Great post V!
We attended 3 camps at Liberty (2 or 3)? Dot Richardson used to preach this EXACT same thing! Speaking to all the parents at the first camp we went to, she said every girl attending here today can play college softball, D1 ball......NO! She said to never discount D3 and Juco schools, she said wherever you end up, it'll be competitive softball that'll line up with your skill set!
She also said to the parents who have that D1 or nothing dream, wake up, you're doing your kid a huge disservice! For you guys here who have never heard her speak, you're missing out big time!
When my DD was in the recruiting process she was invited to a D1 recruits weekend where they had a couple softball exhibition games and we did the footballs game, etc. The softball team played a JUCO out of Illinois. Let me tell you what, that team was bad rear! The D1 school did end up winning that exhibition simply due to superior pitching, but I was extremely impressed with the JUCO. They had stud athletes on that team. While we had other options, after that visit, I did add that JUCO to my kids list of colleges to look into. Definitely don't think lower level schools are not competitive!