Dartmouth

I've watched Harvard play Penn, Columbia and Princeton about five times total over the past couple of years. It looks more like below mid major D1 but above typical D2 without looking to see how they've competed against Northeastern (CAA) and UMass and Temple (A10) over the past couple of years. The Northeastern, UMass and Temple games I've seen looked like better ball. I've never seen Ivy teams play other conference teams other than BC (ACC) pummeling Harvard once. My disclaimer would be a small sampling of games.

BOF,
They recruit heavily out of the Stanford Camp. Some of the players from the South and elsewhere came from the Stanford Camp.
Quality of play...pretty variable from top to bottom.
There are a number of players who are on the top 3 lists for some Ivy teams and end up at the top DIII teams.
When I think of mid major, I think of the WCC teams like St Mary's, Portland, Santa Clara and other similar schools. I know Columbia and Dartmouth come out and play some of those teams and they are a cut below, from the games I have seen.

One of the assistant coaches is from CA so maybe that's one reason they have several players from there. And as said, they do recruit from the Stanford camp too.

As you may have seen, they have a former NorCal coach who used to coach at Menlo College and spent a lot of time with the Stanford coaches.

Among other places, they also recruit out of the WWBA tournaments and AZ Fall Classic.

Getting good students out of sunshine states can equate the success that they have had.

They won the IVY conference last year.

I know that they had contacted my son's summerball coach and saw him at the AzFC.

I am sure TR and some others out east can fill in the blanks on the type of program it is...they of course are in bed right now....

No East Coast input?

They're very good at recruiting high profile players, from what I've heard. Their top recruits each year are the guys that would be middle type recruits or lower level recruits at schools like Duke, UVA, Stanford, Georgetown, and other high academic schools. They pursue guys that would either be recruited walk-ons or guys with small scholarships at those schools, and it works well for them.

Over the last 10 years, they have more wins than any other Ivy League (I believe that statistic is only in Ivy-League play). In terms of other D1's, they beat San Jose State once, and played close games with Pacific, Cal Poly, and Santa Clara. On their west coast trips, they lose the majority of their games to those teams, but win a few and do keep most games competitive.

Coach Whalen is very organized, and dedicated to the program. They spend a lot of time working on improving the players, which is why they usually have a player or a few players drafted each year. The facilities are top-notch, and from what I gather it's a strong program.

This is just what I've gathered/heard, so some of you may have differing opinions. Some former players aren't big Whalen fans...

Someone in my area is committed there. I don't know how or where they saw him, but he is a very good player. Not a huge kid, but he was 4th in the county for hitting as a junior.

Dartmouth soild program from Head Coach down....

The recruiting process, and by extension, "committing" to dartmouth, or the rest of the Ivies, is not the same as other d1 universities.

The road to the baseball diamond (actually all athletics) in the Ivies travels through the admissions office.

Now, the ivies can lower their standards to a certain extent (its actually explained if you google "AI index" and "athletics") but, anyone who announces a committment before they receive a "likely letter" (loosely analogous to an LOI) from the admissions office is jumping the gun.

Indeed a coach can express all the love in the world to a recruit, and have that love reciprocated (which in many instances would constitute a "committment") but ONLY a "likely letter" from the admission office represents a true comittment. BTW, while the school will always honor the likey letter (barring a felony, etc.), the recuit has not made any binding obligation (unlike the LOI).

Understand one thing---the IVY schools do things differently than other schools----they recruit nationally because of who they are---they also at time have instructions to recruit in certain areas of the country because the school administration wants more students from certain areas in the country

They all have a different drummer that they march to and that is not necessarily a bad thing

As for where they sit in the strata of Division I programs you can ask them about that-- like I say they march to a different drummer

My son played ball at Dartmouth, graduated 2008. Send me PM if you have specific questions. Another alum parent here posts under FrankF. Search our posts here, you'll find lots of info.

I would compare Dartmouth and the rest of the Ivies to the higher tier West Coast DIII and DII programs (e.g. Chapman, UCSD). It's doubtful from what I have seen in the past few seasons that any of the Ivy teams would be competitive even in the lower level DI conferences.

But Dartmouth IS in a lower level D1 conference. They won their conference last year.