My son, a sophomore at a mid-D1 (ACC school) thought about going to the open tryout Fall 2017 as a freshman after (relatively) tearing it up all summer on his mens wood bat league team. But he waited a bit too long and the very steep medical and permission hurdles he had to jump through were too much with so little time left. Oh, and the "advertising" for the open tryout was basically about minimum. No regrets. I suspect the open tryouts at D1s vary from checkbox affairs to legitimate interest, albeit longshot (at best).