 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What's the difference between NCAA Divisions I, II and III?
Fact: ONLY about 25% of ALL colleges that compete in the NCAA are Division I. If you are
only looking at Division I, you may be eliminating nearly 75% of ANY potential scholarship
and/or playing opportunities
Important Information About Division I and Division II Initial-Eligibility Changes FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT COLLEGE RECRUITING & SCHOLARSHIPS Division 1 programs have big recruiting for scholarship budgets.Some of the larger schools with top notch football and basketball programs do have large recruiting budgets but most do not. There are very few college coaches that have the ability to fly around the country to recruit players and have an endless coaching staff that they can send out to scout, especially when their team doesn't generate any money for their school, which is just about every D1 team that doesn't play football, basketball, or hockey. Division 3 Schools are weaker athletically. In some cases yes, but in many cases no. Many Division 3 programs have very talented athletic programs, this is often because these players are there to get an education first and play athletics second. But they are still talented and dedicated athletes who wanted to continue their athletic career in college, but wanted to do it on their own terms. If you think you can just stroll onto a D3 program you are in for a surprise. Go check out the golf teams at Methodist College (D3) or the swimming teams at Kenyon College (D3). In the last 25 years they have about 40 NCAA championships under their belt and they recruit top players from all over the country, many of whom could play some form of division 1 athletics had they chosen that route. All colleges offer athletic scholarships. Only Division 1 & 2 colleges can offer athletic scholarships (plus Junior Colleges and NAIA schools). Division 3 Programs can only offer financial aid and academic grant money for top students. While D1 and D2 colleges can offer athletic scholarships, after football and basketball there are many programs that may only have 1 or 2 scholarships for their entire team and they will divide that money up to several players. Most athletes get a full scholarship or no scholarship. Full scholarships are very rare and most coaches divide scholarship money up between several players. The only guaranteed full scholarships are for D1 basketball and D1 football. Each program is fully funded and offers the maximum amount of scholarships allowed by the NCAA, 13 for men's hoops, 85 for football, and 15 for women's hoops. Every other sport and team divides money up to many players and no other team or program is guaranteed to be fully funded. Division 1 programs do not offer walk-on tryouts. While walking onto the Kentucky basketball team will be pretty difficult, many coaches rely on walkon's each year and will usually conduct tryouts to give as many players a chance as possible. It is better to find out what walk-on opportunities exist before you show up at tryouts. It certainly is not easy, but it is not impossible either. I shouldn't go to a Division 3 School if I need scholarship money. Many D3 schools offer attractive financial aid programs and you should not overlook any school, even if they do not offer athletic scholarships. There are parents that basically send their kids to school for free because their son's and daughters had strong academic backgrounds and coupled that with athletics to make themselves an attractive student and recruit for a certain school. What would you rather have, $3,000 in scholarship money at a D1 school or $20,000 in academic money at a D3 school, while still getting the chance to play athletics at the college level? College coaches will help me get into their school if I am on the bubble academically. While being recruited by a college coach can be an advantage over applicants that are not athletes, you need to be very close academically to what the school seeks out in any student. Coaches can submit a list of names to the admissions department, but you need to be committed to the coach and express a strong interest in attending that institution. At the end of the day admissions make admission decisions, not coaches, and many students that thought they were a shoe-in for admissions will get rejected. All Division 1 & 2 programs have scholarships available. While the NCAA mandates how many scholarships a school can offer for a particular sport, it is up to the school whether or not they want to and can offer the number of scholarships allotted to them. Example: Division 1 baseball programs are allowed to offer 11.7 scholarships to their entire team, but many division 1 baseball schools may offer only 3 or 4 scholarships and that will be true for other sports as well. If you receive a letter from a coach, you are being recruited. Coaches send out thousands of letters to high school athletes they may or may not have heard of and there are probably 500 kids tearing open the same exact letter you received. Receiving a letter means a coach knows your name and knows you play the sport they coach. Respond to the letter and follow-up with the coach. Until the coach calls you, invites you to the school and makes you a formal offer to join their program, the letters don’t mean too much. In 2004 a D1 football program had a list of 4,000 prospects they were sending letters to. Ultimately they are trying to sign 21 players out of a pool of 4,000. College coaches only recruit top players. College coaches recruit anyone they think can play at their program and recruit anyone who shows an interest in their program. Just because you are not the star of your team does not mean you cannot play in college. There are many players that do not start because there are other talented players at their position(s), but many of those players have the skills to play in college as well. College coaches can contact me anytime they want. There are strict rules as to when a coach can send you literature and how often they can contact you at the NCAA level and the rules are less stringent at the Junior College and NAIA level. The good news is that you can contact college coaches at any time so long as you make the phone call. Playing college athletics will not be much different than high school, aside of the skill level. Playing college athletics is an unbelievable commitment in time and in dedication and will be nowhere close to your high school experience. In college you will play or practice for 3 seasons, in the fall, winter and in the spring, and be required to do lifting and running programs as well. You may also be practicing at 6AM or Midnight or twice a day depending what facilities are available at your school. Why college athletes fail to finish? The NCAA graduation rate for scholarship student-athletes (any amount of money received) that graduate from the college they enroll in full time as freshman is roughly 60% within 6 years of enrollment. This means that 40% of all college athletes receiving scholarship money, transfer, leave their school, or do not graduate within 6 years. Here are some of the reasons..... Student-athletes