's plenty of schools that are using it, to survive. So it's, it a lot of it, I think it's not any different from. When you were recruiting and it's, it's, some of it is buyer beware. Make sure you're asking questions, gathering your information right, getting background on the coach. If, when you're making a campus visit, ask questions of the other student athletes who are on the team, and trying to get a, and then ask around too, from people that you trust there are opportunities out there and don't discount division two and three'cause they could be the best fit. We keep thinking about scholar, scholarship. Scholarship, I wanna say have a scholarship. Division III doesn't give scholarship, but there's, if you're a pretty good student, there's a chance you're gonna get a ton of other kinds of aid at that institution as well. I've come full circle and. And the basketball coach at Queen University helped me do this the other day. I was, I've been fighting the portal. I've been fighting NIL, I've been finding ways, how can I, in my little mind, how can I change the world? And really what it's come back to is I'm telling families now go somewhere where you can play. Because if you go somewhere where you may not play and you may not play for a year or two, serious minutes, serious opportunity, you're gonna be miserable and you're gonna end up quitting or wanting to transfer, and you're gonna see that yellow light, that portal, that says, oh, go to the light. I'm gonna jump in the portal. There's something better out there for me. Go somewhere where you can play and they want you and they love you. And then if you do let's say you dominate as a freshman and you're all American as a sophomore at that level, most coaches, they're gonna bite their cheek and their tongue and go, yeah. If somebody wants you at the higher level, go, I'll help you get there. They're not gonna love it, but they're gonna do it. And it's because that's how division one coaches are recruiting now, and even division two coaches, they're, if there's something better down below, I, if you watch these bowl games, these football bowl games. It seems every other play they're talking about that kid that was a D two or Ffc FBS kid or, at a small, tiny school and was all American. He made the job. That's the world we're in now. Yeah. I agree. I also think that in the long run, I know it's the thing that the NCA always puts out their commercials that say you the majority. Majority, yeah. You have such a small percentage are gonna have an opportunity keep playing after they're done with college. So I agree completely with you. Find a place that's gonna be a good experience for you. Where you could be successful academically. So when that fit part is, so it's not just about that academic program that you want, can I be successful here academically? Yeah. Can I, can I learn, can I, will I have the support if I need? Academic support personal and, and emotional support if I'm struggling, and for parents are, do you feel that your child will be safe there? Is it a place that will help them? Exactly. Bob, last question. Same kind of question as before, but this time to the student athlete. Let's say your daughters are 15, 16, and they said, dad, I really wanna play in college. What advice would you give'em to start that journey and do it in a healthy way? Talk to people. I think part of it is it's kinda like networking, for a job. Yes. Who do you know that's in the business that can help you? Is there someone in the family? Is there someone connected with your high school coach? Your club coach, that could give you some direction? And a real assessment of where you wanna go. The other part is that there's just so much, so many resources out there now and these high school kids know better than, than most kids that are even a generation older where they could go find that information about certain schools and what they wanna study, and. Give yourself some options Also, never put everything in, in, in, in all your eggs in that basket. I think the elite, I used to say you never know, kids fall through the cracks. It's pretty hard to fall through the cracks. It really is anymore. There's just so much information out there about people and recruiting services and all those kind of things knowing what you want and not being afraid to promote yourself is important. Is important too. I was just thinking about one of the things that coach told me when I was thinking about mental health of coaches and the stress and the pressure, and they said, do you know what the hardest thing is? I have to watch, I, I'll get in a day, I'll get 50 videos emailed to me. Yeah. From students and. If I don't, if I recognize the name or a team I may look at it. A lot of them never even get viewed. But the fact is, there's just such an overload of information out there for coaches and it's like when you're looking for a job and you go on indeed or LinkedIn and say, I apply, I'll have students say, I applied for a job I never heard back. I said, how many thousands of people probably applied for that same job? That's right. The competition is real. So my advice is. Do your research. Start early, start thinking about it. Be realistic, and and ask questions. Never be afraid if you're not getting the answers, keep on digging, yeah. Yeah, and I, not to plug myself and I don't, I need, I don't want people thinking that this what this is about, but anybody can get on my website, schedule 30 minutes with me. You don't have to pay me a thing in 30 minutes. I'll ask you five questions and I'll set you up on what to do and how to do it the right way. And there, there's people like me out there, find one. But the more you can understand your value. The better your path is too. Like you, you talked about this many times today. You gotta know who you're, who you are. You gotta know your reality. And the more you understand your reality, the easier it is to, if you know what you're qualified for. It's a lot easier to go after the job. Yeah I'm, I agree. I used to think to myself, I would hear stories of kids that said it's, I know it's August, but I think I'll still hear from a school about, a D one school. I'm sure I'm gonna be hearing from them. And they, there's an offer out from, the institution saying, listen we're happy to have you, you'd be a good pre team. Here's what we could do for you. And, by the time, there's, listen we said earlier, there's a lot that's not great right now about college athletics. The fact that coaches are recruiting their teams, knowing that there's a good chance that a, a large number of those students won't be around the following year. I don't think that's a great set. I don't think it's a great concept that a student moves from school to school, and. I don't understand how they think that they're gonna graduate, at some point. Unless the system's changing. But but all that being said, I still think what an opportunity to be able to play a sport on the college level and what it means if you're looking at it the right way for personal growth and opportunity. What an amazing opportunity. I agree wholeheartedly. Bob, thank you so much for doing this. I know you're semi-retired and you're probably working more than you ever did. But thank you for your time and your wisdom and your experience, and I know our listeners will appreciate it. I wish you all the best. I feel free to share my info and my email if I could help or and obviously with Matt, I, Matt, with you I look forward to talking again'cause I think I think we come from the same direction here, which is which I love. So that's great. And thanks to be Naski for introducing us and so thankful for her good that I have you in my life, so thank you, sir. Okay. You bet. That wraps up part two of my conversation with Dr. Bob Doff. I hope this episode gave you a more realistic look at how recruiting actually works and why. NCAA division two may not be the best fit for every student athletically, but can be an outstanding academic fit for many students. If you're a school athletic department or organization interested in having me speak on college, recruiting, parenting, and youth, and high school sports coaching development, or building healthy, sustainable athletic programs, you can schedule a discovery session with me@coachmattrogers.com. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.