@smokeminside posted:All 3 of my guys are clearly D3 level. None of them got a serious look from warm weather D3s, but all of them got multiple offers from all over the northern half of the country. Our experience may be unique but it seems to indicate that there's more to this recruiting game than simply figuring out what pond to fish in. Some areas of the pond are more equal than others.
Although we live in the southeast, my son didn't focus a lot of energy on those schools, so take this fwiw: Isn't some of the "cold weather schools" phenomenon a function of the fact there just aren't a lot of HA D3s in warmer parts of the country? Yes, there are some great HA schools in the south, but not so many as in New England, the mid-Atlantic, or even the midwest.
Also fwiw, my son found that southern HA D3s just didn't respond to email inquiries. So far as I could tell, if they hadn't already seen you in person, you didn't exist. This was true even for schools within a few hours' drive that were no more academically demanding (and in many cases had lesser baseball reputations) than schools further north. (See, e.g., the recent thread on Washington & Lee.)
I do think there's a large dose of randomness in the process (or at least the influence of factors you can't control or understand). My advice is to cast a wide net among schools you'd be willing to attend, then focus your efforts wherever there is demonstrated interest from a coach. If that's in a place where you need to shovel snow out of the batting cage in April, then just plan on packing warm clothes.