choose the wrong school socially for them. Some schools are too big, other are too small. Some schools are too far away from home others are too close. Some schools have a diverse student-body, others have students that are all the same. Some schools are in big cities, others are in the middle of nowhere. Some schools don't have enough activities outside of school to do. Student-athletes choose the wrong school academically. Perhaps the school was too difficult with many required courses that were simply too hard or demanded too much time. While athletics can compound this problem, there are many majors that simply are not for “everybody,” whether you are an athlete or a regular student. Many engineering, chemistry or physics programs require long hours in the classroom as well as labs that student-athletes simply cannot miss. Student-athletes choose the wrong coach. Many student-athletes land on a team with a college coach they just don't mesh with personally and small conflicts of interest turn into bigger problems regarding playing time or attitude. Student-athletes choose the wrong playing style. Many football and basketball players complain that the team and coach does not run the type of offense they are used to or the type of offense they can excel in and use their athletic talents better. Student-athletes lose interest. Playing college athletics sounds great, but waking up at 6AM and running every day, going to class for 4 hours, going back to practice, and then lifting weights later at night is a serious commitment in time and effort and is not for everybody. You must be extremely passionate about your sport to play in college at any level. Student-athletes lose their financial aid. Financial Aid is reviewed each year and can often fluctuate without notice or warning from year to year. One year you could be getting $10,000, the next year you may only qualify for only $4,000. Athletic scholarship money is also evaluated year-to-year. At the coach's discretion, he/she can remove your aid, reduce your aid, or increase your aid from yearto- year. Student-athletes get injured. Many careers have been cut short by serious injuries. When athletes get injured and cannot play, many become depressed and instead of focusing on their studies with the additional free time they have, they do very little of anything. Student-athletes don’t take their academic studies seriously. Many student-athletes are not studentathletes, but rather athletes who are inconvenienced by going to classes. If you are not committed academically to a school, you will not succeed. The whole point of college is to get an education, so you need to focus your energy on your studies first. Student-athletes don’t realize the time and effort commitment that they are getting involved in and the sacrifices they are going to make. After classes and practices, you are left with very little free time to do school work and be social with your friends. Student-athletes don’t handle coaching well. There have been many talented high school players who didn’t receive any coaching in high school. When they get college they often receive more coaching and more discipline than they are used to. Players often interpret this increased attention and instruction as negative, thus leading to conflicts with the coaching staff. Student-athletes sign with the wrong program. Many student-athletes select programs because they think it is the “best” program and they have little regard for how many current players are on the team or how many other players the coach has signed or is recruiting. Student-athletes don’t communicate with their coach effectively and rather than asking what they need to work on to get more playing time, they take their lack of playing time personally and they start to complain or distance themselves from the team and coach and simply go through the motions not expecting to play much. Things you may not expect at the college level Don't expect to be the top player when you show up. Not every player from high school goes on to play college athletics and not only will you be competing against the best freshman from around the country but you will be competing against athletes that have already played in college for 1, 2 and 3 years. Don't' expect the coach to be your best friend when tryouts or the season start. The coach could have 50 or 60 players to deal with in a few short days and even though you may have got along great in their office 5 months ago when you met with them, there may be times when you wonder if the coach remembers your name! Don't be surprised if you show up to tryout for left field and when the coach goes "ok all left fielders go to your position" and 12 players run out there. The coach will not usually recruit just one player. There may be players there that the coach didn't know would be there, such as players who are trying to walk on and didn't talk to the coach beforehand. Don’t expect to have holidays and vacations off. Many teams play in Thanksgiving tournaments or Christmas tournaments or take a trip during spring break. You won’t have a game on Christmas day but you may have a game one or two days before or after making it impossible to fly home for the week to see your family. This becomes more challenging when you attend a school 2,000 miles away from your home. In the winter, especially at schools where it is cold and/or it snows, you may be practicing at very odd hours of the day. Usually the athletic facilities at a particular school are limited and if the school has a choice of making a facility available to 4,000 students or 25 soccer players, they usually will go with the 4,000 students. This means you may have to practice whenever there is time and whenever there is space and that may mean at 6am before the facility is open to the general student body or at 11pm when the facility is closed to the general student body. Expect to miss some classes because of games. Expect weeks when you have too many games and too many tests and papers. There will be days when you have a road game that does not get back till 11pm and you may have 2 tests and a paper due the next day. First of all, you should have known about this work and the game ahead of time and you should have started your work early so you are not up all night. Second of all, don't even think of studying on the bus, I have seen many try and it doesn't work! Don’t expect to play just because your team is getting blown out on a particular day. Coaches don't like to get blown out, but they also don't like players to think that they will play if the team does poorly because it can create a negative attitude. Some coaches like to leave players in that are doing poorly to remind them that they are doing poorly and embarrass them enough so they try harder next time. Taking someone out of the game is letting them off easy. Don’t expect to always dress or travel with the team. The bus and bench has only so many seats and sometimes the coach will keep more players on the team for development and practice reasons but will not be able to dress or travel with everyone. This should not be a big deal, because this is better than not playing at all and having to try out again next year. |