Gary Knudson

Believer, Husband, Father, Founder & CEO of sponsorship consultancy AdSport. Tight End @ASUFootball ('86-'90) & @RamsNFL ('90-'91; 2 stellar pre-seasons).

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

Thank you for the ❤️@Cronkite_ASU - Humbled and grateful to be recognized alongside so many talented Sun Devils in the @ASU_Alumni's Sun Devil 100 Class of 2021. Proud to be a Cronkite alumnus! #GoDevilsGo

[Cronkite School @Cronkite_ASU]

Congratulations to Cronkite alumnus Gary Knudson for being featured in @ASU_Alumni's Sun Devil 100 Class of 2021! Knudson, CEO of sponsorship consultancy @AdSport, is among the 133 Sun Devil business leaders whose companies are being recognized for their entrepreneurial spirit.

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

The FBS 105-player cap has pushed former walk-on-level talent into FCS scholarship competition. For families evaluating offers at both levels, here is what the shift means.

https://t.co/2aFiJX0doK

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

An offer is not a price.

That gap is where recruiting families get hurt. This morning the tool that closes it opened early.

The 2027-28 FAFSA went live today, the earliest the form has ever opened, and the Department is calling it the simplest version it has ever put out.

Here is the part nobody explains at the camp.

Outside a small group of athletes at the largest programs, a scholarship is a percentage, not a bill paid. Programs spread a finite pool across a full roster. Division II works the same way. Division III puts up no athletic money at all. Even schools now permitted to fund more seats than they could two years ago rarely fund them all.

So the offer your son celebrates in November is one line in a number he will not actually see until the aid package lands. Merit money, need-based aid, and institutional dollars fill the rest. None of it moves without a FAFSA on file.

Every year, families pass on the better situation because the smaller school's offer looked smaller on paper. It wasn't. They just never ran the whole equation.

Run it early. Filing costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It means that when a school can finally give you the real number, you are in position to hear it.

Class of 2027, this is your form. File it this week.
Class of 2028, this is your dress rehearsal. Watch how it works, then run it next fall.
Recruiting is a financial decision wearing a football jersey. We help Arizona families see both sides before they commit.

Navigate. Compete. Commit.

File it: https://t.co/oF1oVLqelx
Talk to us: https://t.co/DtInmrv7Bk

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

Nobody can promise snaps. If they do, listen closer.

This is the softest red flag in recruiting, because it doesn't sound like a warning. It sounds like belief.

A coach sits in your living room and tells your son he'll play early. Maybe he says it directly. Maybe it's "we see you starting as a sophomore." Families hear conviction and commitment. What they're actually hearing is a sales close on something the man saying it does not control.

Depth charts get written in August, in a staff room, by a group of coaches watching camp reps. Not in December by one recruiter in a family's living room. Anyone guaranteeing snaps is either overpromising or telling you their evaluation process is unserious. Neither is good.

The staff that tells your son exactly what he'd have to beat out, and what earning it looks like, is the one being straight with you.

✅ Who else is on the roster at his spot?
✅ What did the last freshman there do?
✅ How is the depth chart actually decided?
✅ What would earning it look like?

A promise of playing time isn't enforceable. The staff that tells him what he has to earn is the one telling the truth.

If you want help reading what an offer really says, the conversation starts at https://t.co/DtInmrv7Bk.

Navigate. Compete. Commit.

#FootballRecruiting #CollegeFootball #RecruitingAdvisory #FootballParents #StudentAthlete #RecruitingJourney #RecruitingRedFlags #CollegeFootball #12SportsConsulting

[Richard Obert @azc_obert]

Horizon RB Dylan Brush named Arizona Cardinals HS football Player of the Week for his 407 yards, 6 TDs rushing against Sunnyslope.

ALA Gilbert North's Ty Detmer named Coach of the Week for his team's win over then-No. 1-ranked 5A Desert Edge.

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

When a head coach is fired mid-season, a verbal commitment has no automatic protection. For 2027 families, the conversation with the new staff starts from the beginning.

https://t.co/gMfeKt1KNz

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

@DougTammaro Missed you! Go, Devils, Go!

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

Inside the Trail by Rudy Carpenter......Florida State fired its athletic director last week with the head coach still on the job. For families in active conversations with the Seminoles, here is what that actually changes.

https://t.co/OOf9d2PoU9

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

DOG.

