Reading a list · 4 min read
Stretch, Strong fit and Fair fit describe fit, not your odds
Stretch means a program usually recruits above your level. Strong and Fair fit are schools at your level, split by how well they match you. None of them is a chance of being recruited.
What each word means
Stretch is the only band about difficulty: the program's level bar — set by its national ranking across the seasons we hold (up to five) — sits above what we can see in the player's profile. Everything else is at the player's level, and splits in two against the player's own list: a Strong fit is in the top half of those schools on overall fit (roster room, distance, academics, cost), a Fair fit is in the bottom half. We replaced Reach / Target / Likely because families read them as odds, and they never were.
Why Strong and Fair are relative
We score all 2,215 programs for one player. Among the ones at their level, ranking them against the country would tell you what a magazine already tells you. Ranking them against each other, for this player, answers the question a family is actually asking: which of the schools I can play for suit me best.
A few Stretch schools, mostly Strong fits
A list of nine Stretch schools is a hope. A good list has a few — an email costs nothing, and coaches decide — and is mostly Strong fits: programs at your level where you'd plausibly contribute and they plausibly have room. Fair fits are real options too; they just match you less well on the rest.
Sources
Figures attributed to Startline are counted from the data we hold and update when it does. Recruiting rules change — check anything dated against the governing body itself.
See a list with the bands on it
A sample player's shortlist, with the bands on it.
The demo is the real product with a sample player in it — no account, no card, and nothing you do in it is charged or sent.