The commercialization of amateur sports has accelerated college recruiting decision-making timelines, putting enormous pressure on athletes, parents, and coaches. This reality often forces coaching staffs to rely on inadequate tools to efficiently analyze large amounts of data from disparate sources. 

EDGE3 is an athlete intelligence and digital advisory platform for coaches and athletes. Along with a handful of other former professional athletes, I created EDGE3 to use AI to tackle this growing challenge in college athletics. 

We are taking our data insight to the next level. EDGE3 will embed IBM watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform, to help coaches navigate the increasingly complex world of recruiting and retaining student-athletes interested in playing college football.

New challenges in college recruiting demands a new, AI-driven approach

Until recently, college recruiting was rooted in personal relationships, intuition and the gathering of data through attending games and exchanging information among traditional scouting services and college programs. And for the athlete, it was generally dictated by personal factors, including proximity to home, historical schemes, cultural fit and so on.

Now, Xs and Os are just one part of the recruiting puzzle. College athletes are eligible to be paid, adding a new dimension for recruits to consider. Also, updates to the college transfer portal have made it easier for athletes to change their minds and transfer to a new school, which has hurt retention and increased recruiting territories.

Combined with the explosion of data available on prospective recruits and athletic programs, a new approach is needed to make sense of it all and equip coaches, players, and families with the ability to make decisions that are in their best interest. This is where we see AI holding the key and becoming an essential tool for all coaches. 

Embedding IBM watsonx into the EDGE3 Scoring System

The EDGE3 Scoring System (ESS) is an innovative predictive analytics engine designed to transform the college recruiting landscape. By embedding IBM watsonx, ESS will rapidly process structured and unstructured recruiting data and scouting reports from multiple sources, presenting a simplified score that coaching staffs and athletes can utilize to make better-informed decisions during the recruiting process. 

Our technical team is working with IBM Ecosystem Engineering to bring the collaboration to life, with the intent of enabling users to access a unique blend of watsonx powered predictive success models that can help student-athletes and universities quickly identify and collaborate on recruiting decisions with the greatest likelihood of mutual success of their pending recruiting decisions.

Accessing and prioritizing specific data sets on both recruits and college programs positions EDGE3 to help all parties minimize the risks associated with recruiting decisions. 

Working with IBM allows us to draw upon the same transformational AI technology in use by world-class enterprises across industries.

By combining IBM’s AI expertise with our firsthand understanding of the business of sports, we aim to revolutionize the decision-making process for both college programs and recruits, ushering in a new era of strategic sustainable partnerships in college sports.