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High School Combine

“Back in my day I could throw a football over them mountains”… High school sports is getting big. Like big BIG. The NCHSAA, North Carolina High School Athletic Association, reported revenues of $1.6M for high school playoff ticket sales and $1M for corporate partnership support.

My favorite podcast, My First Million, mentioned having a high school combine, similar to the NFL. They said it would be a great recruitment tool for university athletics and would earn many dollars.

I agree.

• More college, more knowledge: Colleges would use this to have another data point to use during recruiting

• High school help: High school students another opportunity to get looks from top colleges that might not have gone out to see them

• Students making $$$: Due to the recent NIL rules (college students earning based on Name, Image and Likeness), the college you end up going to can make a big difference income wise.

Ready, set, bank… Student athletes are already making grown up money. With the number one NIL earnings spot going to Bronny James (LeBron James’ son) earning $6.1M and number two spot to Livvy Dunne of LSU Gymnastics, earning $3.4M 🤯 

The End Goal

The final product would look very similar to the NFL combine. Break it down by top sports and have athletes compete on strength, speed, and other factors.

High school athletes from all over the country would come to test their abilities grouped by sport and college recruiters would get access to the data and see the top kids in action in one place.

This could make money through:

• parents paying for their students to come

• college sports recruiters paying to have access to the event and data

• sponsorships and advertising

The MVP

Start small but go big… I would aim for the highest earning college sport, football. Find the state with the biggest high school programs (likely Texas) and offer to collect data on their athletes to compare how they rank with other top schools in the area. (People are suckers for competition).

Once you have enough schools opted in, you can go to college recruiters and ask if they would be interested in this data. (Recruiters are suckers for data)

Scaling Up

After adding more high school athletes for data and colleges for recruiting, it’s off to the races. Get everyone in the same building in the same weekend. This streamlines measuring everyone at the same time, recruiters all being in the same area, and cost of collecting the data.

Then take the show on the road and do this state by state. It’s in everyones best interest to be in the same place at the same time.

I would start with football and just use what the NFL Combine uses to measure it’s athletes:

• 40-yard dash.

• Bench pressing of 225 pounds (102 kg)

• Vertical jump.

• Broad jump.

• 20-yard shuttle.

• 3 cone drill.

• 60-yard shuttle.

• Position-specific drills.

Then, go to basketball, soccer, tennis, etc. This can be an incredibly lucrative business when done right.

Viability:

1 [building spaceships] 🚀 to 5 [easy peasy] 😊 

This is tough. Going out to high schools and individually measure high school athletes is grinding work. Getting a combine going is a huge investment in booking the location, testers, equipment, etc.

You need a lot of things to go right for this to work. But it’s doable and there’s some serious dollars to be made here!

As usual each business will have it’s own setbacks, and it’s all about the execution and consistency rather than just having the idea 😉 

It’s a great day to be great!

Love, Mike

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