I guess it is that time of year for this topic to come up. I'll agree that velocity isn't everything in D1, but it really, really, really helps to get recruited having 90mph velo, control, and a variety of pitches to set yourself up for having college selection leverage. Also, it really, really, really helps when you have 90mph and two plus secondary pitches when you take the mound in college. The velocity is there to show you have it when needed, and create a greater marginal of error.
Yes, there are outliers everywhere if you look hard enough. The founder,Chairman and CEO of my employer never went to college...he's a bazzilionaire genius. There are always exceptions to any rule. Ten years ago, my oldest son was consistently hitting over 90mph prior to his senior year in high school playing on a national level travel team. Nobody was beating down his door initially when we talked to the RCs. 90mph RHPs were a dime a dozen. It was still incumbent on us to find programs that were a good fit.
Once my son started playing college baseball there was quite a few in conference starters touching 90mph with 3 pitches and some relief pitchers touching mid-90s with 2 pitches. These were your top pitchers with a high success rate that the Coach didn't want to take out of the game.
Just my experience....