competition within top college programs

I think you may be misinformed about how scholarships are doled out. Of the 35 roster spots allowed, 27 may be scholarshipped players. Although there are only 11.7 full scholarships available, these scholarships are divided into portions as low as a 25% scholarship.

Outfield in particular is low priority scholarship position, meaning that they receive the minimum of a 25% scholarship quite often, if they are offered any scholarship at all. Pitchers and catchers are generally the highest scholarship amounts, followed by MIF's, Corner IF's and finally OF's.

The competition at every position is fierce in college.

- In the fall most schools will have additional kids trying to make the roste as walk-ons etc. Some schools have a lot of these kids in the fall and cut many of them by the spring.

- Many kids can play more then one position creating additional competition. i.e. my son was a catcher, however he also played a lot of games in LF, the 1st baseman on his team also played rf, two more guys for the OF only players to compete with.

dad,
Our son is the outfield/hitting coach at a Big West program.
The numbers you are mentioning truly sound like Fall ball numbers. Teams don't keep that many on the final 35 man Spring roster.
While the numbers might be off, the information you received about the level and quality and intensity of the competition is not. If anything, it was/is probably underestimated.

When my son was a rising sophomore in college, I decided to look into the baseball backgrounds of the 22 players returning to the program that year. Here's what I found:

(1) 19 of the 22 had been named to their all-state team.
(2) A little more than half of the 19 all-staters had been named all-state in both their junior and senior years in high school.
(3) Four of the returning players had been named the best player in their state after their senior season.

I use this example because I think it's generally indicative of the talent level at major programs. Every single player on the roster was considered a "stud" in high school, and the entering Freshmen have to compete with similarly capable players who have at least a season of major college experience and development under their belts. This is why I routinely say that it would be impossible to exaggerate the magnitude of the step from even high level high school experience to a strong Division I program.

However, the majority of players entering programs of this caliber aspire to play professional baseball. The way many of them look at the roster competition is that they might as well take on the best competition in college if they expect to compete against the world's best players afterwards.

Best of luck to your son!

Some colleges do post their fall rosters and you may see as many as 40-41 on the fall roster. By the official spring roster they must be down to 35 total, including red shirt players.

Of those 35 only 25 will make the travel roster which may change from game to game.

And the players also have to remain academically eligible to be on the roster. It is a tough business! These kids work harder than they ever have in their lives to juggle classes, studying, working out, practicing, and a little social life! As difficult as it seems they wouldn't be there if they didn't love it.

There's also just the situation in the outfield. Lots of guys who can hit a bit get beat out at an infield position and end up trying to work into the lineup as an outfielder. So the competition there can add up to lots of numbers.

Some programs recruit lots of HS shortstops, then let them sift out to other positions in time. Sometimes they are trying at several positions at once, as they realize they have to become # 1 somewhere or they won't be in the lineup at all. So you can get lots of competition at certain positions, and often it ends up in the OF.

Lets say we are talking about the top 33% or about 100 baseball teams. That is 3500 players from across the nation who qualify. I am guessing that less than half of that amount plays so we are talking about 1700 players. Of that amount, 3/4ths of them are sophmores, juniors, and seniors. Thus, for the 400 or so freshmen players who may qualify for the top 100 teams in a given year, the vast amount of their competition are older, stronger, and wiser. Looking back, it is a daunting challenge. The upside can be unbelievably rewarding, but it may take years in some cases to realize that.

At the top, it is no longer a local or state competition for playing time among star players. As Prepster points out, it is a national competition for very few precious spots. Of the lucky ones who are even called, far fewer than that actually get to serve.

Lots of great input to consider! we have a couple more years to see jrs progress and evaluate if he can copete at that level. If so he only thrives and works harder with greater competitiion so it will be fun to see him take up the challenge.

I would guess that at every level the competition is fierce. If you go to pretty much any Florida JUCO website right now, you'll see 40 or so players listed for the fall season. Cuts are happening right now to get those programs down for spring. Most recently, we heard numbers like 23-26 players on the spring roster. So whether or not these guys are the same caliber players as those at the top schools, they're still fighting for a few roster spots. Plus those guys will be competing against D1 commits who didn't make grades and need a place to play, or D1 transfers who didn't get any playing time and were unhappy.

So I guess my point is that at every level, a player had better be ready to earn his spot.

quote:

So I guess my point is that at every level, a player had better be ready to earn his spot.

That is so true.

I use strong DI's as examples because that's the layer I know best; but, that's not to suggest in any way that that you don't have the same thing happening at other layers in the college spectrum.

The competition is tough at the top. They recruit studs.

I know of (got the story from a teammate's parent) a Gatorade Player of the Year in his state who got to an SEC team, couldn't win a starting position his first year, hit poorly when he did play, and transferred to an ACC school (not slamming the ACC/just not as good of a program as the first school). His tranfer was motivated by his first year combined with the following years recruiting class.

I met the dad of another kid who was drafted out of high school, transferred from the same school after soph year only to not win a starting job at the next school. The second school improved and had a better next two seasons than the first school. At least the kid got to the CWS.

Another kid at this school tranferred to a top ranked D2.