@JCG posted:There was a poster here whose son matriculated at Cal Lutheran around the time they became a national champions in 2017. At that time they had a JV program that sounded like it was BS (too many players recruited, very few games; very few JV players making the leap to main team). This poster's son never made the "real" Cal Lu team. But those who did became national champs. If you're one of those @35 guys on the main roster, then selecting that school was a great call. If not, then not so much. My point is if you're very confident that you're a dude or at least a top recruit at a school with a JV team, then go for it. The fact that they have a JV team has no bearing on you. But if you're not, or if you're wrong about where you stand, it probably will not work out very well, baseball-wise. Of course you can probably say that about any program at any level with or without JV.
I agree this is the right way to look at it at any school. If you're in the top 20 players, you'll get playing time. If you're not, it doesn't matter how many players are on the roster.
But if you're looking to pick a D3 school based on roster size, Caltech has 22 players on their 2023 roster. If you're admitted and want to play baseball, you're on the team.