Why are some D3 teams better than others?

[InsidePitch]

DD's facitlies were not great, heck they weren't DIII but they were back to back NSCA Champions. DD was an Honors Applied Mathematics major with a 4.0. They were and are the power house team on the Mid Atantic region. Getting in the school is the big achievement. Playing Softball is gravey. Go Navy! Beat Army!

 

[MNDad]

Not really the “why” but the “why are people surprised?” — Because too many people mistakenly think D1/D2/D3 refers to the caliber of play.

In broad terms it does refer to the caliber of play. I think the mistake is viewing all of the players at D3 as D3 caliber or all D1’s as D1 caliber. We’ve all seen D1 caliber players on D3’s and D3 caliber on D1’s.

With conferences like SWAC I have no doubt there’s plenty of D2’s and D3’s that would still be competitive. When looking at average mid majors or bottom feeder P5’s that’s a level even the very best D3’s and D2’s would struggle mightily against. It’s not the D2’s and D3’s don’t have great players. They just don’t have as many as the D1’s. That depth would kill them through the course of a season.

I hope that didn’t come off as bashing or D1 elitist. That wasn’t my intention. It’s just extremely difficult overcoming no athletic scholarships at D3, only 7.2 at D2 and 12 at D1. I know SA’s and every level work their tails off and that doesn’t change much by division.

 

[Eric F]

Yes, because D1 is going to provide for my daughter's entire college bill ...

(The rolleyes are for those parents, not you Eric!)

Yep. That's the bait.

Meanwhile, the #1 P on my DD's HS team will be playing at an NAIA school next year with her tuition and expenses covered 100% through grants and financial aid. The SS on my DD's TB team will be paying only $6k/year at a D3 school.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I get what you are saying @MNDad , but I think that still perpetuates the myth of it as some sort of ranking system where people believe their daughter is going to get her college fully paid for.

D1/D2/D3 refers only to the amount of money a school wants to spend on the sport. The rest of what you say absolutely can go hand in hand with that, but that isn't what determines those classifications.

 

[MNDad]

I get what you are saying @MNDad , but I think that still perpetuates the myth of it as some sort of ranking system where people believe their daughter is going to get her college fully paid for.

D1/D2/D3 refers only to the amount of money a school wants to spend on the sport. The rest of what you say absolutely can go hand in hand with that, but that isn't what determines those classifications.

I’d agree the divisions have nothing to do with players getting their education fully funded. That myth is mainly perpetuated by D1 parents claiming their kids are getting a full ride. Typical D1 rosters before COVID had roughly 18-20 players. What’s not often mentioned is that while D1’s are allowed 12 scholarships, many colleges aren’t “fully funded”. Meaning they don’t have the money for all 12. It’s not hard to see even if a program is fully funded plenty of kids aren’t getting full rides. Since almost all teams divide the scholarships into partials to give more kids something full rides are few and far between.

We have a local D3 (St Thomas) that’s long been a national power making the jump from D3 to D1. I know other schools have moved up and seen success. It’ll be interesting to see how they fare. That’s a pretty big jump.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Can we pin that ^^ somewhere?

Last year I started to do an in-depth dive into "sports scholarships" and found it was pretty difficult to find specific numbers. Somewhere on this forum is the first part of that undertaking before I gave up on it.

Maybe if I started digging into the individual schools and their budgets I might be able to put together some good information, but I don't have time for that.

What I could find:
Total dollars that NCAA promotes their athletes receiving and other "PR" numbers approved and promoted.

What I could not find:
How do scholarship numbers break up over the different sports?

What is the actual AVERAGE sports scholarship awarded BY SPORT and BY SCHOOL? (As @MNDad pointed out, "full rides" are extremely rare as most schools are dividing that dollar amount over 20+ students.)

 

[nikkilugi]

Can we pin that ^^ somewhere?

Last year I started to do an in-depth dive into "sports scholarships" and found it was pretty difficult to find specific numbers. Somewhere on this forum is the first part of that undertaking before I gave up on it.

Maybe if I started digging into the individual schools and their budgets I might be able to put together some good information, but I don't have time for that.

What I could find:
Total dollars that NCAA promotes their athletes receiving and other "PR" numbers approved and promoted.

What I could not find:
How do scholarship numbers break up over the different sports?

What is the actual AVERAGE sports scholarship awarded BY SPORT and BY SCHOOL? (As @MNDad pointed out, "full rides" are extremely rare as most schools are dividing that dollar amount over 20+ students.)

I have found this site useful

Athletic Scholarships & Chances of playing College Sports

Stats & Links to all US Colleges with varsity sports, athletic scholarships, odds of playing college sports, average SAT & ACT scores & admission rates.

scholarshipstats.com

 

[MNDad]

I have found this site useful

Athletic Scholarships & Chances of playing College Sports

Stats & Links to all US Colleges with varsity sports, athletic scholarships, odds of playing college sports, average SAT & ACT scores & admission rates.

scholarshipstats.com

When they create these Odds of Playing Softball in College charts I wish they’d include the caveat that it’s the odds if all a kid does is play HS ball in season. Get a kid on an A team with good coaching and the odds go from 8.7% to 87%.

 

[FP26]

When they create these Odds of Playing Softball in College charts I wish they’d include the caveat that it’s the odds if all a kid does is play HS ball in season. Get a kid on an A team with good coaching and the odds go from 8.7% to 87%.

Great point. Here is an example. This is a very small sample size, so take it for what it's worth.

DD's high school team -- exactly one person playing college ball; her. She graduated from high school in 2018, so she played with 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 players. Out of those 7 classes only DD and one other player went on to college ball. 2 did go on to play other college sports.

DD's travel team -- 9 out of 12 went on to play in college. 2 of the other 3 had opportunities but decided not to. The 12th had no interest in playing in college and never even bothered looking into it. That said, I'm confident she could have played as well, if she wanted to. This was more of a high B team in my opinion although we did have a solid winning percentage against teams that were classified as A.

 

[Strike2]

I have found this site useful

Athletic Scholarships & Chances of playing College Sports

Stats & Links to all US Colleges with varsity sports, athletic scholarships, odds of playing college sports, average SAT & ACT scores & admission rates.

scholarshipstats.com

Nice website. The (low) percentage of players competing at all college levels vs the total number of HS players is pretty interesting. DD's HS softball team is highly competitive. Anyone on the roster can play at least JUCO, and most do. Further, there are players who didn't play HS varsity softball at DD's HS that play in college. Lastly, I know players who are average (at best), but will at least get an opportunity at a JUCO/NAIA school.

For the player who sticks with the game through HS and is reasonably competent, it seems far more a matter of goals and motivation than odds.