Dominant JUCO Conferences

Yankeefan....

www.njcaa.org

Look at the scenic west conference...wood bat, great teams.

Dixie State won the national championship this year, Southern Nevada won it last year. Both are from the Scenic West. Of course California does their own thing as far as jucos are concerned and I don't know who is strongest there.

Thanks for the replies.
The son of an acquaintance, who lives in SoCal, is going to Central Arizona College. I pulled up the website to this school and was astounded to see that they provide 24 schollies, rooms (dorm-style) and 19 meals per week amongst some other amenities. I also see that they compete nationally for a championship. On the referenced website provided I see where Central Arizona was ranked 4th.

California JUCOs do not compete nationally, have no schollies, no room & board etc. Here in SoCal the dominant JUCO conference is the Orange Empire Conference. There are 3 JUCOs within that conference recruiting my son. We live some distance from these schools and would have to provide financial assistance for our son to live close to the school he chooses. This amounts to roughly $5000 - $7000 per year (roughly the amount for books & tuition at a state 4-yr school.) No guarantees of play time. We understand that completely.

I understand somewhat why the aquaintance would send his son to a competitve D1 JUCO in another state...although the bottom line is play time, to be seen for the next level, if the cost is minimize then the risk tolerance may become bearable/acceptable. Beginning to understand our risk tolerance, financial or otherwise, is helping our family make a choice of where our son will make his decision on which JUCO to attend in SoCal.

In the beginning of our JUCO recruiting process, it was all about being seen in a dominant JUCO conference ... thus the posted question. But in the last 24 hours I've come to believe that may not be as important as I onced believed....

Yankee fan, I believe there is dominance in each conference. The california schools do not belong to the NJCAA - with a couple exceptions. The NJCAA has 2 divisions for baseball. Div. 1 provides for 24 full scholarships. Then you have to look for which schools are big enough to have dorms, on campus housing, that can be included in a scholarship - that aspect was important to me, the parent. I am partial to the ACCAC - the conference that Central Arizona is in, and also wood bats. My son plays at Yavapai College. Also be aware that just because the school can give 24 full scholarships doesnt mean it actually does. Each school has different budgets. I didnt quite understand what you meant about "...if the cost is minimize than the risk tolerance may become bearable/acceptable" If that means that if you are lucky enough to get into a program in Arizona or in the scenic west conference AND get a really nice scholarship then it's ok for him to go to school outside of California -- I'd go along with that. I think to be seen, one would need to play.

Play time is important although not guaranteed initially. The angst I felt in regards to sending my player to an out of area SoCal JUCO was my low risk tolerance of spending thousands of dollars in setting him up for housing for his chosen school with the lurking possibility of bench time instead of play time. The aquaintance I referred to probably has/d the same angst but the financial aspect was probably minimized(schollie) thus raising his risk tolerance to a level that he felt comfortable sending his son to Central Arizona College.
I settled for a situation, for my son, that greatly minimized the financial burden and gave him the best opportunity to play (although still not guaranteed)in a local SoCal JUCO. His mom & I are selfish in that if he plays we still want to watch him play. I believe that is why I never considered an out of state JUCO(still tough to let him go). Although the chosen JUCO is not in the toughest conference, in the end, we felt that was not the #1 decisive factor.