If you are a 2023 without one actual offer now, is it too late for you now...especially considering the overall situation with rosters due to the extra COVID-19 years?
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d3s are still recruiting, so no.
There is no blanket answer to that question. The only answer that applies across the board is “it depends.” Situations vary from region to region- and also vary depending on level of play.
In the Sun Belt the competitive D1s have filled their class of ‘23. A random need will appear a few places due to something unexpected but for the most part they are done. Same for competitive D2s. D3s and JuCos are well along the way but not finished yet.
So at this point in time, in my area, if you don’t have an offer it’s time to recalibrate your sights. Either the market is telling you that your expectations were unrealistic or your ability hasn’t been recognized and you have fallen thru the cracks. Either way it’s time to implement plan B in a hurry. There are still tryout camps on JuCo campuses in September. It’s not hard to set up individual tryouts if you have an advocate with JuCo coach connections. That would be a good avenue to pursue in this part of the country.
No matter what your initial strategy hasn’t worked very well if you have no offers yet - assuming that there isn’t an injury involved. Time to shift gears if baseball is important to you.
For D1 position player, maybe. Lots of coaches from all levels are still looking at pitchers. For high academic D3’s I believe if you don’t have a formal offer for a visit then you should change your sites.
Many non-D1’s are holding prospect camps over the next few weeks where I believe they will wrap up their classes.
A major injury just before expecting offers changed my son’s timeline. He received D1 offers the summer after graduation. The one he took was for the following year. He tried to walk on the first year. He lost out to a late bloomer pitcher now in the majors. His offer included athletic money the following year.
When do walk ons typically commit or make their decision? I know one 2023 that committed to an ACC last summer
@TerribleBPthrower posted:When do walk ons typically commit or make their decision? I know one 2023 that committed to an ACC last summer
D1 walk ons usually commit anywhere from 3 to 6 months before they are cut from the team.
This is peak D3 recruiting season. If you do not have an offer by October it would be time to consider which school is the best fit without baseball
There are so many regional differences. In Texas there are only 15 D3 schools that play baseball. By comparison, there are 28 NJCAA D1 schools that play baseball and all but a couple would wipe the field with the D3 programs if the played each other. They would hardly even be competitive games. I get the sense that it’s not that way in the Northeast. The uncommitted ‘23s around here are scrambling to find JuCo deals. Not D3 deals. Although more should be looking D3 than are.
D3 recruiting in New England is really busy right now and with so many D3 schools offering top educations as well, there are still a lot of good opportunities to be landed. I think the ED deadlines of 10-15-11/1 is when it really starts to end but even then there is time at many D3s into winter.
Massachusetts is the 15th largest state with a 7M population. There are 36 D3 baseball programs. 29 of them are in the Greater Boston area. This does not include D3 JuCo programs.
Tons of JUCO’s and D3’s to still be recruited by.
(Checks calendar). Isn’t it just late August? My 2021 committed to a D3 in late Sept/Early Oct of 2020
@adbono posted:There are so many regional differences. In Texas there are only 15 D3 schools that play baseball. By comparison, there are 28 NJCAA D1 schools that play baseball and all but a couple would wipe the field with the D3 programs if the played each other. They would hardly even be competitive games. I get the sense that it’s not that way in the Northeast. The uncommitted ‘23s around here are scrambling to find JuCo deals. Not D3 deals. Although more should be looking D3 than are.
Huge differences. D3/D2 and NAIA schools are way more prominent than DI schools in the upper midwest as well. There's also only a handful of highly competitive JUCO's within the upper midwest. There are actually only 4 DI schools within 250 miles of where I live (2 are P5 schools). For kids that want to play DI closer to home, the competition is extremely fierce! My son is the first DI baseball player to ever come out of our high school!!! The few that do go on to play college ball almost all play D3 and don't commit until late fall/early winter of their senior year.
@adbono posted:There are so many regional differences. In Texas there are only 15 D3 schools that play baseball. By comparison, there are 28 NJCAA D1 schools that play baseball and all but a couple would wipe the field with the D3 programs if the played each other. They would hardly even be competitive games. I get the sense that it’s not that way in the Northeast. The uncommitted ‘23s around here are scrambling to find JuCo deals. Not D3 deals. Although more should be looking D3 than are.
Up here you can't drive 15-20 minutes in any direction without running into a D3. Many of them are HA schools, which make playing D3 baseball more appealing than going to a juco for most. There is also snobbish attitude towards jucos up here which is undeserved. If you took a poll, odds are 80% of parents would rather send their kids to a below average, expensive, private college than juco for two years. It doesn't make sense. That being said...
