Kimb27 posted:Baseball Mom2020 I guess it would have to be a decision regarding playing time. Will your son play at the low D1 like he would at the D3? And I may be wrong, but are there low D1s with the same type of academics as a HA D3? Lots kids get drafted out of D3 and JUCO. If you're good, they find you. Especially pitchers.
"Lots of kids get drafted out of D3" is not really true. A few kids get drafted. This is where doing research matters. All these things collegebaseballinsights keeps posting on here; look at how many players play summer ball, and high-level summer ball, that's an interesting number, varies widely among D3s. For low D1s, there are low-baseball-level D1s that are HA, and there are those that are not. Look at the % of juniors and seniors who are transfers (JUCO, or from P5) at these schools; some are as high as 80%, and those are the players who actually get playing time (look at the stats). So just going to a low-level D1 is not a guarantee of anything; you have to look at each school specifically.
PABaseball posted:It works both ways. If you're heading to a massive school (20k+) then you're going to have to put in the legwork and make sure you're not another face in the 250 person lecture. Sure there are going to be smaller classes at a school with only 1500 kids, but there are still discussion sections at the large publics. English, labs, history classes will all have sections of around 20.
Either way I get what you're saying. My point was more or less you have to really want to go there. It can't just be a yeah it's a good school I'll go. That has to be the atmosphere you want. Still a very good school and can open doors. The point was that in relation to the price tag there could be better options if you were not all in on wanting the small school feel. If small school is what is desired then it's a no brainer to take a closer look at.
What you are saying is how to choose a college if playing baseball is not in the picture. But on this site, playing baseball is usually a (big) part of the decision. Most people do not make a choice between playing baseball at a large state D1 or at a D3 LAC. Certainly many make the choice for large school without baseball over small school with baseball, and I know we all say choose a school where you would be happy if baseball ended, but if baseball is at all a priority, then you are limited to the schools that want you to play baseball. Are you implying that "non-D1 players" shouldn't be thinking about baseball at all? It's not all about making it to the next level, some of it is about playing the game where you are.