Why are college coaches so secretive about their walk-on standards?

That's a fine use of the hyphen. Well done.

HL wrote:

It seems like it would make the recruiting process a lot easier for prospective student-athletes if most coaches just posted walk-on standards on their team websites. What gives? I know you can get a rough estimate anyways by looking through the team roster, but in addition to being tedious, random outliers and individual circumstances can make that method misleading.

Why would they want to make a standard, then they would have to allow anyone on the team who made that standard as opposed to having the freedom to cut some people who they didn't want and allow others on who might not be as good as the kids they cut.

I'm not a coach, so I can't speak authoritatively, but my guess is that coaches don't want to post walk-on standards because the decision to accept a walk-on is not always as cut and dry as a particular time barrier.

I imagine coaches like having discretion in selecting walk-ons.

For example, a DI coach might be more interested in a kid who plays soccer, basketball, and ran 4:25 in track off 20 miles a week, then the three-season runner who ran 4:22 off 75 miles per week. By not having firm time standards, it gives coaches the discretion to make judgement calls.

Because individual circumstances do in fact matter.

For example, if you are the annoying type who tries to nail a coach down to a time standard that applies in all circumstances, forget about it.

^^^ This.

There are only so many spots available on the roster. It would be impossible to guarantee that all athletes who meet a given standard will be accepted onto the team while also guaranteeing that your team will not exceed it's maximum allowable size.

"Why are college coaches so secretive about their walk-on standards?"

Your question assumes that they HAVE walk-on standards. Not a reasonable assumption.

The only kid i knew who got cut had asbergers

I bet I could use a hundred hyphens well in under an hour.