[Dylan Brush (co 2029) @DylanBrush2029]

Week 4
Horizon vs. Sunnyslope
408yds
6TDs
23 carries
17.7YPC

@BrandonHuffman @therealbeadle @azc_obert @BJMedia1 @hzfbfamily @CoachDitmore @WClay99 @CoachZelaya3 @kitsoncolby @ScottieGraham @TWintersUGA @CoachConard @alecbailey__ @WestonZernechel @CoachEJbarthel @dgrovesgerald

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

When fall recruiting contact slows, the cause is often structural, not personal. How programs are weighing high school offers against the January portal window this fall.

https://t.co/Lqnh5ogKmg

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

Ask the players, not the pitch. They'll tell you what it's like.

Every staff in the country sells the same vision, and they're good at it. Development. Family. A specific plan for your son. None of it is exactly a lie. None of it is verifiable from a conference room either.

The people who can verify it are wearing the jersey right now.

Current players will tell you things no coach ever will. Whether the staff kept what they promised in the living room. What actually happens to a kid who ends up fourth on the depth chart, which is who your son might be in year one. How the program treats someone who gets hurt and stops being useful.

Ask a few of them separately. Ask a walk-on, not just a starter. Then ask the question that settles it: would you sign here again.

✅ Did the staff keep what they promised?
✅ How do they treat a kid who is buried?
✅ What happens when someone gets hurt?
✅ Would you sign here again?

The pitch is polished. The locker room isn't. Ten minutes with a current player is worth the whole tour.

If you want help knowing what to ask and who to ask, the conversation starts at https://t.co/DtInmrv7Bk.

Navigate. Compete. Commit.

#FootballRecruiting #CollegeFootball #RecruitingAdvisory #FootballParents #StudentAthlete #RecruitingJourney #CollegeFootballRecruiting #DueDiligence #12SportsConsulting

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

Rudy’s take on this past weekend’s major recruiting weekend:

Game-day visits are equal parts theater and evaluation. Getting the invite tells you something. What the staff does in the next 72 hours tells you a lot more.

https://t.co/seMCcZbSjG

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

@BDenny29

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

For uncommitted 2027 athletes, the early signing period opens December 4 and runs 72 hours. The decisions being made this fall determine which programs are still in play when that window opens.

https://t.co/GQT9Cg5AKn

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

@W55560233 GOLD

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

@DennyKillingham GOLD.

[Gary Knudson @AdSport]

@AggiesRecruitEx Brother you don’t have a face on your profile, you don’t have an affiliation with the school you LARPing for, and your last three replies were “Gay,” “Cry,” and a dead pedophile. You’re not roasting anybody. You’re 19 with WiFi who eats at Whataburger for breakfast.

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

A self-reported violation restricted UNC's visit hosting this week. What the process reveals and what families should verify before booking fall travel.

https://t.co/8jFF2C8dTN

[12SportsConsulting @12SportsConsult]

The visit is his interview. He should be interviewing too.

Every program runs essentially the same visit. The facility, the locker room, the weight room, the graphic with his name on the video board. It's built to make a seventeen-year-old feel chosen, and it works.

Then families drive home having asked almost nothing that would actually change a decision.

The questions that matter are uncomfortable, which is exactly why they're useful. How a staff answers them tells you more than any tour. A program that has real answers ready will give them to you plainly. A program that doesn't will get vague, and the vagueness is the information.

Ask how many they're taking at his position in this class. Ask what happens to his spot if this staff leaves, because coaching changes are the norm. Ask about the degree, and notice whether anybody has the number.

✅ Who else are you recruiting at his spot?
✅ What does year one realistically look like?
✅ What happens if the staff leaves?
✅ What is the degree completion rate?

The facilities are the easy part to love. The answers to the hard questions are what he'll actually live with.

If you want help preparing your son for his visits, the conversation starts at https://t.co/DtInmrv7Bk.

Navigate. Compete. Commit.

#FootballRecruiting #CollegeFootball #RecruitingAdvisory #FootballParents #StudentAthlete #RecruitingJourney #OfficialVisit #CollegeVisit #12SportsConsulting

[Ari Meirov @MySportsUpdate]

Aaron Rodgers, holding nothing back, explains why he doesn’t trust anyone in government — right or left — and believes it’s all a sham.

“There is no MAGA movement. The guy you elected hasn’t done any of his campaign promises. ... When Obama was president, it was, ‘There will be hope and change for a better world.’ Has anything in the Black community gotten significantly better?”

(📽️ @NotJustFootball with @CamHeyward)