Do anyone know the % of freshman per class/year that make the travel roster? Then the % that earns play time!
I read somewhere it’s only 4% of freshman that earn a roster spot. I cannot find the article back. Any help will be greatly appreciated
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I hope my son is one of them next year 
Good thread on this
@NY posted:Do anyone know the % of freshman per class/year that make the travel roster? Then the % that earns play time!
I read somewhere it’s only 4% of freshman that earn a roster spot. I cannot find the article back. Any help will be greatly appreciated
Depends on lots of factors. But I think in the current landscape coaches aren't stockpiling freshmen to "develop" them. If a freshman isn't injured and isn't traveling, he's probably not going to be around the following year.
Different conferences have different rules for travel roster size. What I've seen on my kids teams (both at Northeast schools) is that to start the year everyone travels if not injured. Sometimes even the injured players will travel *if* the trip is fully or mostly funded by the team they're going to play.
This was also the case during spring break when they were usually traveling down south with the other team paying.
Once conference play started, it always seems like there were enough injuries that if you weren't injured you traveled.
Agree with @nycdad. There are a too many factors in play to hang onto that 4% number.
I think in my son's case the coach wanted to see every freshmen play in early non-conference games. The team was not good the previous year, and the coach wanted to see who was going to be part of the solution in the new season. So he played all his freshmen at one time or another leading up to conference games. When conference games started he had a pretty clear idea who was going to be travelling, playing, and starting. He had 4 freshman position players starting and my son cracked the starting pitching rotation with a junior and 2 seniors. Clearly this is higher than 4%. The following year the team won the conference.
PS...the rules for travelling changed in his conference (junior year?) from 22 to 25. Typically the HC would split the number in half with position players and pitchers. Weekend pitchers would not travel for mid-week games.
When my oldest was a freshman in 2016, the freshman siginging class was 9.
9 made it to campus (although 2 were changed out due to performance senior year and/or grades).
All 9 made it to the spring active roster. 1 was starting SS, 1 was a weekday starter, and 1 was the #2 guy in bull pen. 1 other traveled. The other 5 either redshirted and did not travel.
So about 50% were active, but they were COGS on the team. If you were a border player, they redshirted.
Whatever the current % actually is (and it’s a small number), it’s less now than it was before Covid. Chances are always better for a P for playing time as a freshman but odds are very long to be a starting P as a freshman. Odds for a position player are much greater if they play multiple positions. Off the top of my head, given current market conditions, I would estimate the chances are probably 10 X greater that a freshman gets a redshirt compared to getting a starting position.
My son was a freshman in 2016 so I'm sure things have changed quite a bit with roster expansion and the "covid year"....but when he was a freshman here's how it went
8 freshmen heading into fall (1 was a walk on...cut after fall)
All 7 traveled to the non-conference games when they bussed. 5 traveled when they flew (once)
Once conference started....it was typically 5, unless there was a reason an upperclassmen couldn't go.
The 2 who didn't travel all the time left after their freshmen year
Conferences have travel restrictions - at one point I believe most had adopted the 27 man travel roster. That could have changed with expanded rosters, I haven't really kept up. But for the first month or so of the season pretty much everybody traveled up until conf play.
You're not going to find good numbers anywhere but having done this a bunch of times - most freshman travel. It was typically the sophomores who didn't. They were pretty much guys who were given another shot after an underwhelming freshman year and didn't do enough in the fall. They were all pretty much gone after the season. If the roster was 35, let's say 2 injuries. I would say it would be 4 sophs, 2 freshman wouldn't travel. If you're still in the program after soph year you have some sort of role on the team however big or small.
My son’s freshman year of college ball was 2013. A lot has changed since then. There were fourteen freshmen on the roster. When conference play started two freshmen position players and five freshmen pitchers traveled. My son became a starter mid season. The other freshman was the backup catcher.
At the beginning of the season he was told he would likely be the first pinch runner, sometimes pinch hitter and first person off the bench in a defensive switch. He played seven positions.
it probably isn’t hard to guess which players didn’t return soph year.
My freshman son is the 3rd string catcher behind 2 seniors. He doesn't expect to play much (if at all) but he told me he expects to travel with the team to all the games. We'll see what happens once conf play starts.
At Arkansas in 2017, there was one Freshman starter, and He’s in the MLB now. My son pitched 12 innings his freshman year at a Texas Juco and he’s also in the MLB now. I think it’s best to think of any meaningful innings as a freshman as bonus.