The kids committing to jucos up here are either
A. D1 dropdowns
B. D1 recruits who never made it to campus or were injured during recruitment
C. Decent players who didn't have NCAA grades
@adbono posted:There are so many regional differences. In Texas there are only 15 D3 schools that play baseball. By comparison, there are 28 NJCAA D1 schools that play baseball and all but a couple would wipe the field with the D3 programs if the played each other. They would hardly even be competitive games. I get the sense that it’s not that way in the Northeast. The uncommitted ‘23s around here are scrambling to find JuCo deals. Not D3 deals. Although more should be looking D3 than are.
Very true. Another difference is costs. I think most or all of the TX D3s are private. We have an abundance of good public D3 baseball options in the northeast (especially PA and NY). That factors into the juco equation for some kids.
@MidAtlanticDad posted:Very true. Another difference is costs. I think most or all of the TX D3s are private. We have an abundance of good public D3 baseball options in the northeast (especially PA and NY). That factors into the juco equation for some kids.
Good point. To the best of my knowledge, the University of Texas-Dallas is the only public D3 in Texas that has a baseball program. And it isn’t cheap. COA at UTD is on par with Texas A&M and UT. Sticker price at private Texas D3 schools is higher but they “somehow” usually find enough financial aid to make out of pocket costs comparable. D3 schools in Texas by and large don’t get much respect - on both the athletic and educational front. Which is unfair because Austin College, Trinity, U of Dallas, Southwestern, and UTD (just to name a few) are fine academic institutions. At least they used to be. And D3 baseball has gotten noticeably better in the past 2 years as talent has been pushed down and more players have transferred to D3 schools.
@adbono posted:Good point. To the best of my knowledge, the University of Texas-Dallas is the only public D3 in Texas that has a baseball program. And it isn’t cheap. COA at UTD is on par with Texas A&M and UT. Sticker price at private Texas D3 schools is higher but they “somehow” usually find enough financial aid to make out of pocket costs comparable. D3 schools in Texas by and large don’t get much respect - on both the athletic and educational front. Which is unfair because Austin College, Trinity, U of Dallas, Southwestern, and UTD (just to name a few) are fine academic institutions. At least they used to be. And D3 baseball has gotten noticeably better in the past 2 years as talent has been pushed down and more players have transferred to D3 schools.
@adbono posted:There are so many regional differences. In Texas there are only 15 D3 schools that play baseball. By comparison, there are 28 NJCAA D1 schools that play baseball and all but a couple would wipe the field with the D3 programs if the played each other. They would hardly even be competitive games. I get the sense that it’s not that way in the Northeast. The uncommitted ‘23s around here are scrambling to find JuCo deals. Not D3 deals. Although more should be looking D3 than are.
You don't think Trinity could compete with most jucos not named MCC or San Jac?
@langra posted:
No I don’t. Trinity would not complete well with the D1 Texas JuCos. They would win some but overall they would be lacking in every aspect except GPA and maybe baseball IQ. I saw Trinity play in the super regional against UTD last year and was not impressed. Especially with what I saw on the mound. Texas JuCo players are much bigger, faster, and stronger. They are much more of a physical presence and the JuCo rosters have way better overall athletes top to bottom.
We had a baserunning competition at the end of one of our practices last week. The 5 fastest players each started at home plate and ran all the way around the bases for time. The SLOWEST of the 5 times was 13.5 seconds (hand timed). The fastest was 11.93 seconds. That is elite team speed. Team goal is to steal 150 bags this spring.
There is no comparing JuCo to D3 in Texas. The exception being the D3 JuCos in the Dallas Community College Conference. And even Eastfield College (which won that conference last year and was national D3 JuCo runner up) would be a handful for Trinity to deal with.
@adbono posted:No I don’t. Trinity would not complete well with the D1 Texas JuCos. They would win some but overall they would be lacking in every aspect except GPA and maybe baseball IQ. I saw Trinity play in the super regional against UTD last year and was not impressed. Especially with what I saw on the mound. Texas JuCo players are much bigger, faster, and stronger. They are much more of a physical presence and the JuCo rosters have way better overall athletes top to bottom.
I didn't think Trinity looked as good or as physical last year as I've seen them in the past. I assumed covid and transfers affected recruiting and roster. Feels like teams I've seen in the past would have been fine against all but a few JUCOs. Granted, right now MCC, San Jac, Weatherford, Blinn (after all the Grayson kids transferred) and surprisingly TJC have better rosters than they ever have. But idk that Northeast, Hill, Howard, Temple, Ranger, Vernon, Alvin etc are clearly better than most Trinity teams. Hard to tell with Trinity facing mostly poor competition in conference and this area. Just going solely on eyeball test.