The college sports recruiting network Rivals has begun charging high school football players hundreds of dollars for player evaluations that could lead to placement in its ranking system. For a fee of $499, currently discounted to $399.99, players can receive scouting reports, film evaluation, and positional breakdowns from the same scouts who assess the nation’s top prospects.
Rivals and On3 CEO Shannon Terry explained the move as an effort to give more players exposure to recruiters. “1.04M kids played HS football last season,” Terry wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on September 24, 2026. “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. Rivals Recruits puts the same scouts, held to the same standards, on more of that film.”
Terry’s background in college recruiting is extensive. He founded Rivals around 2000, then left to create 247Sports after Yahoo acquired Rivals. When CBS Sports purchased 247Sports, he moved on to create On3, which acquired Rivals last year. This new paid evaluation service represents a shift in how recruiting networks operate, turning the players themselves into consumers of scouting services.
Hayes Fawcett, a national recruiting and transfer portal reporter for Rivals, shared a thread featuring players praising Rivals Recruits and the exposure it provided. However, this raises questions about how many prospects the existing scouting staff can cover effectively. If scouts are now tasked with evaluating paying clients in addition to their usual workload, it is unclear how this will affect non-paying players who may be on the cusp of earning rankings.
Despite the cost, Rivals is clear that paying for an evaluation does not guarantee any ranking or star designation. The Rivals Recruits FAQ states, “Ratings, rankings and stars are earned, never bought. An athlete can purchase access to the Rivals Recruits evaluation process, but payment does not guarantee a rating, ranking, star designation or any specific evaluation outcome.” A quote beneath the FAQ reads, “Opportunity can be expanded. Standards cannot.”
The decision to introduce fees also reflects wider trends in the rising costs associated with youth sports in the United States. Families may feel pressure to pay for services like this to give their children the best chance at college recruitment. While the stated goal is to expand opportunities for underrepresented prospects, the $400-plus price tag limits access to those who can afford it.
This move comes amid changes in recruiting publication practices. In March 2026, 247Sports announced it would stop using composite rankings based on multiple recruiting services and instead rely solely on its internal rankings from the class of 2027 onward. Rivals’ new fee model may be part of a broader shift toward monetizing recruiting evaluations more directly.
The service includes film evaluation and positional breakdowns from scouts who traditionally cover Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) prospects. Terry’s comments emphasize that the service aims to reduce the “capacity gap” that leaves lower-division and smaller program players overlooked. Still, with a fixed number of scouts and limited hours in a day, how this will affect the overall scouting landscape remains to be seen.
Parents and players considering this option will have to weigh the cost against the potential benefits, with no guarantees beyond the evaluation itself. The new fee structure adds another layer of expense to an already costly youth sports environment.
According to Yahoo Sports.