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Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated Play Teams with NCSA to Offer Tech-Enabled Recruiting Education, Tools and Services to Millions of Student Athletes Nationwide

New Partnership Joins Industry-Leading Youth Sports Organizations

Jan 10, 2017

(NEW YORK, NY, JANUARY 10, 2017)—Sports Illustrated Play (SI Play)—an industry leader in youth sports technology platforms and services—has partnered with Next College Student Athlete (NCSA)—one of the world's largest and most successful collegiate athletic recruiting networks—to make recruiting more accessible to the millions of athletes and their families using the SI Play platform.

The new partnership will allow SI Play, a unit of Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME), to provide high school student athletes with technology-enabled services that will help them discover opportunities to play sports in college. Starting today, high-school-aged student athletes using SI Play can create a free NCSA recruiting profile during registration, through which their highlight videos, key statistics and academic information can be viewed online by the more than 41,000 college coaches across 31 sports in the NCSA network.

“As a company built for players and their families, we wanted to assist the many young athletes who have an enthusiasm to play sports at the collegiate level,” said Jeff Karp, SI Play CEO. “After a lengthy search we determined that NCSA provides the best solutions to help and support our users who wish to explore these opportunities. We understand and appreciate how important a decision this is and are confident that NCSA will be a great resource for players and families.”

Student athletes and their parents will benefit from access to NCSA’s extensive library of recruiting education and content on the SI Play platform and in the SI Play mobile app. SI Play and NCSA will collaborate to cater to the needs of the users of both platforms and services, including bringing new and innovative tools to leagues, teams and coaches on desktop and in-app.

“We look forward to working with SI Play to reach even more student athletes than we already do and to help them on their path to college,” said Lisa Strasman, NCSA President.

This is the latest addition to SI Play’s state-of-the-art digital, mobile and social ecosystem as it remains at the forefront of the movement to bring cutting-edge technology into youth sports. Since launching in 2015, SI Play has gained tremendous momentum and now supports more than 10 million active users each month across a wide range of sports, regions and age ranges. This new alliance leverages NCSA’s 16 years of experience as one of the world’s largest and most successful collegiate athletic recruiting networks to educate student athletes and their families about the recruiting process and connect them with opportunities to play sports in college.

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ABOUT SI PLAY 
SI Play brings together industry leaders in sports software around a simple yet ambitious goal: to connect the world of youth sports. Since its launch in July 2015 as part of Time Inc., SI Play now supports more than 10 million active users each month across a wide range of sports, regions and age ranges through its digital products and services, and is the official technology provider for nine youth sports national governing bodies. The company provides the platform and tools to fuel the passion for sports and ensure a rewarding experience for all participants. For more information, please visit www.siplay.com.

 

ABOUT NEXT COLLEGE STUDENT ATHLETE (NCSA) 
NCSA is the world’s largest and most successful collegiate athletic recruiting network. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Reigning Champs (www.reigningchamps.com), NCSA’s team of more than 550 former collegiate and professional athletes leverages 16 years of exclusive data, proprietary matching algorithms and personal relationships to connect tens of thousands of college-bound student athletes to more than 41,000 college coaches nationwide across 31 sports every year. You can learn more about NCSA at www.ncsasports.org

 

CONTACT: 

 

Scott Novak, SI Play, 212-522-2687, scott.novak@timeinc.com

Heather Youkhana, NCSA, 312-496-6562, hyoukhana@tkcpr.com