How do I get ranked?

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How the does the CFC Scouting Bureau make the CFC Player RANKINGS across Canada for high school football (CFC100, CFC150, CFC200), Cégep and American Junior College (CFC60), NCAA and U Sports (CFC40), and Specialists (CFC10). What can athletes do to get ranked? We will go over some pointers of ‘Need to Know Facts’ on how this is accomplished and what you can do. Remember, your coach is your strongest advocate so get them involved and have them contact the Scouting Bureau with your highlight tape.

FILL OUT YOUR FREE CFC PROSPECT PROFILE TODAY

CLICK HERE FOR CFC PLAYER CLASS RANKINGS

Here are seven points that will help to explain how CFC develops the CFC Prospect Rankings.

• Merit based
• UPDATED highlight film
• Enrolled in accredited school
• Quality of league
• Combine testing
• Teams you play on (high school, all-star, provincial, national)
• Social media

Merit based

The ranking, in its essence, is merit based. It is a PROSPECT ranking NOT a ‘best player’ ranking. This means you must have obvious traits that are potential based. If you are a great player and we find you, you will be evaluated and placed on this ranking. The only thing that is important is that you are a legitimate prospect and you’re handling your business in school. Does it help to use certain events outside of your primary football team? Yes, it does. But at the end of the day, there is no amount of money, or lobbying that will get you ranked. Do you merit being a CFC100, CFC150, CFC200, CFC60, CFC40, or CFC10?

Updated highlight film

YOU MUST HAVE FILM! Every year, the scouting bureau crosses between 10-15 names off the list because they don’t have a highlight film or an updated one. Not only do you need to keep these up-to-date, but all the details that are presented on the profile need to be accurate (ie. height, weight, CLASS, testing times, current primary position). You can put your stats on your profile, however, if we can’t verify these through the league’s website, they are not considered.

When you put your highlight up, try and make your first ten plays, your BEST ten plays. Try and make the highlight’s against competitive, legitimate opponents. Because the scouting bureau has so much experience and knows amateur football across the country, we know who you are playing against and the level of competition. If you run for 350 yards and 7 touchdowns against the worst team in the league, there is a pretty good chance that we will see that and it will have no bearing on how we evaluate you.

Tip: Put your Hudl or YouTube highlight link in the URL section of your twitter profile. 

FILL OUT YOUR FREE CFC PROSPECT PROFILE TODAY

Enrolled in accredited school

Once again, every year, we will remove between four to five players because they are either a) not in school, b) taking a semester off of school, or c) have started the year, but then dropped out of school. Removing an athlete from this list because they have dropped out of school, is probably one of the harder things the scouting bureau has to do, however, we strongly believe that young student-athletes should use football as a tool to get the very best education they can get. They shouldn’t use school to play football.

Combine testing

Parents always ask about camps and combines. Clint Uttley wrote an article regarding this. The one big thing I will emphasis about combines is that you need to train for them and you need to be in great shape when you attend them. If you show up at a combine and you run an awful 40-yard dash and then follow that up with an unimpressive display in positional drills, I would venture to say you are probably not helping your cause.

However, combines and other testing events, can be beneficial if you go there and you light it up. Coaches from professional all the way down to high school love testing scores. They love fast 40’s, multiple reps on the bench, and all the standardized tests that have been made popular by the NFL combine. However, when we evaluate, we take these test scores with a grain of salt because we will pull up someone’s electrically timed 40 and we’ll play it right beside their highlight film and it is completely obvious that that young athlete does not run a sub 4.5 electric time.

CFC runs the CFC Prospect Game Tryouts and Showcases across Canada where our own CFC Scouting Bureau members attend and evaluate players for the CFC Prospect Game televised on TSN as well as potential future and current ranked players.

Quality of league

We touched on this in the highlight film point, if you are the world’s greatest player playing in the worst conference that is a red flag for us. If you truly want to compete, you will have to find a way to play the highest level of football you can. If that means transferring to a school that takes football seriously, that may be something you may want to consider.

To develop as a player, you need to practice against other players who are just as hungry and competitive as you are and are pursuing improvement on a daily basis. If your entire highlight film shows you dominating average to below average competition, my question to you would be, can you do it at the next level?

FILL OUT YOUR FREE CFC PROSPECT PROFILE TODAY

Teams you play on (high school, all-star, provincial, national)

If you are a true competitor, you won’t be happy with just playing on your high school team. If you are an outstanding player, you probably will be an all-conference, all-district, possibly CFC All-Canadian. These accolades will lead to invitations to try out for other teams that represent provinces or your country. When a young student-athlete competes at every level that they are capable of playing on, that wins points in the evaluation process.

The problem with these teams is they are not an accurate representation of the best football players in the country. They more accurately represent the best players who can afford the money to be on these teams, which is a whole other article that I will expand on down the road. However, if you play on a provincial team or a national team and you light it up, that will play a part in showing the scouting bureau that you are a legitimate prospect.

Social Media

This has become something we have slowly started to include in our evaluation process. It’s not a deal breaker, however, there have been one or two occasions when a prospect’s social media was so ridiculous from the standpoint of inappropriateness that we felt it spoke to the character of the young person and we made the decision to exclude them from being ranked.

Whether you are attempting to be evaluated, we believe that it is in your best interest to be very aware of what you are doing, saying, and posting on the various forms of social media that the general public has access to. If your twitter feed is set to ‘private’, the scouting bureau may see this as a red flag. We strongly encourage athletes to set up a TWITTER account in order for scouts and recruiters to get a hold of you as this seems to be the most popular way to be initially contacted nowadays. Read more about how to do that in our RECRUITING TIP section.

Hopefully this answers a few of the questions that we have been asked and demonstrates to all the young prospects out there the importance of getting your name out there. However you need to do that, you need to get your name out there so people know about you. If you are good enough, CFC will help you with that based on merit.

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PLAYER RANKINGS: 

CFC100-150-200  =  high school football prospects (non-specialist)

CFC60 = Quebec CEGEP and American Junior College (JuCo) football prospects

CFC40 = U Sports & NCAA players who are eligible to declare for upcoming CFL/NFL draft

CFC10 = high school football specialist prospects – kickers, punters, long snappers

HOW IT WORKS?

Rankings are determined by CFC’s proprietary algorithm known as the “CFC Prospect Composite Score”. You must be on track to qualify as a ‘National’ in the Canadian Football League (CFL) to be eligible for all CFC player rankings.  CFC scouts conduct and attend camps, clinics, tournaments, games and other football functions to continually update the CFC database. 

HOW I CAN PROMOTE MYSELF?

• Submit all player profile information, including highlight film, directly to CFC – HERE

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LEGEND:

QB = Quarterback

RB = Running Back 

FB = Fullback

TE = Tight End 

WR = Wide receiver/Inside receiver

OT = Offensive Tackle

OG = Offensive Guard

C = Offensive Centre

DE = Defensive End

DT = Defensive Tackle

LB = Linebacker

CB = Cornerback

DB = Safety/Halfback

K/P = Kicker/Punter

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CFC Scouting Bureau

The Canadafootballchat.com (CFC) Scouting Bureau is comprised of CFC scouts, selected private scouts, selected college coaches, and other professional contributors. Coaches/players can email game film and STATS to the CFC Scouting Bureau for consideration.